This article is based upon a lecture delivered at the Jubilee Conference of the Economic History Society at Churchill College, Cambridge, in April 1976. I gratefully acknowledge the discussion of my paper and also wish to thank Professor M.M. Postan and Mr. Clive Trebilcock for reading the manuscript and for their comments. This article draws upon source material collected during two research projects for which thanks are due to the Social Science Research Council for their financial support: the ‘East European (...) Economic History Project’ in which I conducted research with the Investigator Michael C. Kaser at St. Antony's College, Oxford, and my current research on ‘Multinational Companies in Central-East Europe’ at the University of East Anglia, Norwich. Any errors and omissions are my own. (shrink)

Some meritocratic defenders of capitalism rely on the principle that cooperators should receive a share of the product commensurate with their contribution. However, such defences of capitalism fail due to a dilemma. Either they rely on an understanding of contribution that arguably will be reflected by the capital-labour split in suitably idealized capitalist economies, but cannot serve as a plausible standard of merit; or they rely on an interpretation of contribution that is a plausible standard of merit, but which (...) won’t tend to be reflected by the capital-labour split in capitalist economies. (shrink)

This project explores the "contradiction" that critics contend lies at the heart of the Supreme Court's capital sentencing jurisprudence. The doctrine of "guided discretion," represents the Court's attempt to achieve both consistency and individuation in capital sentencing. Guided discretion rejects the unbridled sentencing discretion of an earlier era that resulted in sentencing decisions that were "arbitrary and capricious." At the same time, guided discretion requires juries to give individualized consideration to the facts and circumstances of individual defendants. Critics (...) contend that consistency and individuation are mutually exclusive, and that "guided discretion" is a contradiction in terms. ;The analysis first attempts to isolate the moral dimension of the capital punishment debate, arguing that such analytical clarity is essential to any defensible view of capital punishment. Second, it sets forth and defends the coherence approach to moral and legal justification, according to which the specific moral and legal principles relevant to capital sentencing are evaluated for their compatibility with the principles of the legal system more generally. Third, the analysis canvasses the traditional justifications for punishment, as well as the development of the Court's capital sentencing jurisprudence, and identifies retribution and deterrence as the most promising rationales for the death penalty. Fourth, the claim of contradiction is considered in the context of legal liberalism, which, contrary to critics, has ample resources to accommodate the doctrinal balancing act that guided discretion entails. Moreover, examination of a typical capital sentencing statute establishes that the doctrine of guided discretion is compatible with at least some forms of retributivism and with traditional principles of deterrence. Finally, the analysis recognizes the limits of philosophical consistency. The capital sentencing process presents daunting practical challenges that a theoretical defense of guided discretion cannot fully address. Substantial reforms are needed before the theoretical coherence of guided discretion can be translated into a constitutionally defensible capital sentencing process. (shrink)

Prior studies in business ethics highlight the role of philanthropy in shaping stakeholders’ perceptions of a firm’s underlying moral tendencies and values. Scholars argue that philanthropy-based character inferences influence whether and how stakeholders engage with firms. We extend this line of reasoning to examine the impact of philanthropy on firms’ contracting costs in the capital market. We posit that philanthropy-based character inferences reduce investors’ agency concerns, thereby reducing firms’ cost of capital. We also posit that the strength of (...) the philanthropy–cost of capital relationship is contingent on uncertainty regarding a firm’s character, visibility of a firm, and prevailing philanthropic norms. We test and find support for our arguments in a longitudinal study of philanthropy and the cost of capital. Our findings have implications for business ethics research on corporate philanthropy and corporate social performance and for organizational research on social judgment. (shrink)

Research suggests that ethical leadership influences employees’ behavior and organizational functioning. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate the role of ethical leadership in the improvement of employees’ innovative performance. Specifically, this research developed and tested a framework about the intermediating mechanism of social capital in the relationship between ethical leadership and employees’ innovative performance. The current study integrated assumptions of social learning and social exchange theories, which postulate that the leadership has a direct effect on the (...) employees’ conduct, principally through role modeling and the reciprocal landscape. Data were collected through in-person administered questionnaire-based survey from 297 employees working in the manufacturing sectors of Pakistan. The conceptual model of our research was analyzed applying Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results exhibited that the ethical leadership plays an important role in fostering employees’ innovative performance. The present study also found that social capital plays an intermediating role between the ethical leadership and employees’ innovative performance relationship. The current study contributed to the leadership and innovation literature and provided insights in examining the ethical leadership-employees’ innovative performance relationship through the intermediating mechanism of social capital. (shrink)

This article takes Viviana Zelizer’s (1985) Pricing the Priceless Child to the new millennium. Zelizer documented the transformation between the 19th and 20th century from an “economically useful” to an “emotionally priceless” child. She observed that by the 1930s, American children were practically economically worthless but invested with significant emotional value. What has happened to this emotionally priceless child at the dawn of the new millennium? Has there been a new transformation in the social value of children, and, if so, (...) what might have such a transformation entailed? To address these questions, we examine overtime trends that point to increasing devotion of resources and time to children’s education, a key input in the exceedingly influential human capital theory, which connects investment into children’s human capital with their future market value. Therefore, we argue that the priceless child 2.0 is a useful-to-be human capital investment child. We use four empirical examples of overtime growth in children’s human capital investment: (a) enrollments in early childhood education, (b) federal spending on early education, (c) federal spending on K-12 programs, and (d) parental spending on child care, education and extracurricular activities. In the conclusion, we discuss some potential consequences and concerns about raising children as human capital investment. (shrink)

We show unintended consequences of quota regulations to get women on boards. Board members may have different characteristics, and even among women, there are variations. We assume that the characteristics of the board members have an influence on their contributions to boards, to businesses as well as to society. In this paper, we argue that different types of societal pressure to get women on boards have an influence on the social capital characteristics of the women getting multiple board memberships. (...) The paper is drawing on institutional theory and social capital theory, and we distinguish between mimetic, normative, and coercive types of pressure. Through a cluster analysis of 58 Italian “golden skirts”, we show that different types of societal pressure may lead to differences in social capital characteristics. The study has implications for the ongoing international debate about women and diversity on boards, and we propose developing a pressure theory for getting women on boards. (shrink)

Brandon Absher demonstrates that the neoliberalization of higher education has led to a paradigm shift in contemporary philosophy in the United States. Neoliberal philosophy aims to produce human capital and profitable knowledge.

Much current work in the social sciences seeks to understand the effects of trust and social capital on economic and political outcomes. However, the sources of trust remain unclear. In this article, the authors articulate a basic theory of the relationship between institutions and trust. The authors apply this theory to industrial districts, geographically concentrated areas of small firm production, which involve extensive cooperation in the production process. Changes in power relations affect patterns of production;the authors suggest that they (...) also have knock-on consequences for trust and cooperation among actors. (shrink)

The social capital literature has focused on the functional and structural properties of social relations, partially neglecting the way in which they are experienced by individuals. Drawing on anthropological and social theory, this article distinguishes two ideal-typical forms of social capital — reciprocity and trust — based on the meaning of the social relations that embed them. Reciprocity is the type of social capital embedded within personal relations, triply defined in the factual, social and temporal dimensions by (...) co-presence, reciprocity and memory, respectively. Trust is the type of social capital embedded within relations with strangers, defined by the condition of impersonality or anonymity. These two types of social capital cannot be reduced to extremes in a continuum, nor are they fungible, and while reciprocity is by definition particularistic (this is the source of its strength as a linking mechanism), trust has a universalistic potential. Analytical and empirical implications of this distinction are outlined. (shrink)

This study aimed to investigate the serial-multiple mediation effect of professional identity, psychological capital, work-related stress, and work-related wellbeing among intensive care unit nurses in China. The cross-sectional survey was conducted from January 2017 to May 2017 in two Grade III A general hospitals in Jining, Shandong Province, China. Cluster sampling was used to recruit participants from the two hospitals. A total of 330 ICU nurses participated in the study. The nurses’ work stress scale, Chinese nurse’s professional identity scale, (...) the PsyCap questionnaire, and Chinese work-related wellbeing scale were used to collect the data. Descriptive analysis, independent-samples t-test, one-way analysis of variance, Pearson correlation analysis, linear regression analysis, and structural equation modeling were used to analyze the data. The average score for the work-related wellbeing of ICU nurses was 85.91 ± 13.94. Work-related stress, professional identity, and PsyCap correlated significantly with work-related wellbeing. The major predictors of work-related wellbeing were PsyCap, work-related stress, professional identity, and monthly salary. The serial-multiple mediation effects of professional identity and PsyCap in the relationship between work-related stress and work-related wellbeing were statistically significant. Positive professional identity and PsyCap were sequentially associated with decreased work-related stress, which in turn was related to increased work-related wellbeing among ICU nurses. Therefore, this study aims to explore the impact of ICU nurses’ work-related stress on work-related wellbeing, as well as the mediating effect of professional identity and PsyCap. It is hoped that hospital care managers will pay attention to the mental health of ICU nurses, increase their professional identity, and reduce work-related stress to improve the quality of the ICU nursing service and stabilize nursing work. (shrink)

After a crisis, broad and sweeping reforms are enacted to restore trust. Following the 2007-2008 Great Financial Crisis, the European Union has engaged in an ambitious overhaul of banking regulation. One of its centerpieces, the 2013 Fourth Capital Requirements Directive, tackles, amongst other things, the perceived pre-crisis failings in the governance of banks. We focus on the provisions that are aimed at reshaping bank boards’ composition, functioning, and their members’ liabilities, and argue that they are unlikely to improve bank (...) boards’ effectiveness or prevent excessive risk-taking. We criticize some of them for mandating solutions, like board diversity and the separation of chairman and CEO, that may be good for some banks but are bad for others, in the absence of any convincing argument that their overall effect is positive. We also criticize enhanced board liability by showing that it may increase the risk of herd behavior and lead to more serious harm in the event of managerial mistakes. We also highlight that the push towards unfriendly boards will negatively affect board dynamics and make boards as dysfunctional as when the CEO dominates them. We further argue that limits on directorships and diversity requirements will worsen the shortage of bank directors, while requirements for induction and training and board evaluation exercises will more likely lead to tick-the-box exercises than under the current situation in which they are just best practices. We conclude that European policymakers and supervisors should avoid using a heavy hand, respectively, when issuing rules implementing CRD IV provisions with regard to bank boards and when enforcing them. (shrink)

This study focused on the frequency of social media use. Through investigating and verifying the correlations between social media use frequency, online political participation, and social capital, we derived two models of socialization that affect citizen well-being and, accordingly, proposed strategic suggestions for democratic society construction and network management. This study drew upon the 2019 Taiwan Communication Survey database and used structural equation modeling as a statistical method to explore the causal relationship between these four variables. The data analysis (...) yielded an overall good fit with the overall fit indicators: χ2 = 214.417, df = 84, p = 2.293, RMSEA = 0.028, GFI = 0.998, CFI = 0.986, SRMR = 0.066, and CN = 993.411. Future communication scholars who wish to explore issues related to new media users can draw on this model for subsequent research. (shrink)

A questão que se coloca nesse texto é refletir sobre as contribuições que Marx formula para pensar a respeito da educação, a escola e a luta trabalhadora. Nosso intuito é, pois, a partir do “beber da fonte” da filosofia de práxis, pensar em que medida, o projeto de emancipação social, tal como propôs Marx, se realiza numa escola em crise, aonde muita coisa, aliás, muda na aparência para manter a essência íntegra. Nossas reflexões se voltam para compreender também, como por (...) meio do trabalho, as experiências de autoformação política da classe trabalhadora passam por uma radicalização vertiginosa do direito ao acesso, comprometedora, no entanto, do saber produzido socialmente. (shrink)

Responsible family ownership is a combination of the family’s commitment to the family-firm’s stakeholders in the long term and the explicit behaviour of the family members associated with the firm. However, families are not individuals but rather a system of relationships among family members. In such a context, misunderstandings in communication, anachronistic mentalities and different value systems can block the intergenerational transmission of RFO. Consequently, the responsibility of the family towards the FF’s stakeholders may be damaged and the firm’s socially (...) responsible behaviour hindered. This paper aims to identify how RFO is transferred across generations and to ascertain the role that family social capital plays in preserving the transmission of RFO from generation to generation. Our research is based on three in-depth case studies of Mexican family-owned small- and medium-sized enterprises. First, the paper identifies and contrasts a set of FSC-specific factors and problems which play a relevant role in the transmission of RFO while recognizing the influence of the mutually reinforcing dynamics of FSC dimensions. Secondly, the family’s honourableness :751–767, 2013) is identified as a key driver for sustaining the transmission of RFO. Finally, the paper identifies RFO institutionalization required to face the intrinsic problems of transmitting RFO in growing families. (shrink)

This article discusses the significance of social capital in Bourdieu-inspired analyses of contemporary South-East European societies. We first recapitulate Bourdieu?s theorization of social capital, emphasizing that it allows different operationalizations expressly because of its rather abstract theoretical character. Following that, we explain what is meant by?South- East European societies? and that their inequality-generating mechanisms are largely based on social closure. In the central part of the article, we comment on some attempts at operationalization of social capital in (...) the SEE region. While we also discuss two cases of eclectically mixing Lin?s operationalization with Bourdieusian concepts, at the center of our attention is the elaboration of Bourdieu?s theorization of social capital put forward by the Serbian sociologist Predrag Cveticanin. The relevance of his concepts of?social capital of solidarity? and?social capital of informal connections? for the study of class relations in post-socialist societies in South-East Europe highlights the advantages of a consistent application of the Bourdieusian framework in a contemporary context. (shrink)

The COVID-19 pandemic has caused major changes in the psychological capital structure of individuals and groups, especially among members of the upper echelons of Chinese mixed-ownership reform enterprises, who are more sensitive to the environment. Based on prospect theory. In order to further study the changes in the psychological capital structure of upper echelons of the mixed ownership reform of state-owned enterprises under the influence of the COVID-19, and what impact it has on the decision-making behavior of the (...) upper echelons and the development performance of the mixed ownership reform enterprises, this paper introduces the system dynamics research method into the research field of the upper echelons for the first time, and studies the psychological capital structure of the upper echelons through simulation. This paper puts forward new research ideas for the research on the psychological capital structure of upper echelons. Using the system dynamics method, this study investigates the changes induced by the COVID-19 pandemic, on the psychological capital structure of the upper echelons of Chinese mixed-ownership reform enterprises; and assesses the concept model of behavioral psychological capital adjustment. The impact of COVID-19 on communication strategies among upper echelons, directly affects the evolution results of the decision-making system. The psychological capital structure in the upper echelons has evolutionary stability strategies in three cases. In some cases, the system evolution presents periodic characteristics. The higher the probability of group communication, the more stable the psychological capital structure, and the greater the fluctuation of behavioral integration. There is a significant correlation between the level of efficacy and resilience of upper echelons psychological capital structure and upper echelons decision-making behavior. Under the condition of improving the communication probability among upper echelon members, there is a positive correlation between the level of hope and optimism of upper echelon and the power structure of upper echelon and the development performance of mixed reform enterprises. Develop the psychological capital structure of upper echelon of mixed reform enterprises, improve the level of financing development decision-making ability and improve decision-making performance. (shrink)

OBJECTIVES: To ascertain which conditions nurses believe should be in a law allowing active voluntary euthanasia (AVE). DESIGN: Survey questionnaire posted to registered nurses (RNs). SETTING: Australian Capital Territory (ACT) at the end of 1996, when active voluntary euthanasia was legal in the Northern Territory. SURVEY SAMPLE: A random sample of 2,000 RNs, representing 54 per cent of the RN population in the ACT. MAIN MEASURES: Two methods were used to look at nurses' opinions. The first involved four vignettes (...) which varied in terms of critical characteristics of each patient who was requesting help to die. The respondents were asked if the law should be changed to allow any of these requests. There was also a checklist of conditions, most of which have commonly been included in Australian proposed laws on AVE. The respondents chose those which they believed should apply in a law on AVE. RESULTS: The response rate was 61%. Support for a change in the law to allow AVE was 38% for a young man with AIDS, 39% for an elderly man with early stage Alzheimer's disease, 44% for a young woman who had become quadriplegic and 71% for a middle-aged woman with metastases from breast cancer. The conditions most strongly supported in any future AVE law were: "second doctor's opinion", "cooling off period", "unbearable protracted suffering", "patient fully informed about illness and treatment" and "terminally ill". There was only minority support for "not suffering from treatable depression", "administer the fatal dose themselves" and "over a certain age". CONCLUSION: Given the lack of support for some conditions included in proposed AVE laws, there needs to be further debate about the conditions required in any future AVE bills. (shrink)

According to Gérard Genette, the chief function of an authorial preface is to ensure that the text is read properly. In other words, the purpose of the preface is to attract the reader’s attention and to steer him or her toward a particular understanding of the book. A preface, then, aims to get readers to read the book and often on certain terms, i.e., the author’s. As such, the authorial preface of Marx’s Capital (1867) is especially important — it (...) allows us to understand how Marx himself hoped to be understood by his readers. Commentators, whether hostile or sympathetic, usually focus on the postface to the second edition of Marx’s work. We will instead focus on the preface to the first edition, as to uncover Marx’s immediate political aims and ethical concerns. (shrink)

Making investment decisions is usually considered a challenging task for investors because it is a process based on risky, complex, and consequential choices. When it comes to Investments in human capital, such as startups fundings, the aspect of decision-making becomes even more critical since the outcome of the DM process is not completely predictable. Indeed, it has to take into consideration the will, goals, and motivations of each human actor involved: those who invest as well as those who seek (...) investments. We define this specific DM process as multi-actor DM since not a group is making decisions but different actors, or groups of different actors, who – starting from non-coinciding objectives – need to reach a mutual agreement and converge toward a common goal for the success of the investment. This review aims to give insights on psychological contributions to the study of complex DM processes that deal with IHC to provide scholars and practitioners with a theoretical framework and a tool for describing the complex socio-ecological systems involved in the DM processes. For this purpose, we discuss in the paper how the third generation of activity theory could be used as an appropriate model to explain the specificities of MADM construct, focusing on the particular case of startup funding. Design thinking techniques will be proposed as a methodology to create a bridge between different activity systems. (shrink)

L’article présente les différentes formes critiques mises en œuvre par Marx dans sa critique philosophico-économique de l’argent, des Manuscrits de 1844 jusqu’au Capital.

Neste ensaio de interpretação, pretende-se dar continuidade à leitura do texto de Marx encontrado na seção VI, do livro III de O capital, quanto à problemática jurídica. Trata-se de leitura específica, ainda que descritiva, dos apontamentos do revolucionário alemão sobre o direito no contexto dos escritos sobre o processo global da produção capitalista. A metodologia de interpretação segue pesquisa anterior que estabeleceu os sentidos do direito no texto marxiano, compreendendo-o como fundamentalmente caracterizado por relações jurídicas que se distinguem de (...) meras dimensões normativas. Relativamente aos avanços alcançados, contempla-se o entendimento de Marx sobre a “forma da propriedade fundiária” que impõe relações específicas nos âmbitos econômicos ou jurídicos. A “representação jurídica” decorre de uma transformação historicamente paralela aos processos de subsunção do trabalho ao capital e da derivação das formas sociais, com início na acumulação originária do capital. Ocorre uma contratualização do acesso à terra, tornada capital por via da noção jurídica específica de propriedade fundiária. Daí se extrai, por decorrência, a renda da terra. Para fins de análise crítica ao direito, ressalta-se a especialização do trabalho agrícola e a superexploração do trabalhador rural, bem como a conformação de tradição cultural do capitalismo no campo que implicam a compreensão de como se opera produção de mais-trabalho a partir da renda fundiária, por isso haver o seu distintivo como transformação de mais-valia em renda. Todas essas noções são fundamentais para se pensar uma crítica marxista ao direito desde a América Latina. (shrink)

BackgroundTo prevent the planet from catastrophic global warming a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions to net zero is required. Thus, divestment from fossil fuels must be a strategic interest for health insurers. The aim of this study was to analyse the implementation of environmental, social and governance criteria in German private health insurers’ investments.MethodsIn 2019 a survey about ESG strategies was sent to German private health insurance companies. The survey evaluated investment strategies and thresholds for the exclusion of sectors and (...) business practices, as well as company strategies for sustainable business development.FindingsGiven their business reports, German private health insurers manage assets of more than €350 billion. 11 of 40 insurance companies provided quantitative data, 10 refused to answer. According to quantitative data, €66 billion of assets is managed according to any ESG criteria; this equals an average of 76% of each company’s bonds. None of these insurers excluded the production and sale of fossil fuels. All excluded coal mining but only at high thresholds. For €226 billion, no data were provided.InterpretationThe findings are in contrast to the expected intrinsic economic interest of the insurers to stop global warming and improve public health. The majority of assets are managed in a highly problematic manner, especially the absence of capital allocated in fields contrary to medical ethics cannot be presumed. Lack of transparency is a major problem that limits clients in choosing the insurer who has the most advanced ESG criteria. (shrink)

To explore the role of the social adaptability of different groups in human capital in an uncertain environment, this paper empirically tests the relationship between social adaptation and human capital by using a panel quantile regression model with the life satisfaction of 35 cities in China as an indicator. By selecting Nelder Mead and adaptive MCMC estimation methods, this paper finds that the higher the level of social adaptation is, the more obvious the promotion effect on the level (...) of human capital; for eastern cities, social adaptation can promote the improvement of the human capital level; for central or western cities, the relationship between social adaptation and human capital is not obvious and depends on the method selected for estimation. To enhance the social adaptability of individuals, the government leadership should actively create conditions, carry out targeted social adaptation training and active adaptation skills exchange for different social groups in order to strengthen social adaptability and enhance human capital. At the same time, policymakers need to consider the differences between the eastern, central and western regions and choose the most suitable human capital improvement action framework for the region to manage environmental uncertainty and make regional human capital sustainable competitive in the era of uncertainty. (shrink)

The purpose of this research paper is to identify which types of corporate philanthropy (CP): cause-related marketing (CRM) or sponsorship, create higher moralcapital under two conditions: proactive or reactive (following a scandal). Results showed that CP created higher moral capital for a proactive company than for a reactive company. Both CRM and sponsorship were perceived as more sincere in the proactive company than the reactive company. However, CRM was seen as self-serving in the reactive company, but not the proactive (...) company. The study demonstrated that companies need to take into account the different types of CP, as it has an effect on their moral capital. Socially proactive firms should engage in both CRM and sponsorship philanthropy, as both types can generate high moral capital, which creates better company reputation. However, CP may not be the most effective or appropriate strategy for creating moral capital following negative publicity. (shrink)

In this paper I present a moral argument against capital punishment that does not depend upon the claim that all killing is immoral. The argument is directed primarily against non-philosophers in the Judeo-Christian tradition. Oddly, the moral argument against capital punishment has not been effective in the United States despite the biblical injunction against killing. Religious supporters of the death penalty often invoke a presumed distinction between ‘killing’ and ‘murdering’ and avow that God forbade the latter but not (...) the former. Self-defense and just wars are cited as cases of morally justified killing. Accepting these premises, I point out that when cases of justified killing in self-defense are altered to include an element of delay, disarming and premeditation, they too become murder. Since the death penalty clearly involves the elements of delay, disarming and premeditation, I conclude that the death penalty is murder in the biblical sense and ought to be abolished in any God-fearing society. (shrink)

Matthew Kramer’s The Ethics of Capital Punishment: A Philosophical Investigation of Evil and its Consequences explores the morality of capital punishment and develops his own “purgative rationale” in support of the practice. I present my objections to Kramer’s purgative rationale and trace our disagreement to differences over the nature of evil, the autonomy of human character formation, and the concept of defilement.

Are there any business decisions that do not have an ethical dimension? Who decides that a decision is unethical? What impact does ethics have in today’s business environment? The case focuses on the development of Hawaii’s first public-private venture capital fund by three very different entities: the State of Hawaii economic development corporation; a US mainland-based private equity investment firm; and a partnership of two serial entrepreneurs. The case uses a progressive disclosure format so students only read and analyze (...) the actions and ethical issues that occur at a specific point in time: creation of the venture capital fund; selection of startups to be included in the fund’s investment portfolio; and public reaction to decisions and actions by the fund. The case frames the issues confronted at each point as ethical dilemmas. Analysis includes answering questions and formulating recommendations or solutions to each dilemma. (shrink)

As the aging population problem intensifies, many emerging economies are caught in labor shortage and rising labor costs, thus improving the corporate labor investment efficiency is crucial for these countries. In this context, we take China as an example to explore the influence of the current booming digital finance on corporate LIE. This paper, which enriches the existing literature, is one of the few studies that explores the link between macroeconomic policies and firms’ LIE. Our research adopts the baseline methodology (...) of ordinary least squares regression, and the data comprise 23,503 observations for Chinese A-share listed businesses from 2011 to 2020. In addition, we use fixed effects regression, instrumental variables method and substitution of independent variables to deal with endogeneity and test the robustness. The outcomes suggest that DF may significantly increase corporate LIE. Further results from the path mechanism study suggest that DF could alleviate financing constraints and optimize human capital structure, both of which have a favorable effect on the LIE. Last but not least, the heterogeneity results imply that DF can more effectively encourage LIE of firms in economically underdeveloped regions and of private nature. The study recommends that emerging economies should pay attention to strengthening regulation to avoid financial risks while vigorously promoting DF. In addition, enhancing the level of human capital and optimizing human capital allocation are also essential. (shrink)

In the global academic capitalist race, academics, institutions and countries’ symbolic power results from the accumulation of scientific capital. This paper relies on the perspectives of system actors located at the institutional, national and international levels to assess the perceived importance of eight systemic factors in contributing to the comparative advantage of social-democratic regimes, namely Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden. A deductive thematic analysis performed on 56 transcripts and a one-way repeated-measure ANOVA performed on 324 questionnaires confirmed the hypotheses (...) regarding the positive influence of academic traditions and internationalization. This study contributes to the development of a varieties of academic capitalism approach to apprehend how political-economies condition higher education systems’ comparative advantage. (shrink)

Although the referents of the term social capital merit sustained inquiry, the term impedes understanding because of the historical association of the word capital with economic discourse. As a result of this association, applying the term social capital to civic engagement blurs crucial analytic distinctions. Moreover, there are important ideological consequences to considering things such as bowling leagues to be a form of capital and urging citizens to become social capitalists. The term social capacity, the authors (...) argue, provides the same heuristic benefits as the term social capital without extending illusory promises of theoretical parsimony with the financial/human/social capital trinity. (shrink)

This case study of Central American migration to Washington, DC closely examines how gender is related to the decision to migrate, as well as the choice of destination. The study investigates the social and economic conditions in sending Central American countries as well as those in a receiving city in the United States to determine why women predominate in certain labor migrations. A macrostructural analysis accounts for the conditions that delimit the flow of international migrants, but a concept termed gendered (...) labor recruitment provides the link between macro- and microlevels of analysis. Results of the research indicate that approximately seventy percent of the initial Central American migrants to the nation's capital in the 1960s and 1970s were women and that their migration may be attributed partly to informal labor recruitment. Over the years, Washington's government, diplomatic and professional workforce “recruited,” made arrangements for, or returned to the nation's capital with foreign workers who could provide basic services, primarily as domestics and child-care providers. (shrink)

In this Introduction I illuminate the importance of Nicos Poulantzas’s participation at a 1967 colloquium in Frankfurt commemorating the 100th anniversary of the publication of Capital. This colloquium is the only published record of a dialogue between a representative of Louis Althusser’s interpretation of Marx and a member of the first generation of the Frankfurt School and thus casts light on the relationship between these two traditions of critical social theory. After contextualising the colloquium and summarising Poulantzas’s paper, I (...) outline some of the elements of the Frankfurt response to the Althusserian interpretation of Marx by referring to Alfred Schmidt’s contribution to the colloquium, including his reaction to Poulantzas’s paper. (shrink)

The coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic has exacerbated the labour shortage, and promoting entrepreneurship to spur job creation is one of the most effective strategies to address this problem. Entrepreneurs must lengthen their employment or start-up cycles due to COVID-19 normalisation. Consequently, the impact of career willingness to delay satisfaction on entrepreneurial ambition is investigated in this research via an online survey in Jiangsu Province, China. The findings show that students with a high level of career delayed contentment has a higher (...) level of entrepreneurial intention, implying that career delayed contentment intention influences EI positively. Psychological capital modifies this process, increasing the influence of job delayed satisfaction on EI by strengthening PC. PC’s significant components are self-efficacy, hope, optimism, and flexibility. This study combines the willingness to wait for satisfaction with the willingness to start a business, providing a valuable reference for reducing the work condition caused by the COVID-19 epidemic. (shrink)