Economic Considerations
Blue Economy in India: Policy Implementation and Its Impacts on Coastal Livelihoods View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Santarpana Choudhury
As the unparalleled opportunities of economic growth offered by marine areas began to be explored, coastal areas became contested spaces between agents of state vying for growth and the indigenous inhabitants trying to eke out a livelihood. In this scenario, the idea of a Blue Economy gained currency as a triple win solution for providing the means to sustainable economic growth, environmental conservation and livelihood opportunities for local communities. The narrative of Blue Economy has been successful in building an enviable alliance of sovereign governments, donor organisations, international bodies and INGOs, NGOs, and think tanks to realize the untapped marine potential. With India’s long coastline and huge natural resource base, Blue Economy is being touted as a much-desired catapult for the Indian economy. The objective of this paper is to study to what extent the policy has succeeded in delivering along the promised domains of growth, conservation, and local livelihood generation. This has been done by studying the emergence of Blue Economy discourse in India with the help of policy documents, laws and associated grey literature. To gauge the people’s response to the policy implementation, newspaper articles, online publications, environmental magazines were referred to. Primary research was conducted through online and telephonic interviews using a semi-structured interview schedule with different stakeholders, ranging from representatives of fisherfolk to academics to get a holistic picture. It was concluded that the top-down policy formulation has led to the perpetuation of conventional industries often at the cost of environmental sustainability, ecology, and marine livelihoods.
Financial Media Influence in Times of Crisis: Examining the Impact of COVID-19 on Chinese A-share IPOs and Investor Behaviour View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Yuhuang Lyu
This study investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Chinese A-share stock market and the role of financial media in shaping investor perceptions and behaviour during times of uncertainty. Recognizing the media's crucial role for uninformed investors, the research employs agenda-setting theory to explore reporting strategies and sentiment tendencies of financial media. The study analyses 5,988 news articles related to 239 IPOs in China during 2022, incorporating financial and non-financial variables. Sentiment analysis relies on Chinese word tokenization techniques and financial sentiment lexicons, involving text disassembly, keyword extraction, and sentiment value calculation. Empirical findings reveal a heightened negative sentiment in IPO news during uncertainty, particularly in news headlines. The COVID-19 pandemic is frequently cited in news, providing explanations for weak company performance before going public. Technology, electronics, intelligence, materials, energy, medical, automotive, and bio sectors receive substantial media attention according to keyword analysis. Notably, a positive correlation is observed between asset, revenue, first-day returns, issue price, and first-day turnover ratio with media attention, suggesting a potential bias toward larger, impactful companies. Despite increasing media attention on IPO overvaluation, regression analysis reveals no pandemic-induced impact on the relationship between media coverage and IPO underpricing or overvaluation. In summary, this research sheds light on the role of financial media reporting during uncertain times, offering insights into evolving media attention and sentiment toward IPO firms in the late pandemic period. The study's outcomes hold timely implications for academics, regulators, and practitioners, providing valuable understanding of media coverage dynamics and strategies.
Labor Exploitation as a Recurrent Feature in Contemporary Companies: A Qualitative Approach from Different Organizational Contexts in Peru View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Mario Marcello Pasco-Dalla-Porta, Levy Del Aguila Marchena
Over the last few decades, neoliberal policies have produced deep transformations in the world of work. The drive for increased productivity and profit maximization has led to processes of labor flexibilization, compartmentalization, and deunionization. Exploitative patterns inherent in capitalist work relationships have persisted and even intensified, especially in emerging countries. Paradoxically, despite the rhetoric from many governments and firms about defending workers’ rights, the reality in many organizational contexts includes extended working days, unpaid overtime, and limited (if any) labor benefits. Despite the ongoing expansion of neoliberalism’s effects on work relationships, labor exploitation has received little attention from scholars focusing on organizational contexts. This paper integrates critical theory, applied ethics, and organization studies to explore the dynamics of exploitation in organizational contexts, including its dimensions and mechanisms of reproduction, feedback, and resistance. The research design included conducting 53 in-depth interviews with workers from large and medium companies in several key industries in Peru. The investigation provides solid evidence of various manifestations of work exploitation, including unfair compensation, extended workloads, and unpaid overtime. It also explains the variety of mechanisms employed by managerial staff to reproduce and reinforce exploitative relationships. Furthermore, it examines the mechanisms of resistance used by workers, both direct and indirect, to challenge these relationships. In neoliberal times, exploitation has adopted increasingly sophisticated forms, which makes it difficult to identify and criticize.
Is Development Aid a Salient Issue among the Canadian Public?
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Dominic Hakim Silvio
Development aid has always been an issue of interest to many scholars. Considerable research has been dedicated to its study and from various perspectives. This paper contributes to the literature on the salience of development aid. It argues that even though it appears clear that development aid is not a salient issue to Canadians, it would be harsh to conclude that it is not. Thus, more research is needed.
