This paper explores the relationship between trust and control by investigating the direct and indirect effects of different types of trust on company performance. A survey of small and medium size firms in Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina is used to demonstrate how the level of trust entrepreneurs have in institutions and business partners influence the choice of governance mechanisms that coordinate economic activities among actors. The paper shows that institutional environment in Slovenia generates more trust which enables actors to base their business relationships on trust rather than contract. In addition, when actors rely on trust it is usually institutional trust rather than interpersonal trust. In contrast, Bosnia with weaker institutional environment generates less trust leading actors to base their economic relationships on contract. However, when trust is used in Bosnia as a basis of business relationships it is likely to be centred on interpersonal trust. These results have important implications for the understanding of the process by which trust affects economic performance. The use of institutional trust as a basis for governance mechanism may lead to increased economic performance of companies due to the inclusive nature of sociability patterns and tie formation since institutions generalize trust beyond a specific set of exchange partners. The use of interpersonal trust may limit its economic potential due to its reliance on strong ties embedded within cohesive groups marked with closure.
COBISS.SI-ID: 24370525
The author explores the intersection of two momentous changes in the late 20th century: the fall of communism and the rise of globalization. Her focus is on the influence of networks, states, culture and politics in explaining the cross-national and cross-organizational variation in the liberalization to foreign capital in eleven European postsocialist countries in the first decade after 1989. The study reveals that inflows of foreign capital after the collapse of Communism resulted not from the withdrawal of states from the economy, as is commonly expected, but rather from the active involvement of postsocialist states. Caught between international neoliberal pressures and domestic protectionist efforts, the states institutionalized, to varying degrees, the demand for FDI. Moreover, the study points to significant departures from the traditional economic risk and return model and shows how both investors and hosts rely on social networks, institutions, politics, and cultural understandings to make decisions about investment. In doing so, they employ practical rather than rational economic strategies to deal with the true uncertainty that plagues the postsocialist environment. Using a wide array of quantitative and qualitative data sources and analytical techniques, the book underscores the social foundations of market transition and reveals how social forces not only constrain economic transformations but also make them possible.
COBISS.SI-ID: 26980445
The paper is concerned with the central question in the ever growing literature on trust, namely, what is the effect of trust on economic performance and what are the causal mechanisms through which trust affects performance. In the first part, we consider the problem of trust and show that it is important to distinguish between three types of trust. The typology includes institutional, interpersonal and network trust. In the second part of the paper, we analyze the causal mechanisms that are in place when each type of trust affects performance. We demonstrate that each type of trust affects performance by employing a different causal mechanism. Interpersonal trust leads to increased performance by encouraging co-operation among actors. Network trust improves performance by enabling co-ordination among actors. institutional trust exerts a positive influence by facilitating the participation of actors in economic transactions. Distinctions between different types of trust and the mechanisms through which they affect performance are not only essential for understanding the relationship between trust and performance but also for formulating better policies for economic development.
COBISS.SI-ID: 24679517
The chapter is a result of the authors involvement in the international research project, which included 12 countries over the period from 1999-2002 and resulted in the international data base on social capital and active citizenship. The chapter by Iglič and Font presents the results of the comparative analysis of social networks with a focus on their political capacity. Political capacity comprises all those network characteristics which contribute to the citizens participation in the conventional as well as more recent, informal and structureless forms of political participation. Among the most important network aspects that have a significant impact on political participation are: network size, strength of social ties and frequency of political communication. The analysis reveals a clear distinction between the north and western European countries, on the one hand, and south and east European countries, on the other hand. Citizens in the former groups of countries have large and sparse networks, and they frequently engage in political communication with their co-members regardless of the type of social context. Very differently, citizens in the latter group of countries are embedded in small, dense and isolated network structures and they engage in political communication only when they meet in the explicitly political context. Authors conclude that different types of networks allow for the emergence of different forms of political action, which Pippa Norris termed as "politics of choice" and "politics of loyalty".
COBISS.SI-ID: 25797213
The article starts by discussing several refugee law issues from national legislation, supported by the case law. Special attention is given to the comparison of national legislation with the corresponding EU legal sources and other international standards. On the basis of qualitative assessment of national jurisprudence the author provides an evaluation of the experiences and effects of all relevant Slovenian courts in the construction of (case) law on refugees.The findings suggest that a major challenge for adjudication on refugee law, which is an example of a very complex and global legal discipline, established within the multi-level constitutionalism, is to improve the institutional quality of the judiciary. Author then selects six priorities for building the managerial capacities of the judiciary which should help them in dealing with the increasing number of important international refugee law issues, so that the integrity of the asylum law, the harmonisation of EU law and the protective character of international refugee law is guaranteed.
COBISS.SI-ID: 25227357