Business Commons^™

Examining The Use Of Focus Groups In Economic Development Initiatives, Oscar T. Mcknight, Ronald Paugh, Brian Nestor, Shawn Yambor

Oscar T McKnight Ph.D.

City officials often use focus groups in economic development. However, findings indicate that group dynamics can threaten validity when seeking consensus. Data suggest a strong rebound effect for participants to return to their earlier pre-focus group assessment beliefs. Introduced is the ‘BUCKS’ Planning Model for facilitating city economic development initiatives.

Explaining The Persistence Of The Informal Economy In Central And Eastern Europe: Some Lessons From Moscow, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

To evaluate critically the competing explanations for the persistence of the informal economy that variously represent this sphere as a residue, by-product, alternative and/or complement to the formal economy, this paper reports a survey of livelihood practices in 313 Moscow households. The finding is that the majority of households primarily depend on informal work to secure their livelihood and that although each and every theorisation is wholly valid with regard to particular types of informal work and/or specific population groups, no one articulation fully captures the diverse nature and multiple meanings of the informal economy in contemporary Moscow. The paper …

Theorizing The Self-Service Economy: A Case Study Of Do-It-Yourself (Diy) Activity, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

Recently, it has become increasingly recognised that self-servicing is a growing rather than declining phenomenon. To explain this, a range of competing theories have emerged which variously portray those engaged in self-servicing either as rational economic actors, dupes, seekers of self-identity, or simply doing so out of necessity or choice. This paper evaluates critically the validity of these rival explanations. To do this, the extent of, and reasons for, self-servicing in the domestic realm is empirically evaluated through an internet survey of 5,500 people living in the city of Sheffield in England. This resulted in 418 valid responses (a 7.6 …

Jde 2012 Ghana Motives.Pdf, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

Evaluating Competing Theories Of Informal Entrepreneurship: Some Lessons From Ukraine, Colin C. Williams, Sara Nadin, Peter Rodgers

Colin C Williams

From Market Hegemony To Diverse Economies: Evaluating The Plurality Of Labour Practices In Ukraine, Colin C. Williams

Colin C Williams

Drawing inspiration from a burgeoning corpus of scholars who have begun to question the narrative of impending market hegemony, this paper seeks to further advance this emergent ‘diverse economies’ literature by constructing a conceptual framework for representing the multiple labour practices in economies. Transcending the simplistic market/non-market dichotomy, this conceptualises multiple kinds of labour existing along a spectrum from market-oriented to non-market oriented practices, which is cross-cut by another spectrum ranging from wholly monetised to wholly non-monetised practices. The resultant portrayal of a plurality of labour practices that seamlessly merge into each other is then applied to understanding the types …

Evaluating The Persistence Of Selfprovisioning In Central And Eastern Europe: Some Evidence From Post-Soviet Ukraine, Colin C. Williams, Sara Nadin

Colin C Williams