Business Networks (business + network)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Teaching and Learning Guide for: The Geopolitics of Climate Change

GEOGRAPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 5 2008
Jon Barnett
Author's Introduction Climate change is a security problem in as much as the kinds of environmental changes that may result pose risks to peace and development. However, responsibilities for the causes of climate change, vulnerability to its effects, and capacity to solve the problem, are not equally distributed between countries, classes and cultures. There is no uniformity in the geopolitics of climate change, and this impedes solutions. Author Recommends 1.,Adger, W. N., et al. (eds) (2006). Fairness in adaptation to climate change. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. A comprehensive collection of articles on the justice dimensions of adaptation to climate change. Chapters discuss potential points at which climate change becomes ,dangerous', the issue of adaptation under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the unequal outcomes of adaptation within a society, the effects of violent conflict on adaptation, the costs of adaptation, and examples from Bangladesh, Tanzania, Botswana, and Hungary. 2.,Leichenko, R., and O'Brien, K. (2008). Environmental change and globalization: double exposures. New York: Oxford University Press. This book uses examples from around the world to show the way global economic and political processes interact with environmental changes to create unequal outcomes within and across societies. A very clear demonstration of the way vulnerability to environmental change is as much driven by social processes as environmental ones, and how solutions lie within the realm of decisions about ,development' and ,environment'. 3.,Nordås, R., and Gleditsch, N. (2007). Climate conflict: common sense or nonsense? Political Geography 26 (6), pp. 627,638. doi:10.1016/j.polgeo.2007.06.003 An up-to-date, systematic and balanced review of research on the links between climate change and violent conflict. See also the other papers in this special issue of Political Geography. 4.,Parry, M., et al. (eds) (2007). Climate change 2007: impacts adaptation and vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the fourth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. The definitive review of all the peer-reviewed research on the way climate change may impact on places and sectors across the world. Includes chapters on ecosystems, health, human settlements, primary industries, water resources, and the major regions of the world. All chapters are available online at http://www.ipcc.ch/ipccreports/ar4-wg2.htm 5.,Salehyan, I. (2008). From climate change to conflict? No consensus yet. Journal of Peace Research 45 (3), pp. 315,326. doi:10.1177/0022343308088812 A balanced review of research on the links between climate change and conflict, with attention to existing evidence. 6.,Schwartz, P., and Randall, D. (2003). An abrupt climate change scenario and its implications for United States national security. San Francisco, CA: Global Business Network. Gives insight into how the US security policy community is framing the problem of climate change. This needs to be read critically. Available at http://www.gbn.com/ArticleDisplayServlet.srv?aid=26231 7.,German Advisory Council on Global Change. (2007). World in transition: climate change as a security risk. Berlin, Germany: WBGU. A major report from the German Advisory Council on Global Change on the risks climate changes poses to peace and stability. Needs to be read with caution. Summary and background studies are available online at http://www.wbgu.de/wbgu_jg2007_engl.html 8.,Yamin, F., and Depedge, J. (2004). The International climate change regime: a guide to rules, institutions and procedures. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. A clear and very detailed explanation of the UNFCCC's objectives, actors, history, and challenges. A must read for anyone seeking to understand the UNFCCC process, written by two scholars with practical experience in negotiations. Online Materials 1.,Environmental Change and Security Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars http://www.wilsoncenter.org/ecsp The major website for information about environmental security. From here, you can download many reports and studies, including the Environmental Change and Security Project Report. 2.,Global Environmental Change and Human Security Project http://www.gechs.org This website is a clearing house for work and events on environmental change and human security. 3.,Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) http://www.ipcc.ch/ From this website, you can download all the chapters of all the IPCC's reports, including its comprehensive and highly influential assessment reports, the most recent of which was published in 2007. The IPCC were awarded of the Nobel Peace Prize ,for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made (sic) climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change'. 4.,Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research http://www.tyndall.ac.uk The website of a major centre for research on climate change, and probably the world's leading centre for social science based analysis of climate change. From this site, you can download many publications about mitigation of and adaptation to climate change, and about various issues in the UNFCCC. 5.,United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change http://unfccc.int/ The website contains every major document relation to the UNFCCC and its Kyoto Protocol, including the text of the agreements, national communications, country submissions, negotiated outcomes, and background documents about most key issues. Sample Syllabus: The Geopolitics of Climate Change topics for lecture and discussion Week I: Introduction Barnett, J. (2007). The geopolitics of climate change. Geography Compass 1 (6), pp. 1361,1375. United Nations Secretary General, Kofi Annan, address to the 12th Conference of Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, Nairobi, 15 November 2006. Available online at http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=495&ArticleID=5424&l=en Week II: The History and Geography of Greenhouse Gas Emissions Topic: The drivers of climate change in space and time Reading Baer, P. (2006). Adaptation: who pays whom? In: Adger, N., et al. (eds) Fairness in adaptation to climate change. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, pp. 131,154. Boyden, S., and Dovers, S. (1992). Natural-resource consumption and its environmental impacts in the Western World: impacts of increasing per capita consumption. Ambio 21 (1), pp. 63,69. Week III: The Environmental Consequences of climate change Topic: The risks climate change poses to environmental systems Reading Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2007). Climate change 2007: climate change impacts, adaptation and vulnerability: summary for policymakers. Geneva, Switzerland: IPCC Secretariat. Watch: Al Gore. The Inconvenient Truth. Weeks IV and V: The Social Consequences of Climate Change Topic: The risks climate change poses to social systems Reading Adger, W. N. (1999). Social vulnerability to climate change and extremes in coastal Vietnam. World Development 27, pp. 249,269. Comrie, A. (2007). Climate change and human health. Geography Compass 1 (3), pp. 325,339. Leary, N., et al. (2006). For whom the bell tolls: vulnerability in a changing climate. A Synthesis from the AIACC project, AIACC Working Paper No. 21, International START Secretariat, Florida. Stern, N. (2007). Economics of climate change: the Stern review. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press (Chapters 3,5). Week VI: Mitigation of Climate Change: The UNFCCC Topic: The UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol Reading Najam, A., Huq, S., and Sokona, Y. (2003). Climate negotiations beyond Kyoto: developing countries concerns and interests. Climate Policy 3 (3), pp. 221,231. UNFCCC Secretariat. (2005). Caring for climate: a guide to the climate change convention and the Kyoto Protocol. Bonn, Germany: UN Framework Convention on Climate Change Secretariat. Weeks VII and VIII: Adaptation to Climate Change Topic: What can be done to allow societies to adapt to avoid climate impacts? Reading Adger, N., et al. (2007). Assessment of adaptation practices, options, constraints and capacity. In: Parry, M., et al. (eds) Climate change 2007: impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the fourth assessment report of the intergovernmental panel on climate change. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, pp. 717,744. Burton, I., et al. (2002). From impacts assessment to adaptation priorities: the shaping of adaptation policy. Climate Policy 2 (2,3), pp. 145,159. Eakin, H., and Lemos, M. C. (2006). Adaptation and the state: Latin America and the challenge of capacity-building under globalization. Global Environmental Change: Human and Policy Dimensions 16 (1), pp. 7,18. Ziervogel, G., Bharwani, S., and Downing, T. (2006). Adapting to climate variability: pumpkins, people and policy. Natural Resources Forum 30, pp. 294,305. Weeks IX and X: Climate Change and Migration Topic: Will climate change force migration? Readings Gaim, K. (1997). Environmental causes and impact of refugee movements: a critique of the current debate. Disasters 21 (1), pp. 20,38. McLeman, R., and Smit, B. (2006). Migration as adaptation to climate change. Climatic Change 76 (1), pp. 31,53. Myers, N. (2002). Environmental refugees: a growing phenomenon of the 21st century. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society 357 (1420), pp. 609,613. Perch-Nielsen, S., Bättig, M., and Imboden, D. (2008). Exploring the link between climate change and migration. Climatic Change (online first, forthcoming); doi:10.1007/s10584-008-9416-y Weeks XI and XII: Climate Change and Violent Conflict Topic: Will Climate change cause violent conflict? Readings Barnett, J., and Adger, N. (2007). Climate change, human security and violent conflict. Political Geography 26 (6), pp. 639,655. Centre for Strategic and International Studies. (2007). The age of consequences: the foreign policy and national security implications of global climate change. Washington, DC: CSIS. Nordås, R., and Gleditsch, N. (2007). Climate conflict: common sense or nonsense? Political Geography 26 (6), pp. 627,638. Schwartz, P., and Randall, D. (2003). An abrupt climate change scenario and its implications for United States national security. San Francisco, CA: Global Business Network. [online]. Retrieved on 8 April 2007 from http://www.gbn.com/ArticleDisplayServlet.srv?aid=26231 Focus Questions 1Who is most responsible for climate change? 2Who is most vulnerable to climate change? 3Does everyone have equal power in the UNFCCC process? 4Will climate change force people to migrate? Who? 5What is the relationship between adaptation to climate change and violent conflict? [source]


The Failure of the Sport7 TV-channel: Controversies in a Business Network*

JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 7 2003
Harry Sminia
ABSTRACT During 1996, TV viewers in the Netherlands witnessed the rise and fall of Sport7: a dedicated sports TV channel. Apparently, Sport7 did not succeed to become part of the business network of television and sports. This paper describes and explains why the venture failed. It builds on earlier insights from research on the outcomes of joint ventures and the business networks perspective. These insights are combined and utilized within the framework of the theory of social becoming (Sztompka, 1991). As such, for a new venture like Sport7, the outcome depends on the settlement of a number of controversies that arise with the establishment of a new actor in an existing business network. In the case of Sport7, the settlement of these controversies appeared to go against this new venture, ultimately leading to the demise of this new TV channel. [source]


Special Issue of Production and Operations Management: Integrating Information and Knowledge Work in Outsourced, Offshored, and other Distributed Business Networks

PRODUCTION AND OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2010
Edward G. Anderson Jr.
No abstract is available for this article. [source]


The adoption behaviour of information technology industry in increasing business-to-business integration sophistication

INFORMATION SYSTEMS JOURNAL, Issue 1 2010
William Y C Wang
Abstract A supply chain is not a linear type of inter-firm structure but is often considered as a network. Business networks are underpinned by the firms' resources, social legitimacy and associated power, which are also seen in the adoption theories of business-to-business integration (B2Bi) in the supply chain. However, there appears to be scarcity of the discussion on the theoretical relationship between them. This paper aims to enrich the previous findings of technology adoption theories in a business-to-business context by proposing a structural model and using Structural Equation Modelling approach to test it. It focuses on the integrated supply chain to test, analyse and extend the adoption factors to the use of computer-based information systems (IS). The survey data were collected in the Taiwanese Information Technology Industry. The path analyses indicate the answers for three issues raised from the research framework and confirm the associations between a firm's existing system support readiness and the network determinants outside organizational boundaries. Further, it identifies the interrelationships among these factors and indicates that some of them mediate the enterprises' behaviour on investments to increase current IS for B2Bi purposes. [source]


Profiling a New Generation of Female Small Business Owners in New Zealand: Networking, Mentoring and Growth

GENDER, WORK & ORGANISATION, Issue 4 2002
Judy McGregor
The contribution of female small business owners to economic development in Western developed countries such as New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada, is generally under,researched and traditionally grounded in male norms. Increasingly policy,makers acknowledge that in countries like New Zealand where 85% of business employs five or less people, small business offers the greatest employment potential. Not enough is known, though, about the growth orientation and characteristics of female small business owners. This article reports findings from the largest empirical study of small business undertaken in New Zealand and provides inter,gender comparison between male and female small business owners and for intra,gender contrast between networked female small business owners and women who did not belong to a business network. The results showed that the networked women, who were in the main better educated and more affiliative by nature, were more expansionist than both other female small business owners and men. The networked women were also more likely to have a business mentor. The findings confound earlier research suggesting women are less growth,orientated and wish only to satisfy intrinsic needs from their businesses. The article concludes by discussing the need to acknowledge the heterogeneity of female small business and what this means for policy,makers when assessing their socio,economic potential. [source]


The Failure of the Sport7 TV-channel: Controversies in a Business Network*

JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 7 2003
Harry Sminia
ABSTRACT During 1996, TV viewers in the Netherlands witnessed the rise and fall of Sport7: a dedicated sports TV channel. Apparently, Sport7 did not succeed to become part of the business network of television and sports. This paper describes and explains why the venture failed. It builds on earlier insights from research on the outcomes of joint ventures and the business networks perspective. These insights are combined and utilized within the framework of the theory of social becoming (Sztompka, 1991). As such, for a new venture like Sport7, the outcome depends on the settlement of a number of controversies that arise with the establishment of a new actor in an existing business network. In the case of Sport7, the settlement of these controversies appeared to go against this new venture, ultimately leading to the demise of this new TV channel. [source]


Innovation and Peripherality: An Empirical Comparative Study of SMEs in Six European Union Member Countries

ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, Issue 1 2008
Andrew Copus
Abstract This article examines the rates of innovative activity of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in central areas and equally developed but less accessible areas in six European Union member states. The probability of innovating is well predicted by the observable characteristics of firms, entrepreneurial characteristics, and business networks. More accessible areas consistently present higher rates of innovative activity than do their peripheral counterparts. The difference in the rates of peripheral and central areas is decomposed into observable and non-observable factors. The entire innovation gap is attributed to nonobservable factors that constitute a combination of behavior and environment. Innovation policy for SMEs should aim to meet businesses' specific needs (firm-specific factors) and to sustain and improve the innovative environment. [source]


Entrepreneurship Research on Network Processes: A Review and Ways Forward

ENTREPRENEURSHIP THEORY AND PRACTICE, Issue 1 2010
Susanna Slotte-Kock
Although entrepreneurship research on networks has studied issues pertaining to network content, governance and structure, we believe it requires a greater understanding of network processes. In this paper, we review how the entrepreneurship literature interprets and applies the concept of process to the study of networks. This allows us to identify areas for future investigation. Our work is also informed by social network theory and research on dyadic interactions in business networks. The paper concludes by presenting a theoretical framework for conceptualizing and studying the various processes associated with network development. [source]


Small firms and internationalisation: learning to manage and managing to learn

HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, Issue 3 2002
Valerie Anderson
Small firms contribute significantly to the UK economy, but most research into learning and work features the experience of large organisations. This article focuses on learning and work in small organisations. An interpretive framework relating to organisational learning is derived from the literature. Data on learning in small firms that internationalise are analysed to assess the extent to which models of organisational learning are applicable to the context and challenges they face. The article suggests that the large firm model of learning is inappropriate; the distinctive culture and communication systems of small organisations require different approaches to the acquisition, transmission and interpretation of knowledge. Tacit knowledge, developed through informal learning, is a priority and learning through local business networks is more important than participation in formal programmes. Advocacy of human resource development (HRD) practices based on conventional theories of organisational learning, therefore, may hinder rather than encourage performance in small organisations. [source]


Migration and other Modes of Transnationalism: Towards Conceptual Cross-Fertilization

INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION REVIEW, Issue 3 2003
Steven Vertovec
Sociological notions such as social network, social capital and embeddedness have proven valuable when adopted into a wide variety of social scientific fields. This has certainly been the case in the sociology of migration. Similarly, certain concepts drawn from studies on different modes of transnationalism - for instance, research and theory concerning the global activities of social movements and business networks - might serve as useful tools for understanding transnational social forms and practices among migrant groups. [source]


Role of Knowledge in Value Creation in Business Nets*

JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 5 2006
Kristian Möller
abstract This paper focuses on the role of knowledge in intentionally created business networks called nets. Nets are seen to offer firms collective benefits beyond those of a single firm or market transaction. We propose that the types of knowledge and learning required in the management of different types of business net are dependent on the value creation characteristics of the net types. Based on this we suggest a classification of three generic net types ,,current business nets', ,business renewal nets', and ,emerging new business nets', and argue that they pose different conditions for management in nets. Using this framework and integrating notions from the industrial network approach, strategic management and dynamic capabilities view, and organizational learning we make a number of observations and propositions about the role of knowledge and learning in the three types of business net. The paper contributes to the emerging theory of network management. [source]