This article builds on rich empirical data following our unexpected discovery of a local practice to circumvent a stressful
and counterproductive work environment due to distrust at the Port of Tema in Ghana. Using theoretical work on networks,
trust, and humor, as well as extensive ethnographic feldwork, we found that the humorous atmosphere at the regularly
held physical berthing meetings fosters a sense of community, which enables competing professions, private companies,
and public institutions to manage their mutual distrust. In an environment where trust among competitors is unrealistic, we
argue that the objective of the performance of humor and transparency at the physical berthing meetings is the management
of distrust rather than the creation of trust. The meetings have, gradually, grown to serve as a pragmatic local stakeholder
adaptation to the challenges posed by universally perceived politicized, opaque, and corrupt business practices at the Port
of Tema and beyond. In conclusion, we posit that our empirical fndings allow us to identify the potential of and gaps in
theories about trust and humor in understanding the dynamics of coping strategies among competitors in business settings
that are characterized by unethical practices.
Design
Our data set, collected via surveys from top managers and project managers involved in 86 NPD projects in 85 firms, is analyzed using PLS structural equation modeling.
Purpose
This study examines how technical drivers as well as social drivers influence organic communication and top management involvement (TMI) in new product development (NPD) projects. Technical drivers are strategic importance and product innovativeness and social drivers are intrinsic and extrinsic relevance. Organic communication is defined as continuous, bi-directional, and informal communication between top management and the NPD teams. Further, arguing that TMI must be studied as multi-faceted construct, TMI is conceptualized to occur as guidance, active motivation, providing resources, and creating a tolerant climate. Subsequently, the effect of TMI and organic communication on NPD performance is investigated.
Findings
We show that the strategic importance of the project has a positive influence on TMI through active motivation, providing resources, and creating a tolerant climate for innovation, but does not have an effect on guidance. Results also show that active motivation and organic communication improve budget and schedule adherence, whereas providing guidance and stimulating a tolerant climate have detrimental effects. In summary, our results show that only active motivation enhances all types of performance while stimulating a tolerant climate appears to have the opposite effect. The results revealed that organic communication between top management and the NPD team has a strong positive effect on all elements of TMI (providing guidance, actively motivating the NPD team, providing resources, and creating a tolerant climate). In other words, when top management communicates with the NPD team throughout the project in an informal way and listens to the team in addition to engaging in a one-way communication, they are more likely to be seen by the team as being deeply involved in the project.
Climate change is affecting the oceans with increased sea levels, ocean acidification and extreme weather affecting coastal ecosystems. This necessitates a new model for climate and marine law, because existing law and policy are insufficient to tackle adaptation and mitigation impacts upon the marine environment. Presently, we do not know what it takes to integrate and balance climate legislation and governance when faced with unknown problems. The concept of Blue Economy is new and originates from the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development. This chapter explores how one can best build new knowledge that can integrate climate law and marine governance. It does so by proposing the creation of a nexus between ecosystem-based regulations and marine spatial planning in order to create a new paradigm for effective and inclusive Blue Economy, using a systemic multi-regulatory framework (Global, Regional and National).
Decentralization of the electricity sector has mainly been studied in relation to its infrastructural aspect, particularly location and size of the generation units, and only recently more attention has been paid to the governance aspects. This article examines power sector (de)centralization operationalized along three functional dimensions: political, administrative and economic. We apply this framework to empirically assess the changes in California’s electricity market, which saw the emergence of institutional innovation in the form of community choice aggregation (CCA). Unpacking the Californian case illustrates how decision-making has moved from central state government and regulators to the municipal level in uneven ways and without decentralized generation keeping pace. We also explore the impacts this multidimensional and diversified decentralization has on the ultimate goals of energy transition: decarbonization and energy security. Our framework and empirical findings challenge the conventional view on decentralization and problematize the widespread assumptions of its positive influence on climate mitigation and grid stability.
Once known as an example of state collapse, Somali territories today see a number of competing public administrations, which, as this book argues, depend on a dynamic trade sector for revenues. Riffing on Tilly’s idea that ‘war makes states,’ the authors argue instead that ‘trade makes states,’ that the facilitation and capture of commodity flows have been instrumental in making and unmaking state-projects across the Somali territories. The volume draws on multi-sited research of everyday economic life along trade corridors in Somali East Africa, including parts of Kenya and Ethiopia. It examines how government officials, informal traders, militias, local businessmen, international investors, and donors feed into systems of regulatory control in ports, at marketplaces, and along transport corridors. Contributions to the volume draw attention to the ingenuities of transnational Somali trade and the ‘politics of circulation,’ providing important insights into contemporary state formation on the margins of global supply chain capitalism.
In January 2023 the International Seabed Authority (ISA), an intergovernmental organization established under the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) granted already thirty contracts for exploration of Deep Seabed Mining, but exploitation has not started yet because ISA has not finalized its regulations, expected in 2025. This article intends to address to what extent is the current deep Seabed mining regime factoring risks and uncertainties in a just and sustainable manner in the current legal framework on environmental liability embedded in the green energy transition's processes with the EU as case study and inquiry if there are baseline or best practice to learn from. It unravels which type of precautionary approach fits and is just. Deep Seabed Mining is also a social justice, ethical dilemma demanding equitable and shared solutions to the benefit of current and future generations because activities of this kind can destroy ecosystems that can take decades to regenerate, if not causing irreversible damage. Law and technology, but also technology will be crucial as new methods guaranteeing an "environmentally benign Deep Seabed Mining" will determine how liability law will be shaped.
The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) has for four decades been considered by many to be one of the most important legislative achievements of international law. It is revered as a “constitution of the oceans”, providing the legal framework for the governance of the oceans. This volume explores how the UNCLOS is functioning in various complex settings, how it adapts to new, emerging developments, as well as how it interacts with other regulations, both within the law of the sea regime and outside. Engaging in themes such as law and order at sea, UNCLOS' interaction with human rights and the role of private actors, the book raises complex questions in the application, understanding, and enforcement of the convention and how it can be envisaged, interpreted, and used in a dynamic world. The volume also raises methodological questions, the answers to which may enhance the predictability and coherence of the law under UNCLOS and thus secure its role as the predominant and relevant system for legal governance at sea for many decades to come. As a contribution to ensuring the future relevance of UNCLOS, the book will be a valuable resource for scholars, diplomats, judges and other practitioners who are working with and interpreting the law of the sea and related issues of maritime law, migration law, human rights law and humanitarian law.
This report discusses the concept of governance, how to understand 'effective' governance, and a research plan for further studies of the effectiveness of and potential for improving governance at the regional and sub-regional level in the SEAwise regions (Baltic Sea, North Sea, Western Waters, and the Mediterranean Sea). The theoretical insights from the first two main parts inform and are merged into the research plan, forming the last part of the report. The work is based on the recognition that fisheries management in Europe is still struggling to deliver on its objectives relating to ecology, economy, and social considerations although improvements have been made over the last decades. On top of this, marine biodiversity and ecosystem integrity can be identified as pressing challenges, while climate change presents renewed uncertainties and risks.
Improved governance, appropriately designed for Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management (EBFM), is key to improving the system performance towards the societal objectives. Lack of appropriate measures towards cooperation between the EU, national, and regional levels has led to uncoordinated decision-making processes and prevented coherent management through the implementation and adoption of EU legislation, leading to lower than desired performance both of fisheries and environmental policies. Referring specifically to the involvement of stakeholders, the European Commission stresses the importance of transparency, cooperation, outreach, information, and inclusiveness in developing and implementing measures to ensure that all stakeholders, not least fishermen, have a say in the management process, and that their needs and concerns are considered (European Commission, 2023a). Improvement of what can broadly be defined as 'governance' is, thus, among the pathways that the European Commission has identified for improvements in the area.
The aim of this paper is to provide the foundations for the development of a spatial decision-support toolset that combines cumulative impacts and ecosystem service supply assessments to support what-if scenario analysis in a maritime spatial planning context. Specifically, a conceptual framework for a toolset has been designed in order to introduce a new approach for place-based assessments of change in relative ecosystem service supply in multiple services at a time due to changes in cumulative impacts. Central to the toolset are two pre-existing approaches for relative ecosystem service supply and cumulative impact assessments and tools that facilitate them. The tools take advantage of available data from various sources, including geodata and expert knowledge, and have already been proven to support maritime spatial planning in a real-world context. To test the new approach and demonstrate the outputs, an ecosystem service supply assessment was done manually using the two currently separate tools. The results of the test case ecosystem service supply assessment for the Gulf of Riga in the Baltic Sea are also presented in this paper and illustrate the assessment steps and data needs. Although presently the focus of the illustrative assessment is the Gulf of Riga, the toolset will be able to accommodate analysis of cumulative impacts and service supply of any location, leaving the scope of the assessment to be determined by the objectives of the assessment as well as data availability (i.e., geospatial data availability and extent of expert knowledge).
This report discusses the concept of governance, how to understand 'effective' governance, and a research plan for further studies of the effectiveness of and potential for improving governance at the regional and sub-regional level in the SEAwise regions (Baltic Sea, North Sea, Western Waters, and the Mediterranean Sea). The theoretical insights from the first two main parts inform and are merged into the research plan, forming the last part of the report. The work is based on the recognition that fisheries management in Europe is still struggling to deliver on its objectives relating to ecology, economy, and social considerations although improvements have been made over the last decades. On top of this, marine biodiversity and ecosystem integrity can be identified as pressing challenges, while climate change presents renewed uncertainties and risks.
Improved governance, appropriately designed for Ecosystem Based Fisheries Management (EBFM), is key to improving the system performance towards the societal objectives. Lack of appropriate measures towards cooperation between the EU, national, and regional levels has led to uncoordinated decision-making processes and prevented coherent management through the implementation and adoption of EU legislation, leading to lower than desired performance both of fisheries and environmental policies. Referring specifically to the involvement of stakeholders, the European Commission stresses the importance of transparency, cooperation, outreach, information, and inclusiveness in developing and implementing measures to ensure that all stakeholders, not least fishermen, have a say in the management process, and that their needs and concerns are considered (European Commission, 2023a). Improvement of what can broadly be defined as 'governance' is, thus, among the pathways that the European Commission has identified for improvements in the area.