Paper presented in the workshop 'SMEs, CSR and employment relations in a global economy' at the USE 2015 Conference, Groningen, Oct 21-23 2015European labour market integration has, unfortunately, also led to attempts at unfair competition on employment conditions s. Competitive pressures to lower labour costs can gradually lure to explore and (un)consciously cross the borders of fair competition into dubious to illegal practices. Next to workers who may not receive all the benefits they are entitled to, one other category of potential victims are ‘fair’ employers, as they may lose market share to ‘unfair’ employers that compete with lower prices based on unfair labour practices. State governance and legal prosecution are currently not able to effectively combat all such practices. In the Netherlands, in some problems apparently became severe enough that employers and other parties joined forces and developed self-regulation initiatives, such as a certification system. This paper explores this emerging field of practice. Section 2 presents an overview of a number of different emerging initatives in the Netherlands based on desk research, Section 3 explores one of those cases – from the mushroom -a bit more in depth based upon desk research and a number of interviews. Based upon this exploratory research, section 4 develops a conceptual framework that can be used to analyse them. Section 1 first discusses the underlying problem of unfair competition, and specifies the research question.
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All over the world entrepreneurs drive changes. They develop new products and services, inspire others and take decisions that result in growth of their businesses. But the world around entrepreneurs is changing and so are entrepreneurs. Life-long selfemployment or permanent wage employment are of the past. And the way people perceive self-employment is changing as well. And so must our thinking. Changes in our society call for policies and programmes in support of enterprising people. Diversity, mobility and connectivity offer new opportunities for enterprising people. Markets are changing, become more accessible and there is less need to be bound physically to one place for an entrepreneur. New avenues for business are open thanks to our improved access to information, our connectivity globally through social media and our ability to travel freely and frequently from one country to another. With less focus on life-long (self) employment people now combine paid work (or unpaid – house- work) with self-employment, or opt for just parttime entrepreneurship. New, hybrid forms of enterprising emerge. This combining of work with self-employment is rather common in developing countries, but in Europe it is a phenomenon not yet reported on in statistics and for which policy makers and service providers have no answers yet. Neither exist clear definitions or classifications. This book may serve as an eye-opener: hybrid entrepreneurs are indeed around us and deserve our attention. The research unit Financial Inclusion and New Entrepreneurship of The Hague University of Applied Science challenges policy makers, academics and service providers (such as educational institutes, business advisers and financial institutions) to pay more attention to hybrid entrepreneurs, those enterprising people who intend to create new values for a fair and sustainable society. They might not yet been seen, but they exist…..
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BACKGROUND:Knowledge on long-term participation is scarce for patients with paid employment at the time of stroke. OBJECTIVE:Describe the characteristics and the course of participation (paid employment and overall participation) in patients who did and did not remain in paid employment. METHODS:Patients with paid employment at the time of stroke completed questions on work up to 30 months after starting rehabilitation, and the Utrecht Scale for Evaluation of Rehabilitation-Participation (USER-P, Frequency, Restrictions and Satisfaction scales) up to 24 months. Baseline characteristics of patients with and without paid employment at 30 months were compared using Fisher’s Exact Tests and Mann-Whitney U Tests. USER-P scores over time were analysed using Linear Mixed Models. RESULTS:Of the 170 included patients (median age 54.2 interquartile range 11.2 years; 40% women) 50.6% reported paid employment at 30 months. Those returning to work reported at baseline more working hours, better quality of life and communication, were more often self-employed and in an office job. The USER-P scores did not change statistically significantly over time. CONCLUSION:About half of the stroke patients remained in paid employment. Optimizing interventions for returning to work and achieving meaningful participation outside of employment seem desirable.
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