DEMOCRATIC PATTERNS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAN STATES TODAY

Many writers and political commentators erroneously consider the sub-Saharan region as a homogeneous region and as such talk of an African democracy. This article has come out with various patterns that can be observed today across the sub-Saharan region. The democratic snapshots taken show variants emanating from the 4 sub-regions, a states colonial history, the possession of oil, states suffering sanctions and the longevity of the president. Two democratic indexes Freedom House and Mo Ibrahim Index of Governance form the bases for the measurement of democracy in these states. In the majority of cases, both indexes have somehow given the same outlook of a countrys democracy thereby reinforcing the conclusions drawn in this article. In order to proceed to the democratic patterns of these states, prior analyses of the decolonization and the struggle for influence by the Superpowers in the sub-Saharan region was done. These earlier dynamics help us to understand the present democratic patterns better.

Beyond the crisis: trust repair in an interorganizational network

This article extends understanding of trust repair by explaining in more detail the dynamics of trust at the network-level. Building on organizational-level trust repair research, the article explains how two periods of trust repair – catharsis and catalysis – contribute to trust repair of an interorganizational network. In addition, the article describes how changes to network-level trust in an interorganizational network changes the governance form of the network making the interorganizational network more durable and stable.

Repopulating density: COVID-19 and the politics of urban value

How might concepts of ‘value’ and ‘population’ illuminate the present and future of urban density? The COVID-19 pandemic prompted a public debate on density in the city. While some initially blamed density for the spread of the virus, others rightly cautioned against those claims. As the pandemic progressed, an imaginary of density-as-pathology gave way to a more nuanced geographical understanding of the urban dimensions of the crisis, focused on connections, spatial conditions, domestic ‘overcrowding’ and poverty. Throughout, an interrogation and reflection on urban density and its future unfolded, throwing into question the historical relationship between ‘value’ and ‘population’ in understandings of density. I argue for a new politics of value based on shifts in three interconnected domains – governance, form and knowledge – and identify implications for research on density in urban studies.

The influence of the Covid-19 pandemic on Czech-Polish cross-border cooperation: From debordering to re-bordering?

The COVID-19 pandemic brought many changes to social behaviours in Europe. One of its major consequences was the temporary closure of borders, which was introduced as a measure to prevent the uncontrolled pandemic spreading and involved internal Schengen borders. This has had a major impact in the way in which cross-border cooperation has been conducted in Europe, including the Czech-Polish borderland, as it dramatically restrained all flows across borders. In this paper, we evaluate the impact of the pandemic on five roles of cross-border cooperation: 1) as a multi-level governance form; 2) as a regional development tool; 3) as a para-diplomacy form; 4) as a post-conflict reconciliation tool; and 5) as Europe-building. We argue that the impacts of the pandemic complicated regional development and the Europe-building role of cross-border cooperation in the Czech-Polish borderland. The article envisages re-bordering processes also in the Czech-Polish borderland, but with important exceptions in the regions with a high level of cross-border integration, mainly in the Euroregion Těšínské Slezsko/Śląsk Cieszyński. The paper also calls for the elaboration of the guidelines for possible repeated (Schengen) border closures and proposes modifications of the INTERREG microprojects schemes, to keep them attractive also in times of expected cuts in public finances.

Narasi Budaya Arek Suroboyo dan Pandemi Covid-19: Sebuah Perspektif Agile Governance di Kota Surabaya

Covid-19 Pandemic has become a worldwide issue that also impacts Indonesia. An adaptive and agile governance system is needed to overcome the pandemic issue in both central and regional. One area that is considered successful is Surabaya City. Even so, there is a phenomenon of the high number of Covid-19 positives rates in Surabaya. It indicated that this is a form of policy hampered by local culture. Arek Suroboyo and their cangkrukan were contradicting due to the government's policy regarding large-scale social restrictions. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to analyze agile governance form in the implementation of Surabaya City Government policies in handling Covid-19. Then, identify the impacts that occur on policies due to the culture and custom of Arek Suroboyo. The method used is qualitative descriptive with the questioner and related documents-based analysis. Its results showed that with the existence of decentralization, regional policies were influenced by the central government strategy. Regarding the Central Government's Instruction, the public policies taken handling Covid-19 in the City of Surabaya includes promotional, preventive, curative, and rehabilitative efforts. The dominant concept of agile governance in this policy is "based on quick wins policy" in which one public policy stimulates another. With this effort, the City of Surabaya has passed the first wave of Covid-19 in its region. Nevertheless, the implementation of the policy was hampered by the culture of Arek Suroboyo, namely cangkrukan. Even the worst impact is that this culture potentially conducts the second wave of Covid-19 in Surabaya City.

Conflict Resolution in the Performance of Collaborative Governance: A Systematic Literature Review

Conflict is one of the problems that occurs when every human, organization, and the social life of the organization. Conflict can be reviewed through the root of existing problems that can be internal or can be external. The science of public administration has the right resolution in dealing with the mechanism of collaborative governance. The literature review approach applied was based on scientific journals published in the database. The database that the authors used were Scopus, Science Direct, and Taylor and Francis Group. The result of this research showed that the implementation of the proposed collaborative governance form of cooperation structure and the policy then is the creation of the community plan making. Furthermore, the types of conflicts resolved by collaborative governance in the 2015-2019 period were the source of conflicts that often occur in that period. Researchers suggested that researching collaborative governance can be developed in government so that it can be implemented in overcoming various public problems.

Redesigning the model of the initiation and evolution of inter-firm knowledge transfer in R&D relationships

Purpose Starting from the model of the initiation and evolution of inter-firm knowledge transfer in R&D relationships developed by Faems et al. (2007), the purpose of this paper is to refine and improve this model, assessing its reliability in a different and wider context and extending it according to the outcomes. Design/methodology/approach A multiple case-study approach was implemented, examining 34 dyadic inter-firm R&D relationships. This methodology suited the research goal of exploring the validity of a model in an area where little data or theory exists. Findings The theoretical model proposed by Faems et al. (2007) was improved, confirming the adequacy of the overall structure of their intuition and highlighting several differences in terms of factors that lead to the dissolution of R&D relationships. These differences mainly refer to partners’ similarities before starting R&D relationships, co-opetition situations, knowledge leakage/opportunistic behavior and reputation issues. Originality/value This work is the first to investigate two open research gaps related to the model of the initiation and evolution of inter-firm knowledge transfer in R&D relationships: the need for additional case studies in other contexts to develop a more general theory and the lack of research incorporating issues such as relational capital between partners, governance form and alliance scope in an integrated analysis.

Planning centrality, market instruments: Governing Chinese urban transformation under state entrepreneurialism

This article defines the key parameters of ‘state entrepreneurialism’ as a governance form that combines planning centrality and market instruments, and interprets how these two seemingly contradictory tendencies are made coherent in the political economic structures of post-reform China. Through examining urban regeneration programmes (in particular ‘three olds regeneration’, sanjiu gaizao), the development of suburban new towns and the reconstruction of the countryside, the article details institutional configurations that make the Chinese case different from a neoliberal growth machine. The contradiction of these tendencies gives room to urban residents and migrants to develop their agencies and their own spaces, and creates informalities in Chinese urban transformation.

Strategic Alliance Success Factors: A Literature Review on Alliance Lifecycle

Objectives. The research aims to investigate how firms can achieve alliance success. In global markets, the alliance failure rate is very high. This study will try to understand why, facing with such a high failure rate, more and more firms decide to enter or form strategic alliances. It appears necessary to identify key factors and show how firms can successfully manage them in each phase of alliance lifecycle.Methodology. For this study, a qualitative approach was adopted, in order to explore and understand the research problem. The issues of alliance success factors is investigated through the analysis of the existing literature, focusing in particular on the last two decades.Findings. By reviewing several theoretical perspectives, we identified alliance success factors and showed what kind of relevance they have in each phase of alliance lifecycle. It was found that strategic alliances develop through three phases. Alliance success lies on successful management of key factors, involved in each phase.Research Limits. Research deals with the issues of alliance success factors at the level of a single alliance and not at the level of an alliance portfolio. Further research should extend the analysis perspective.Managerial Implications. Firms involved in a strategic alliance should consider several critical aspects. For the entire alliance lifecycle, they have to look for a high degree of fit with their own partners. Another important aspect is related to the risk of opportunistic behavior, which could be reduced through the choice of an appropriate governance form and the development of social capital.

THE MEDIATED EFFECT OF FORMAL AND INFORMAL CONTROL ON GOVERNANCE FORMS

ABSTRACT The present paper employs the perspective of Transaction Cost Economics (TCE) to analyze the relevance of formal and informal controls in selecting the governance form. The evidence supports the influence of frequency, information sharing and relation-specific investments as a cause of control mechanisms, and the effect of these factors on the choice of the governance form, but there is no evidence about the combined interaction between these variables. The present work proposes that there is a mediation effect of formal and informal norms on the relationship between the TCE variables (frequency, information asymmetry and relation-specific investments) and the governance form. We applied Structural Equation Modelling to companies in the telecommunications sector in Spain. Our results confirm the opposite effect of formal and informal controls on the selection of governance forms and the mediation effect of these mechanisms of control on the selection of the governance form.