Strengthening sustainability in global supply chains requires producers, buyers, and nonprofit organizations to collaborate in transformative cross-sector partnerships (CSPs). However, the role played by nature in such partnerships has been left largely unattended in literature on CSPs. This article shows how strategizing nature helps CSPs reach their transformative potential. Strategizing nature entails the progressive revealing and reconciling of temporal tensions between “plants, profits, and people.” We show how a CSP took a parallel approach—recognizing the divergent temporalities of plants, people, and profits as interlaced and mutually determined—toward realizing their objective of implementing living wages in a sub-Saharan African country’s the tea industry, simultaneously driven by the revitalization of tea plantations. The promise of better quality tea leaves allowed partners to take a “leap of faith” and to tackle pressing issues before the market would follow. Our findings thus show the potential of CSPs in driving regenerative organizing.
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Does Northern Europe possess unique characteristics that cannot disappear and do not need to disappear, or will globalisation inevitably result in uniformity, divested businesses, lower wages and huge pressure on social security provisions? This is one of the main questions addressed by the authors.The authors examine how companies respond to global developments. They also discuss the implications of these developments for entrepreneurs and whether knowledge institutions and governments play a part in creating a climate that is conducive to enterprise. They consider these issues from the perspective of different regions. Each region has its own distinct regional characteristics and its own distinct regional views on particular issues. As well as endeavouring to describe the key macroeconomic characteristics, they also consider how (entrepreneurial and policy-making) organisations should respond to the current macroeconomic challenges.
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This conference paper deals with various organizations and pilot initiatives regarding the theme of sustainability.
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Cross-border commuting might be a way to improve an efficient allocation of labour resources, improve the economic performance of border regions and reduce economic and territorial inequality. This study explores the impact of a set of socio-economic, infrastructural or cultural explanatory variables that drive cross-border commuting in the EU and Switzerland for all outgoing commuters from living countries and for all incoming commuters towards their working countries. We find that cross-border commuters respond in general in the theoretically expected way to wages, unemployment, accessibility, language similarity and distance. But besides these general findings we also find that, in the end, cross-border commuting is a result of push and pull factors that seem to work out differently for different groups of commuters. This may reduce the inequality at the region level both between countries and within countries, although the effects are most likely small given the relatively small number of commuters. However, the results by gender, age, education and sector show substantial differences indicating that at the level of individuals and specific groups the reduction in inequalities might be very limited and may even increase.
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Tipping is a social norm in many countries and has important functions as a source of income, with significant social welfare effects. Tipping can also represent a form of lost tax revenue, as service workers and restaurants may not declare all cash tips. These interrelationships remain generally insufficiently understood. This paper presents the results of a comparative survey of resident tipping patterns in restaurants in Spain, France, Germany, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, and the Netherlands. ANOVA and ANCOVA analyses confirm significant variation in tipping norms between countries, for instance with regard to the frequency of tipping and the proportion of tips in relation to bill size. The paper discusses these findings in the context of employment conditions and social welfare effects, comparing the European Union minimum wage model to gratuity-depending income approaches in the USA. Results have importance for the hospitality sector and policymakers concerned with social welfare
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Om haar doelstellingen te behalen en op professionele wijze om te gaan met haar vastgoed wil het Vastgoedbedrijf van de gemeente Groningen op een innovatieve manier gaan sturen op de maatschappelijke vastgoedportefeuille. Het gebruik van data en informatietechnologieën, oftewel datagedreven werken en sturen geeft inzicht in de effectiviteit en efficiëntie van de portefeuille. Deze roadmap omvat, naast een theoretisch kader, een stappenplan waarmee het proces naar data-gedreven vastgoedsturing wordt beschreven. Uitgangspunt hierbij is stapsgewijs uitvinden aangezien datagedreven vastgoedsturing vraagt om een andere manier van denken en doen. Er worden actionable insights gecreëerd zodat strategisch sturen mogelijk wordt. Het te ontwikkelen datamodel vormt de basis voor het aangaan van de dialoog, het nemen van beslissingen en het opstellen van lange termijndoelen. De uitkomst is een datamodel voor een proactieve, wendbare, toekomstbestendige organisatie die in staat is in te spelen op een veranderende omgeving en stuurt op een zo hoog mogelijk maatschappelijk rendement.De opkomst van Big Data en vooral Smart Data stelt ons in staat om op een andere manier inzicht te verkrijgen in wat er in de toekomst gaat gebeuren en hierin te sturen. Smart Cities, slimme apparaten en andere voorbeelden van Internet of Things - niet alleen mensen zijn online, maar ook dingen - genereren waardevolle data en maken dat dit eenvoudig gedeeld kan worden. En de introductie van Blockchain in het vastgoed zorgt bijvoorbeeld voor een andere manier van waardeoverdracht (Veuger, 2017). Het zijn voorbeelden van de inzet van data en technologische mogelijkheden die zorgen voor grote veranderingen en invloed hebben op en potentiële waarde - transparanter, professioneler, objectiever - hebben voor de vastgoedwereld. Maar hoe kan de gemeente Groningen nieuwe data en informatietechnologieën gebruiken om strategisch te sturen op de maatschappelijke vastgoedportefeuille?
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In dit artikel worden de resultaten die KWH (Kwaliteitscentrum Woningcorporaties Huursector) jaarlijks ophaalt met haar huurdersonderzoeken verder geanalyseerd om in kaart te brengen hoe het gesteld is met het gebruik van digitale kanalen binnen de corporatiesector. Verder gaan we in dit artikel in op hoe het gebruik van online kanalen zich verhoudt tot andere sectoren en wordt er getracht verklaringen te geven voor de mate van digitalisering in de sector.
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Looking at the trends in the four quarters of 2021, it is clear that (partial) lockdowns of sectors have been very bad news for business performance. Also not directly hit sectors like the care and service industry underperformed. The horeca, retail and cultural sectors were hit hardest by recurring lockdowns. Business services and technical professionals were more resilient. We have observed a strong decrease in sales, net margins, investment (willingness), solvability and entrepreneurial wages in periods of lockdown. They are (far) below the levels of the pre-Corona year 2019. Start-ups and the self-employed were the most vulnerable. The type of market in which entrepreneurs operate is of great importance. Turnover, net margins and entrepreneurial wages in the B2B markets are significantly higher than in the B2C markets. We were unable to establish any direct positive effects of the degree of digitization of businesses on net margins (Q2 special). Rather, the utilization of too many applications seems to deteriorate business performance. Entrepreneur digital skills are able to predict net margins better and positively. We will repeat this special in the near future as many businesses have only recently started to digitize. Entrepreneurs have lost their way in the forest of local, provincial, national and EU subsidies (Q3 special), halving the number of applications compared to 2015. Tax deduction programs seem far more effective than the dazzling diversity of subsidies. Owners of businesses with staff are especially willing to pay specialized advisors to detect and apply for subsidies on a “no cure, no pay” basis. There appears to be a strong link between the self-estimated sales skills of entrepreneurs and their turnover, and the short-term growth expectations (Q4 special). The more experienced and skilled in sales, the higher the quarterly turnover and the higher the growth expectation. However, 62% of entrepreneurs are unskilled or untrained in sales skills. And 30% of entrepreneurs indicate that they are not effective at selling. Overall, the lockdowns resulted in a growing number of entrepreneurs developing into marginal companies. Financial reserves, such as saved pensions and private/partner/family capital were depleted. Lockdowns also increased firm and private debts, which the majority of companies are unable to repay. Poverty is knocking at the door of many Dutch entrepreneurs and, even with the support of a partner income, only 4 out of 10 entrepreneurs earn a more than marginal living. Our main recommendations in the quarterly reports of 2021 are: 1. Strengthen the solvability of micro-businesses by converting tax debts in subordinate loans. 2. Pro-actively contact entrepreneurs to support them with support possibilities, (poverty alleviation) allowances and free coaching and sales, financial and digital training possibilities. 3. Start proactively discussing the viability of the firm and business model and possible ways to resolve debts. There is strong demand and shortages on the labor market, which makes this the perfect time to guide depleted entrepreneurs to (far) better paid jobs.
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Implementation of the United Nations Convention on the rights of persons with disabilities (UN CRPD) requires countries to harmonise their legislative frameworks with it. This paper investigates the national legislative frameworks of four Asian countries to see the extent to which they provide support services in accordance with Article 19 of the UN CRPD. The UN CRPD requires persons with disabilities to have access to and choice and control over support services. To analyse the policy alignment with the UN CRPD, an analytical framework based on the Capability Approach (CA) was developed. The results show that most countries address support services, including assistive devices, only from the perspective of a social security measure for persons with disabilities living in poverty, failing to uphold the rights of those not meeting those eligibility criteria. However, while support services are inseparably linked to social security, they also are a right for persons with disabilities. Therefore, a paradigm shift is required in the approach of support services and the distributive systems of countries, from one that addresses persons with disabilities as those requiring care considered a burden, to one that considers them rights holders with equal opportunities, for which, support services are a pre-requisite.
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In this booklet, the focus is on the stories of three Polish men in The Hague. The researcher, Karijn Nijhoff, has followed these men extensively and has recorded their migration stories in detail. We can read about their arrival, their experiences, their travels. We see a process of temporary and continuous, varied labor market participation. We can see a reality of different shades of gray. Integration, as defined by policy makers, can be a whole different process than the official descriptions prescribe. Er is ook een Nederlandse vertaling van dit rapport in deze database: "Tussen de mazen van het net".
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