JournalTOCs

Journal of Behavioural Economics and Social Systems
Number of Followers: 2

This is an Open Access Journal

Open Access journal
ISSN (Print) 2652-2896 - ISSN (Online) 2652-290X
Published by Aalborg University

[18 journals]

Australian modern-day slavery: a social systems perspective
- Authors: James Guthrie , John Dumay, Grant Michelson, Tracey Dodd
  Abstract: Modern slavery breaches the fundamental human right of freedom, and eliminating it will require exceptional cooperation between people. Further, the complexity and opacity of global supply chains make modern slavery a real risk for companies that engage in large-scale international production and distribution. Specific sectors like electronics, hospitality and retail are at the most risk. Many Australian companies are implicated in modern slavery, and in response, the Australian Government has acted to address modern slavery in Australian and global supply chains through legislative means. We review these developments nationally and internationally, including Australia's Modern Slavery Act 2018, along with evidence that since the Act was implemented, reporting from companies has been uneven, with many not even meeting minimum disclosure expectations. However, this should be unsurprising due to widespread opposition by large companies in the lead-up to passing the Act. Moreover, a national effort can only have a limited impact. Researchers at Macquarie and Adelaide Universities explore how adopting a social system perspective might strengthen the interrelationships between governments, companies, civil society, and academia and how that perspective might shed new light on developments in theory and practice that could help to eliminate modern slavery. We firmly endorse this perspective, which is underpinned by a cooperative approach to building social systems that work to eliminate modern slavery.
  PubDate: 2022-12-01
  DOI: 10.54337/ojs.bess.v4i2.7746
  Issue No: Vol. 4, No. 2 (2022)
Modern slavery disclosures in mining: a comparison of large UK and
Australian companies
- Authors: Katherine L. Christ, Roger Burritt, Heather Prider
  Abstract: With growing interest in eradication of modern slavery in operations and supply chains the purpose of the paper is to explore disclosures of the top ten listed mining companies in the UK and Australia. Institutional theory provides the foundation for a first examination of comparative modern slavery disclosures in these two countries, at the time one with and one without disclosure legislation. Based on qualitative thematic analysis, major results indicate the UK Modern Slavery Act 2015 to be a catalyst for disclosures made by the sample of UK mining companies, whereas in Australia where no modern slavery legislation was in place, normative and mimetic institutional pressure is not viewed as important and the companies seemed underprepared for impending legislative changes. The paper concludes that transparency based legislation on modern slavery can provide a powerful coercive influence for change, strengthening other forms of normative and mimetic pressure.
  PubDate: 2022-12-01
  DOI: 10.54337/ojs.bess.v4i2.7747
  Issue No: Vol. 4, No. 2 (2022)
It's not rocket science: Humanities, arts and social sciences in the
space sector
- Authors: Basil Tucker, Hank C. Alewine
  Abstract: The space industry is traditionally associated with STEM disciplines, but humanities, arts and social sciences have plenty to offer to the modern space sector. Space accounting scholars Dr Basil Tucker and Dr Hank Alewine investigate the potential of HASS to address the unique and unprecedented challenges of the New Space Age.
  PubDate: 2022-12-01
  DOI: 10.54337/ojs.bess.v4i2.7748
  Issue No: Vol. 4, No. 2 (2022)
Decision-making under uncertainty: A Brehmerian approach
- Authors: Erik Bjurström, Bjørn T. Bakken
  Abstract: This article discusses the contributions of the late Professor Berndt Brehmer with an emphasis on dynamic decision making under uncertainty. This concept has a long history as ambiguity implied in selective attention, later emphasised by prospect theory, which incorporates a time dimension. Time may be a solution to problems of uncertainty, not least the timing of decisions with each other and with environmental developments. This approach sees decision making, from a process perspective, ultimately asking whether it makes sense to frame decisions as specific events or as an expression of an ongoing design process where the possibility spaces are expanded rather than limited to decision making among pre-existing alternatives. A dynamic view of the time dimension also encourages decision making as learning through probing actions and negotiation and collaboration, as well as with the environment. As much as this may sound like a recipe for managing second-track processes, it is also a recipe for managing through direct interaction, albeit a less-than-objective one understood through the biased perception of boundedly rational actors.
  PubDate: 2022-12-01
  DOI: 10.54337/ojs.bess.v4i2.7749
  Issue No: Vol. 4, No. 2 (2022)
How cybernetics explains behavioural tensegrity and its advantages for
society
- Authors: Shann Turnbull
  Abstract: This article explains the crucial role of the paradoxical dual contrary~complementary but interdependent properties of tensegrity. It is a neglected phenomenon in understanding how living things and their social organisations can become self-regulating and self-governing. Tensegrity is a defining feature of the architecture of nature. It is the driver of evolution. Organisations that include tensegrity into a polycentric self-governing process identified by Ostrom establish a basis from which to form an ecological form of governance for citizens to self-govern the sustainability of their host bioregions for the global common good. This requires engineering system scientists working with social scientists in educating students to become governance architects to custom design ecological firms. Research opportunities are identified in six hypotheses that include fundamental aspects of the universe.
  PubDate: 2022-12-01
  DOI: 10.54337/ojs.bess.v4i2.7750
  Issue No: Vol. 4, No. 2 (2022)
Providing evidence of the impact of university research
- Authors: Christian Nielsen
  Abstract: This research note aims to aid university researchers in connecting with the notion of impact, a crucial element in achieving the third mission of universities. To make an impact is essentially a question of making a difference and influencing someone or something. Funding bodies, governments and taxpayers seek value for their investments in research, particularly value for money, whether academia likes it or not. Therefore, for universities, the impact is no longer merely a question of the number of scientific publications, building a community of interest around a subject or counting patents. Instead, impact now emphasises value delivery to stakeholders; innovative research is required to achieve this. This note surveys the literature on research impact and presents guidelines for how to conceptualise and provide evidence of the impact of research. Links between outputs, outcomes and impacts and how they are applied to communicating the evidence of overall research impact are clarified. Finally, we identify policy implications for the value-for-money perspective currently emphasised by funding bodies.
  PubDate: 2022-12-01
  DOI: 10.54337/ojs.bess.v4i2.7751
  Issue No: Vol. 4, No. 2 (2022)
How COVID-19 and climate change challenge economic assumptions
- Authors: Ian McAuley
  Abstract: Classification is a necessary aspect of public administration, but our regular contributor Ian McAuley explains why false dichotomies – such as the presumed trade-off between health and economic activity during the pandemic – and outdated categories of economic capital can have distorting and deleterious results.
  PubDate: 2022-12-01
  DOI: 10.54337/ojs.bess.v4i2.7752
  Issue No: Vol. 4, No. 2 (2022)
Second Track case study: OECD Working Party on SMEs and Entrepreneurship
- Authors: Olga Bodrova
  Abstract: The importance of SMEs to national economies and international trade was not reflected in the policy deliberations of major international economic institutions such as the OECD and World Bank until the early 1990s, when an early example of the Second Track process changed the status quo. Olga Bodrova recounts the origins of OECD’s leading body on SME policies with insight from those who were there.
  PubDate: 2022-12-01
  DOI: 10.54337/ojs.bess.v4i2.7753
  Issue No: Vol. 4, No. 2 (2022)