Browsing Department of Business and Politics (DBP) by Year Published
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The Importance of Critical Mass and the Consequences of Scarcity for Television MarketsBerg, Christian Edelvold (Frederiksberg, 2013)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This thesis “As a matter of size” demonstrates that size does indeed matter. Television markets have common characteristics across small and large markets, but the implications of these characteristics are varied due to the difference in size of economy and population. The influence of variable size is a consequence of the economic conditions of scarcity (limited resources) and thus the relative critical mass of the media market. Thus, the influence of size is an expression of the television market's inability to operate on normal market terms for provisioning particular types of services. Larger markets (measured by economy and population) have a higher potential of securing such content commercially. But all markets suffer from challenges in securing provisioning of original domestic content. Market intervention and public subsidy play an important role when it comes to securing domestic production. Political intervention can to some extent counteract the effects of the common characteristics, by changing market conditions through political regulation or subsidisation. The thesis shows that the European television markets mainly operate under conditions of oligopoly, usually in the form of different types of duopolies. The effect of size on market concentration is not as unambiguous as estimated in the literature, as the scope and extent of market intervention influence this quite intensely. Moreover, the study shows that television markets are dominated by relatively few, usually local, media companies and the multinational companies in most markets currently do not pose a real danger - but there are signs of a development which requires further research. Public service companies remain relatively strong in the markets studied, and continue to play an important role as a counterweight to national and international commercial competitors. Different markets require different policies that take into account the conditions in that specific market, in order to achieve a certain desirable merited effect. The thesis supports the view that a "one size fits all" policy across several markets when it comes to media regulation, risks not yielding the warranted results. Markets with different conditions, exposed to the same type of regulation, might have overall positive effects, but could also easily have a very negative impact if the conditions in a particular market do not fit with the intent of the policy. It is therefore far from certain that a "one size fits all" regulation will have the intended uniform effect on the affected market across several markets. This is especially true for markets that are challenged by having both a small population and a small economy. In a sense it is a paradox that the interest at European level in fair competition and equal opportunity for success can lead to different conditions of competition in a domestic market, as players may be subject to various conditions (in a way it can also be regarded as a consequence of domestic policy interventions), where the domestic players can face a strong international player, and as a result of the internal market and the Audiovisual Media Services directive, can achieve a competitive advantage, for example in relation to choosing the most lenient advertising rules. The analytical work of the thesis can substantiate claims that size has a significant effect and that there are concrete policy implications depending on size of economy and population, due to scarcity of resources in the individual market. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8629 Files in this item: 1
Christian_Edelvold_Berg.pdf (3.130Mb) -
A Neoinstitutional Analysis of the Emerging Organizational Field of Renewable Energy in ChinaHøyrup Christensen, Nis (Frederiksberg, 2013)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Today, China is the world leading investor in renewable energy. At the heart of this effort lies China’s ability to shape markets through industrial policies. Through a neoinstitutional theoretical perspective this dissertation views China’s efforts within renewable energy as the emergence of a new organizational field. Despite the importance of organizational fields as a key concept in the neoinstitutional literature, there is a lack of studies on exactly how they emerge. Throughout four articles this dissertation scrutinizes therefore the emergence of the field of renewable energy in China and the mechanisms driving this emergence. Firstly, the relation between state and market is examined, and it is argued that Chinese state interventions in markets, for instance through subsidies, are based in deeply rooted historic grounds. Thus, the article explains the general context in which the Party-state handles subsidized markets, like renewable energy. Secondly, the specific development of the idea of sustainable development, and how it evolves into an institutional logic of its own, is analysed. It is around this institutional logic that renewable energy emerges as a field. The key mechanism in play is the idea work of the Party state by which sustainable development is positioned in the Partystate discourse. Thirdly, subsidization of renewable energy in China is examined as an important feature of the increasing institutionalization of the organizational field. It is shown how negotiation between companies and Party-state is the vital mechanism by which subsidies are determined.... URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8627 Files in this item: 1
Nis_Høyrup_Christensen.pdf (1.412Mb) -
Ougaard, Morten (Frederiksberg, 2013)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper is about Poulantzas, historical materialism, international relations, and the current crisis. My purpose is to discuss how some Poulantzian theoretical contributions can be applied to the study of subject matters that are the focus of academic fields such as International Relations (IR), International Political Economy (IPE), International Politics, World Politics and others. I deliberately abstain from singling out any of these disciplines or fields or labels and from trying to define them precisely, because one of my arguments is that historical materialism (HM) is a research program2 that contains its own theoretical definition of the object under study. This object, with inspiration from Poulantzas’ notion of the imperialist chain and his general theory of society, I will define as the global social formation or for short, world society. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8678 Files in this item: 1
Morten_Ougaard.pdf (214.2Kb) -
An Examination of Government Policies and Company Initiatives in Denmark and the UKBrown, Dana; Steen Kundsen, Jette (, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The literature explains the link between CSR and domestic institutions in terms of the presence of national institutional complementarities as a key determinant of a company’s CSR initiatives. One set of explanations sees CSR as fitting in with domestic institutional structures as either `substituting’ or ‘mirroring’ government policies. A second set of explanations views CSR as driven by variations in competitive needs across countries, reflecting in particular the degree of international market exposure. Both sets of literature look at the level of CSR in companies from different countries. Focusing on the UK and Denmark we study the link between CSR and domestic institutions by examining the content of both government CSR policies and company CSR initiatives. We find that CSR can be a substitute for government regulation, but in contrast to 2 existing literatures we show that this is more likely in the context of host countries rather than in home countries. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8434 Files in this item: 1
Brown_Knudsen_2012_2.pdf (348.0Kb) -
What Would it Mean to be an Artisan of Finance?Thompson, Grahame (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper confronts the question of what a revitalized financial sector might look like if this were to be reconfigured so as to reproduce first an artisanal like persona for the financial analyst and craft like organizational structure for financial businesses, and secondly if this were to be re-territorialized so that it acted like a partisan rather than, as at present, like a disembedded footloose structure of ‘global finance’. Initially the analysis is pitched at a rather abstract and theoretical level – pulling together artisans, nomads and partisans and tracing their intellectual lineages. But the chapter ends with three very concrete illustrations of actual financial relations in practice that meet some of the criteria for being both artisanal and partisanal. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8458 Files in this item: 1
Grahame_Thompson.pdf (1.310Mb) -
Government Policies on Corporate Social Responsibility in Denmark and the UKBrown, Danna; Steen Knudsen, Jette (, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Do government policies on CSR in the UK and Denmark reflect distinct domestic political-economic institutional differences as predicted by the Varieties of Capitalism approach, or do they display new forms of governance that primarily address the needs of global businesses? We move beyond the management literature and the literature on public management of particular environmental and sustainability programs to explore a broader government agenda for CSR through a political science lens. We develop a set of expectations that follow from the literature on domestic institutions as well as from the literature that takes into account the role of governments in interaction with transnational actors. We find evidence for a substitution objective in the initial CSR programs of the Danish and British governments (and a mirror objective in Denmark). However, we also find that globalization has motivated governments to use their regulatory authorities pertaining to CSR policies for purposes beyond enhancement of welfare state functions. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8433 Files in this item: 1
Brown-Knudsen_2012.pdf (431.0Kb) -
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Security sector reform in Sierra LeoneAlbrecht, Peter Alexander (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The thesis argues that security sector reform (SSR) has failed according to its own ambition of establishing a ‘centrally governed state’. A primary reason for this failure is found in the concept of authority that state-building projects and much of the academic work that underpins it. Since the late 1990s, internationally supported efforts to make and consolidate peace in Sierra Leone have been synonymous with SSR. Support was given by the United Kingdom (UK) in particular to contain and ultimately overhaul the armed forces, which staged two coups in 1992 and 1997. Support was also provided to the central government to institute national security coordination and intelligence organizations, and to reestablish the Sierra Leone Police (SLP). The collapsed, but internationally recognized state was to be rebuilt, and security was seen as not only a prerequisite for this process to begin, but its very foundation. The first question of the thesis revolves around why the western universalist state concept came to guide SSR in Sierra Leone, and why it was considered of such fundamental importance to stability internationally. The second question revolves around how to conceptualize authority when actors such as paramount and lesser chiefs that may neither be categorized as state nor non-state are the primary makers of order in rural areas of the country. Speaking of the weakness or failure of a state is a way of describing what it is not, namely a centrally governed set of institutions that is able to make order within the territorial space that defines it. A focus on the state as an analytical concept does not, however, tell us much about how order is then made, and by whom it is made in Sierra Leone. The thesis rethinks what authority is in a way that does not privilege ‘the state’ as an analytical category, a tendency that has dominated much policy and academic thinking. The thesis’ empirical basis of doing so is data relating to international policy-making processes, interviews among the key actors of Sierra Leone’s SSR process, and ethnographic fieldwork in Peyima, a small diamond mining town in Kamara Chiefdom, Kono District. In a view of authority tied to ‘the state’ lies the conceptualization of a political entity, a bordered power container, which stands above, is detached from, and at the same time encompasses, controls and regulates society. In UK support of Sierra Leone’s statebuilding efforts, the practices of traditional leaders and their productive effects in the justice and security field, and enforcing order, were acknowledged. However, failure to respond adequately to their central role in governing Sierra Leone’s countryside came in two ways, both of which are related to concepts of the western universalist state that continue to guide SSR. The first failure was embedded in misrecognizing the resilience and productivity of local actors and institutions, and their authority to appropriate, interpret, translate and above all shape the elements of what was offered through SSR. The second failure came in not recognizing the hybrid nature of all actors in the justice and security field, based on the fact that they draw authority to act within the field from numerous sources across physical and symbolic space, in local and national domains. Hybridity is integral to state formation in Sierra Leone. It is foundational, and is historically grounded in the colonial era, articulating an infinite mixture of various forms of authority (from state legislation to status of autochthony and secret society membership). Inevitably, this order was reproduced by SSR, even if the aim of the international actors who supported this process of change had been to eradicate it. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8549 Files in this item: 1
Peter_Alexander_Albrecht.pdf (8.787Mb) -
The Case of U.S. Chambers of CommerceCrawford, Brett (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Much of the organizational institutionalism literature suggests that the phenomenon of interests is a central construct, however, portrays interests in an overly deterministic, rational, and liberal way. In this thesis, I challenge those views and suggest that interests are a complex and interdependent socially constructed phenomenon. Accordingly, interests represent an actor’s recognition, perceived importance, and participation in a number of figurations and social games. Illustrated through the institution of U.S. chambers of commerce, I explore how chambers of commerce have withstood a changing American culture to become both the world’s largest business federation and public-private partnership. Moreover, even as the United States represents the most liberal of liberal market economies, chambers of commerce represent a context where capitalists have set aside market competition and unified their interests to become one of the largest and most influential institutions in the world. Following a brief introduction of interests and chambers of commerce, this thesis begins with the first paper, which is a critical review of the phenomenon of interests within the organizational institutionalism literature. Tracing the conceptual variety of both the origins and functions of interests in institutional studies, I illustrate how an overly deterministic and rational view of interests is problematic. The critical review continues with a discussion of my critiques of the extant literature followed by an introduction of a less rational and calculative approach to interests by coupling Bourdieu’s (1998) conceptualization of interests with Elias’s (1978) sociology emphasizing figurations and social games. The three subsequent empirical papers test this approach to interests on macro-, meso-, and micro-levels of the institution of chambers of commerce. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8452 Files in this item: 1
Brett_Crawford.pdf (9.887Mb) -
The European Commission; University of Sussex; Department of Business and Politics; DBP; Department of Business and Politics; DBP (, 2011)[More information][Less information]
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8636 Files in this item: 1
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[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper reports the findings of the Danish case study on public debate, technology assessment and governance of xenotransplantation (XTP) conducted for the CIT-PART project (www.cit-part.at). The report is based on analysis of a range of different kinds of documents (newspaper reports, policy documents, research literature etc.) and 13 qualitative interviews conducted with persons engaged in different manners in the debates about XTP in Denmark such as scientists, regulators, politicians or technology assessment (TA) practitioners. The interviews were carried out in the period between November 2009 and September 2010. Furthermore, qualitative data material from an older study on public perceptions of biotechnology from 1999/2000 has briefly been revisited. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8430 Files in this item: 1
Janus_Hansen.pdf (497.7Kb) -
Strandsbjerg, Jeppe (Frederiksberg, 2011)[More information][Less information]
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8290 Files in this item: 1
World_of_Warcraft_ISA11_2_.pdf (153.4Kb) -
The European Commission; The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC); INGINEUS; Department of Business and Politics; DBP; Department of Business and Politics; DBP (, 2011)[More information][Less information]
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8637 Files in this item: 2
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Danske og internationale udviklingstendenserSchulze, Christiane; Greve, Carsten (Frederiksberg, 2011)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Kontraktbaseret styring har været på den politiske agenda i OECD landene siden de tidlige 1980’erne og i dag er kontrakter et helt centralt element i den moderne regering ((Ejersbo & Greve 2005: 62, Greve 2008a: 4). Internationalt var det især med Reagon-regeringen i USA og Thatcher-regeringen i Storbritannien, at der blev rettet interesse mod kontraktstyring1. Denne udvikling bør ses i lyset af New Public Management (NPM) reformerne, som blev skyllet ind over OECD landene siden 1980’erne (Fortin 2000, Kettl 2000, Bouckaert og Pollitt 2004). NPM kan overordnet forstås som ”brug af ledelsesinspiration fra den private sektor og [som] brug af markedsmekanismer”(Greve 2003). Ved siden af privatisering og deregulering iagttages kontrakter som et determinerende element i NPM (Fortin 2000:1). Kontrakter kan helt grundlæggende defineres som en aftale mellem bestiller og leverandør, der angiver vilkårene for levering af en service eller et produkt (Domberger 1998:12). Kontrakter er dog ikke bare en entydig formel aftale, der forstås på samme måde af enhver aktør. Tværtimod er kontrakter også afhængige af læsernes perspektiv såvel som omgivelsens normer, traditioner og legale rammer. Den er derved ikke uafhængig af de institutioner, som eksisterer i omverdenen og en kontrakt kan have forskellige betydninger i forskellige kulturer og lande. Desuden bliver kontrakten også selv en institution, der skaber en helt bestemt måde at omgås med hinanden, som adskiller sig fra de mere traditionelle hierarkiske styringsformer. Sidst men ikke mindst er kontraktens form også afgørende for, hvilken form for samarbejde og styring der vælges til og fra. En kontrakt er således langt fra et neutralt styringsværktøj, men påvirker tværtimod aktivt organisationernes organisering og styringsform. Det er derfor, at denne rapport skal belyse, hvorledes kontraktstyring i både eksterne og interne relationer af den offentlige sektor blev introduceret, hvilke udfordringer og ændringer det har medført for offentlige og private, samt hvordan det har påvirket forholdet mellem staten og samfundet... URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8383 Files in this item: 1
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A Market-Based Alternative to Government?Hodge, Graeme; Greve, Carsten (Frederiksberg, 2011)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: One of the paradoxes of the past few decades has been the continuity and even growth of infrastructure Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) despite the loud voices of critics and harsh judgments of some academics. Indeed, there is little doubt about the success of PPPs judging on the basis of increasing global interest, the frequency of use in countries such as the United Kingdom or Australia, or by the spectacular delivery of timely new infrastructure. There has been considerable work undertaken to date on the multiple meanings of PPP more generally, on the multiple disciplinary languages spoken by commentators and on the evaluation challenges faced by those interested in assessing PPPs as projects or activities. There has been less work undertaken, however, on the meanings given to how PPP has been judged as ‘successful’ by implementing governments. Indeed, the criteria on which governments might judge PPP as a success story seems to be inherently ambiguous and as politically oriented as it is oriented towards more traditional utilitarian policy goals concerned with project delivery or efficiency. In view of the continuity of PPPs post-GFC, the very nature of ‘PPP success’ needs serious rethinking. This paper explores the notion of ‘success’ for PPP and argues that short of embarrassing and large scale corruption or widespread incompetence, PPP and PPP projects are inevitably judged as ‘successful’ in government. This is not only because the PPP concept itself is so wonderfully amorphous and ambiguous, but because each strand of PPP has multiple goals. Infrastructure PPPs for example, have fifteen or so different goals. The criteria for success are therefore multi-faceted and themselves incorporate the very goals of government itself. It is inevitable that PPPs are seen by government to help create public value as well as private value. The paper uses theories of policy success and evaluation studies to assess how ‘success’ is interpreted. The paper concludes that many of the claims for PPP success and failure are therefore, to an extent, self defining exercises. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8573 Files in this item: 1
Greve_2011_c.pdf (320.9Kb) -
The European Commission; INGINEUS; The Nordic Institute for Studies in Innovation, Research and Education (NIFU); Department of Business and Politics; DBP; Department of Business and Politics; DBP (, 2011)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The main objective of WP9 was to provide insights into inter-sectoral differences in drivers, degree and patterns of global innovation network formation. Three different sectors, each representing their own category in the influential Pavitt (1984) taxonomy, are chosen as cases. Thus, the WP provided insights into GIN formation in each of these sectors on their own and, by way of comparative analysis, lifted the analysis to a more general European level perspective. The main research questions were: What GIN patterns are forming in the selected sectors, and to what extent are these influenced (driven, constrained) by contextual conditions specific to these sectors? The point of departure for this work package was the recognition that sectors diverge with respect to knowledge, cumulativeness and opportunity conditions. Existing empirical work e.g. show that the “global footprints” of different industries diverge according to the degree of tacitness and complexity of involved knowledge; according to degree of modularity of the product; and with the distribution of actors and environments globally which can be identified and towards which relevant linkages may be formed. Thus, different sectors face different tensions between centrifugal and centripetal forces of internationalization; which result in different patterns of international search, sourcing and collaboration. Understanding these are critical to the formulation of innovation policy in a context of globalization, as the patterns of GINs forming will determine home and host implications. National and EU level innovation policy must simultaneously account for the firm level need to interact and use the most competent and cost-effective partners world-wide; while ensuring that the linkages formed at this level strengthen rather than hollow out innovative capabilities at those same national and EU levels. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8635 Files in this item: 1
haakonsson2011_wp9 report.pdf (3.408Mb) -
Some Lessons from Scandinavia and AustraliaGreve, Carsten; Hodge, Graeme (Frederiksberg, 2011)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper examines the transparency of public-private partnerships (PPPs). The key question is “How has transparency and accountability been implemented in PPPs?”.PPPs in infrastructure have been presented as enabling synergy and as a major alternative to previous contracting out techniques. These partnerships have most usually involved the preferential use of private finance, highly complex ‘bundled’ infrastructure delivery contract arrangements and new governance and accountability assumptions. Risk management is also particularly important to PPPs. Contracts between the governments and partnering private firms, however, have also been more complex and have not necessarily lead to simple synergy, but to more negotiations and governance structures. One ongoing concern from critics has been the accusation of illegitimacy due to the use by governments of these contracts to hold project information secret, rather than providing details of the deals to citizens. This paper first presents the transparency concept as it relates to modern day infrastructure PPPs. Second, the paper discusses how transparency and PPPs are related, and suggests a typology of transparency based on degree on openness and phases of the PPP process. Third, the paper examines empirical evidence on transparency elements in PPP contracts and governance structures based on two cases from Scandinavia and Australia. Fourth, the paper concludes by observing how different transparency dimensions relate to the different phases in a PPP project, including the important point about the contract institution that defines a PPP. The paper also concludes by suggesting some ways forward to improve transparency in future PPPs to enhance legitimacy. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8572 Files in this item: 1
Greve_2011_b.pdf (209.1Kb) -
The Case of the Executive Master of Public Governance Program in Copenhagen, Denmark: A co-operation between University of Copenhagen and Copenhagen Business SchoolGreve, Carsten (Frederiksberg, 2011)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper gives an introduction to the Executive Master of Public Governance degree program in Copenhagen, Denmark – a joint effort by University of Copenhagen and Copenhagen Business School aided by Aalborg University. The degree program itself began its first intake of executive students in August 2009. The average age of participants is 45 years. By the summer of 2011, the Copenhagen MPG program had enrolled 500+ public managers from Denmark as executive master students. In order to understand the context of the program, the paper gives an introduction to the background of the establishment of the program which was a result of a government reform – the Quality Reform – agreed and also funded partly by the Danish Parliament in 2008. The second part of the paper describes the organization and purpose of the program. The third part presents the content of the degree program. The paper ends by pointing to some preliminary lessons learned and future directions for the program. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8571 Files in this item: 1
Greve_2011_a.pdf (170.8Kb) -
Expatriates´ Identity Work in Reverse Knowledge TransferFeldt, Liv Egholm (Frederiksberg, 2011)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: In the last decade, researchers have shown that MNCs need to reverse knowledge transfer to secure their competitiveness in the global market. Lately this has been studied through re/expatriates. This study presents two exemplary cases from a study of 64 interviews conducted in 5 of the largest Danish MNCs. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, to understand the role identity work plays in the ability and willingness of expatriates to learn and transfer knowledge. Second, to introduce Life Course Theory as an important methodological contribution with which to capture the entangled relationship between agency and structure within reverse knowledge transfer. Third, to develop and extend the current theoretical and methodological frame that govern the research of knowledge transfer. The present study indicates that institutionally generated organisational frames and work organising practices develop and feed certain power structures and communities, which influence the possibility of agency and as a result reverse knowledge transfer. The findings of this study stress that: 1) power is as an important productive force in identity work: consequently, it has the ability both to hinder and spur the processes of transformative learning and reverse knowledge transfer; 2) reverse knowledge transfer can be hindered by the lack of transformative learning in the single individual. The empirical material in this paper has been collected in the research project ”Cultural Intelligence as a Strategic Resource”. The project was funded by the Danish Strategic Research Council and conducted by Lisbeth Clausen, Liv Egholm Feldt, Martine Cardel Gertsen, Anne-Marie Søderberg, Verner Worm and Mette Zølner, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. The research team have had privileged access to five of the largest Danish MNCs. While the collection of material has in general been carried out by the research team, Liv Egholm Feldt is the only person responsible for the analysis, reflections and perspectives presented in this paper. To secure the anonymity of the interviewees, fictitious names have been used. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8436 Files in this item: 1
Liv_Egeholm_Feldt.pdf (631.3Kb) -
The Political Implications of Limited Liability, Legal Personality and CitizenshipThompson, Grahame (Frederiksberg, 2011)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper investigates the legal and commercial consequences of companies being considered as both an entity and a person in law – hence the notion of ‘cyborg’ in its title. It concentrates upon legal personhood and relates this particular feature to the issue of corporate citizenship. In turn corporate citizenship provides a link to considering the political role of companies, since in claiming citizenship they are implicitly at least claiming a particular set of political rights consequent upon that status, and announcing a particular politically constrained context associated with their operational characteristics. But what would be involved in granting companies full citizenship rights in the image of natural person citizenship? The paper explores this issue in connection to the differences between corporate social responsibility and an earlier idea of the socially responsible corporation that arose in the debate between Adolph Berle and Edwin Dodd in the 1930s, focussing on the notion of ‘enterprise entity analysis’ that was posed in that debate, and which has reappeared more recently. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8323 Files in this item: 1
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