En esta investigación el autor nos presenta un enfoque sobre el proceso privatizador de las pensiones en México, bajo dos puntos de análisis: como una transformación de la administración pública y como parte de un proceso de presión por parte de los organismos financieros internacionales hacia el gobierno de ese país.El documento se encuentra dividido en tres capítulos: el primero versa sobre la conceptualización de la privatización y la transformación del sector público; en el segundo se realiza un análisis sobre la privatización del sector salud y los servicios médicos en América Latina y México; y por último, en el tercer capitulo, se presenta un estudio sobre las reformas en materia de pensiones en América Latina y el nuevo Sistema de Ahorro para el Retiro en México.En la investigación se describen algunos patrones similares dentro del proceso de privatización en la región latinoamericana, incluyendo a México. Siendo también importante mencionar el papel que las burocracias privilegiadas han tenido dentro del sistema político en cuestión, para éstos cambios.El sistema de pensiones en México, desde su creación en la década de los cuarenta consistía en una administración estatal, vinculada a dos grandes organismos: el Instituto Mexicano de la Seguridad Social (IMSS) y el Instituto de la Seguridad Social y Servicios para los Trabajadores del Estado (ISSSTE). Programas que reflejaban un corporativismo de las políticas sociales en el país.En cuanto al Sistema de Ahorro para el Retiro (SAR), se plantea en la investigación como un programa innovador de aportación personal y manejado de manera privada por instituciones financieras y de crédito mexicanas, que garantizan al trabajador una vez terminado su etapa activa, un capital suficiente para su vida en retiro.Algunas de las consideraciones finales a que llegó el autor en la investigación, son entre otras, la respuesta positiva frente a este nuevo sistema de pensiones, el cual constituye un modelo superado y cuenta con los más bajos costos de administración, en comparación con Argentina y Chile. Así mismo, mediante el Sistema de Ahorro para el Retiro, se crearán las condiciones necesarias para ofrecer por parte de la banca comercial, instrumentos financieros de largo plazo y mejor rendimiento; creando así un entorno financiero de mayor estabilidad y ajeno a las crisis recurrentes por el cambio de administración federal. / In this investigation the author presents an approach on the privatization process of the pensions in Mexico, under two points of analysis: first, like a transformation of the public administration and second, like part of a process of pressure under the international financial organisms towards the government of that country.The document is divided in three chapters: first it turns on the privatization concept and the transformation of the public sector; in the second an analysis is made on the medical privatization of the health sector in Latin America and Mexico; and finally, in third shows a study on the reforms in the matter of pensions in Latin America and the new Saving for Retirement System in Mexico.This investigation describes some similar patterns within privatization process in Latin American region, including Mexico. Being also important to mention the role of elite bureaucracies have had within the political system for these changes.The system of pensions in Mexico, from its creation in the 40's consisted of a state administration of two great organisms: the Mexican Institute for Social Security (IMSS) and the Social Security Institute for State Workers (ISSSTE). Programs which reflected a huge corporativism of the social policies in the country. In addition, The Saving for Retirement System (SAR), is conceived as an innovating program of personal and handled contribution by private Mexican institutions, that guarantee the worker once finished their active stage, a sufficient capital for his life in retirement. Some of the final considerations in the investigation arrived, are among others, the positive answer forehead to this new system of pensions, which constitutes a surpassed model and has the lowest costs of administration, in comparison with Argentina and Chile. Also, through The Saving for Retirement System, the conditions necessary will be created to offer from the commercial banking, long term financial instruments; creating therefore, financial surroundings of greater stability against the changes of public administration.

Este estudio investiga los procesos de adaptación institucional al cambio en los sistemas socio-ecológicos (SESs) basados en la gestión y el uso del agua en España. En concreto, el análisis de la adaptabilidad se aborda en este trabajo de tesis doctoral a través de una aproximación multidisciplinar con el propósito de articular un marco analítico que incluya las diferentes dimensiones implicadas en las dinámicas de los SESs. El estudio de los factores que ejercen una mayor influencia a la hora de explicar la evolución de los SESs se aproxima desde diferentes campos de las ciencias sociales relacionados con el análisis institucional.La originalidad de la aproximación de este estudio reside en dos aspectos. A nivel teórico combina aproximaciones analíticas ya existentes con un enfoque innovador y propone un marco analítico propio; a nivel empírico utiliza una estructura multinivel para analizar la evolución tanto del régimen institucional del agua en España como de los SESs a nivel local-regional. A nivel teórico, el desarrollo del marco teórico y analítico que propone este trabajo es el resultado de la combinación de teorías provenientes de la economía institucional, como las teorías sobre la gestión de recursos de propiedad común; del campo de la Historia económica, como las teorías sobre el cambio institucional que incluyen tanto las reglas formales como informales. Este marco teórico y analítico está fuertemente inspirado en los conceptos de resiliencia (resilience) y robustez (robustness), originalmente utilizados en el campo de la ecología y la ingeniería, respectivamente. Los estudios sobre resiliencia y robustez reciben especial atención a estos últimos puesto que ofrecen un marco teórico que se interesa específicamente por las dinámicas de los SESs. A nivel empírico, este estudio incluye cuatro casos de estudio de SESs a nivel local-regional que han sido objeto de estudio desde campos como la biología, la hidrogeología, el derecho o la economía aplicada. Estos casos son: el regadío tradicional de Mula (Murcia), l'horta de Valencia (Comunidad Valenciana), el acuífero de la Mancha Occidental (Castilla La-Mancha) y el acuífero del Baix Llobregat (Cataluña).El desarrollo teórico y el trabajo empírico sugieren que los procesos de adaptación institucional de los SESs a los cambios están fuertemente influenciados, tanto por variables internas al funcionamiento del sistema socio-ecológico y del grupo de usuarios (homogeneidad de intereses y preferencias, información, liderazgo), como por variables propias del sistema de gobernanza en el que están inmersos los SESs (grado de autonomía o los espacios de intercambio y participación entre actores). Esta influencia hace patente, por un lado, que las políticas públicas que se implementan a nivel nacional o supranacional (en el marco de la Unión Europea), tienen implicaciones directas en las herramientas que utilizan los usuarios para integrar los cambios y gestionar situaciones de estrés o de crisis del sistema. Y, por el otro, que el desarrollo de la capacidad de reflexión y anticipación de los usuarios del recurso a las consecuencias de las perturbaciones juegan un papel esencial en la capacidad de respuesta de estos sistemas. Las conclusiones de este trabajo pueden utilizarse para tratar aquellas cuestiones relacionadas con las políticas ambientales que requieran de una gobernabilidad de las relaciones entre sistemas naturales y sociales que potencie sus capacidades de adaptación a un entorno de complejidad creciente y constante cambio, o de la gestión de conflictos caracterizados por la presencia de posiciones divergentes entre una multiplicidad de actores situados a diferentes niveles. / This study investigates the processes of institutional adaptation to change in social-ecological systems (SESs) based on water management and use.More concretely, the analysis of adaptability in this thesis use a cross-disciplinary approach with the objective to outline an explanatory framework that includes various dimensions involved in SES' dynamics. The key factors that explain this evolution are analysed from different social sciences that focus in institutional analysis.The originality of this study is twofold: at the theoretical level, it combines pre-existing analytical tools in an innovative way and proposes a groundbreaking analytical framework; at the empirical level, it uses a multilevel approach to analyse the evolution of the water institutional regime in Spain and the developments of the SESs at the local and regional scale.At the theoretical level, the study develops a theoretical and analytical framework based on a combination of theories developed by Institutional Economics (such as the theories of common resource management) and Economic History (such as the theories of institutional change). This analytical framework is also strongly inspired by the concepts of resilience and robustness in social-ecological systems, both concepts borrowed respectively from ecology and engineering. Resilience and robustness received special attention as they propose a specific theoretical framework particularly well-adapted to studying the dynamics of the SESs.At the empirical level, this thesis includes four case studies of local - regional SESs which have been the subject of studies from the field of biology, hydrogeology, law or applied economy. The four cases include: the traditional Mula irrigation system (Murcia), the traditional irrigation system (huerta) of Valencia (Comunidad Valenciana), the aquifer of the Mancha Occidental (Castilla-La Mancha) and the aquifer of the Llobregat Delta (Catalonia).The results of the theoretical and empirical work suggest that the institutional adaptation processes of the SESs are strongly influenced by variables related to the internal functioning of the system and the users group (homogeneity of perceptions and interests, information and leadership) as well as by variables related to the external governance system in which the SESs are embedded (degree of autonomy, spaces for exchange and participation among actors). This influence shows, on the one hand, that public policies implemented at the national of supranational level (European Union) have direct implications in the tools used by the resource users when adapting to change and managing situations of stress or crisis of the system. And, on the other hand, the development of capacity for reflection and anticipation by users on the consequences of internal and external disturbances plays a key role in the system's capacity to respond to change.The policy lessons of this study can be used for addressing environmental policy issues in which a better governance of the relationships between natural and social systems is required in order to promote the capacity of these systems to adapt to a complex and constantly changing environment, and issues in which the management of conflicts among the views of a multiplicity of actors situated at different levels of the governance play a key role on the outcomes of public policies.

El derecho de los ciudadanos de la Unión Europea a la devolución de los ingresos tributarios que indebidamente realizan a las administraciones nacionales surge como consecuencia de la percepción por los estados miembros de exacciones que resultan contrarias al ordenamiento jurídico comunitario. Sólo el procedimiento para el reconocimiento del derecho a la restitución de los ingresos aduaneros indebidos se encuentra regulado por un texto comunitario uniforme: el código aduanero comunitario y su reglamento de aplicación. En los demás supuestos en que surge el derecho a la devolución, los agentes económicos han de ejercer tal derecho ante los órganos juridiccionales internos invocando los principios de efecto directo y primacia de las normas comunitarias. La heterogeneidad de las soluciones dadas por los ordenamientos estatales al contencioso del indebido tributario en virtud del principio de autonomía institucional y procedimental de los estados miembros en la aplicación del derecho comunitario o principio de subsidiariedad procesal ha implicado la limitación de aquel principio por la jurisprudencia del TJE. La armonización jurisprudencial ha de ser completada por una armonización normativa en la materia.

Les planes que ocupen tot aquest llarg estudi analitzen els projectes de sindicació i associació corporativa dels funcionaris de la Generalitat de Catalunya, fonamentalment l'Associació de Funcionaris de la Generalitat de Catalunya (AFGC), durant els anys 1931-1939. Tanmateix, no se'ls analitza com a subjectes passius a remolc dels esdeveniments polítics, sinó com a elements actius de la política catalana dels anys trenta. Per tant, es parteix de la idea motor que la major part de la classe política catalana del periode republicà formava part de la funció pública, tant local com regional, com de l'administració central de l'estat. Això implicà un enorme protagonisme del funcionariat en tots els processos de canvi i de transformació política, social, econòmica i cultural que s'esdevingueren a Catalunya durant la II República. Així, les planes d'aquest treball intentaran posar de manifest que el clàssic discurs regeneracionista del catalanisme, fonamentat en la necessitat de reformar l'estat, era, entre altres raons, una proposta d'adequar l'estructura de l'estat espanyol a les necessitats de promoció professional de les classes mitjanes catalanistes a través de l'administració pública. En rigor, l'aspiració de l'autonomia, en termes pragmàtics, suposava la voluntat de crear un espai de promoció socioprofessional per a aquestes noves classes mitjanes emergents que havien derivat cap el catalanisme polític com a contrapès a unes classes mitjanes de signe republicà lerrouxista o militar que primaren les vies de l'administració municipal o central com a vies de promoció.La concreció de l'autonomia regional, a partir de l'any 1931 amb la Generalitat provisional i del 1932 amb l'estatut d'autonomia, desfermà entre les classes mitjanes republicanes i catalanistes una veritable fam de conquesta de llocs de treball públics. I aquesta situació definí bona part del joc de rivalitats polítiques dels anys trenta a Catalunya. Fou per aquesta raó que es configuraren tota una serie d'associacions corporatives de l'anomenada "classe funcionarial" de la Generalitat i que tingueren per objectiu la defensa dels interessos professionals d'uns empleats públics que sentiren una enorme inseguretat laboral dins d'una administració tot just acabada de crear. Per això, es pot parlar que, a Catalunya, la "revolució republicana" del 1931 fou una revolució de funcionaris i d'aspirants a funcionaris que veieren en l'autonomia regional la seva gran finestra d'oportunitats. Tanmateix, seria erroni creure que la revolució del 1936 posà fi a tot aquest procés de creixement de la funció pública autònomica, sinó tot el contrari. La gran rivalitat entre catalanistes radicals i anarcosindicalistes durant el 1931-1936 no fou estrictament una rivalitat entre els oficinistes, funcionaris i dependentes del sector dels serveis contra els obrers manuals. Pel contrari, fou una confrontació entre aquells que van voler conservar els seus llocs de treball públics i aquells que els volien destruir perquè no hi podien disposar d'ells (i en aquesta línia hi tingué un pes fonamental el tradicional discurs antiestatista dels llibertaris), Ara bé, quan va esclatar la febre revolucionària de l'estiu del 1936, la CNT no va dubtar a renunciar (almenys els seus dirigents) al comunisme llibertari per tal de conquerir el màxim espai de poder públic que es concretà en una nova revolució d'aspirants a funcionaris, aquesta vegada procedents del sector dels obrers manuals. I, per aquesta raó, la mateixa CNT va acabar, malgrat el seu teòric i mitificat antiestatisme, creant el corresponent Sindicat Únic de Funcionaris de la Generalitat. En rigor, bona part del joc polític dels anys trenta a Catalunya va girar a l'entorn de la lluita pel control dels llocs de treball públics i de l'administració, fet que contradiu els discursos tradicionals de les formacions polítiques catalanistes i obreristes que sempre negaren la legitimitat de l'estat fos espanyol o de qualsevol mena: uns, pel seu caràcter uniformista, i, els altres, per la seva dificultat d'accedir-hi per mèrits acadèmics als llocs de feina públics. Certament, un cop catalanistes i llibertaris pogueren aspirar a formar part de la funció pública donaren a conèixer un discurs i unes actituds allunyades del clàssic regeneracionisme antiestatalista. / This study analyzes the corporative association projects of Generalitat de Catalunya public officials, especially the Associació de Funcionaris de la Generalitat de Catalunya (AFGC), among the years 1931-1939. The public officials not were passive subjects of the political events. Really, the public officials were active subjects of the political events. First idea: more members of the catalonian political classe in 1931-1939 were public officials in the local, regional and central state administrations. In fact, it means a very important starring of public officials in the political, social, economic and cultural change process in Catalonian during the Second Republic. This study analyzes also the regeneracionist discourse of the catalanism movement, based in the state reform and the professional promotion of the middle class in the local, regional and central state administration.The regional autonomy instaured in april 1931 with the Generalitat de Catalunya and the Devolution Statute aproved in september 1932 awoke in the republican and catalanist middle class an important expectative to conquest public emploiment. And this fact, defined the political rivalities in Catalonian during 1931-1939. In this way, many public officials corporative associations were founded and heir objectives were, basically, the defenseof public officials interests into a new administration like catalonian regional autonomy. For this reason, it's possible to say that "republicain revolution" of 1931 was also a "public officials revolution". In the other side, rivalry between radical catalanists and anarcosindicalists during 1931-1936 wasn't only a rivalry between white collars and manual workers; also was a rivalry between those of white collars who wanted to conserve their public employment and those of manual workers who wanted to aspire a public emploiment. Ceirtanly, in summer 1936, CNT didn't doubt to renounce (especially their leaders) to the anarchist utopia, and so to conquest the maxim politic power possible into the local, regional and central sate administration. So, it happened a new revolution: anarchists and not anarchists manual workers conquered public official emploiments into local, regional and central state administration. So, CNT founded a trade union called Sindicat Únic de Funcionaris de la Generalitat de Catalunya (SUFGC). In fact, political life in 1931-1939 was based in the fight for public official employments.

En esta tesis realizamos un acercamiento hermenéutico a la formulación de los proyectos de reforma educativa que se han producido en España en los últimos años con la pretensión, por un lado, de exponer los factores, de naturaleza política e ideológica, que están detrás de las nuevas leyes educativas, especificando la influencia de la Gestión de la Calidad Total y la Gestión por Competencias en la dinámica de las reformas educativas.Por otro lado, plantear cómo la apuesta por una educación bajo los principios de inclusividad y la eliminación de prácticas escolares excluyentes supone reconocer la influencia de las desigualdades sociales en las desigualdades escolares, e interrogarse bajo qué mejores condiciones la escuela es más neutral y objetiva, todo ello en un contexto de replanteamiento de la acción pública, puesto que se otorga cada vez mayor importancia a la competición credencialista y meritocrática y se apuesta por la introducción de las fuerzas de mercado en la provisión de la educación y de los servicios públicos en general.____________________________________THE NEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT AND MANAGEMENT SKILLS / In this thesis, we conducted a hermeneutic approach to the formulation of educational reform projects that have occurred in Spain in recent years with the claim, first, to expose the factors (of political and ideological nature) which are behind the new education laws, specifying the influence of Total Quality Management and Competence Management in the dynamics of educational reform.Moreover, propose how the bet for an education under inclusiveness values and the elimination of exclusionary school practices supposed recognize the influence of social inequalities into inequalities in school, and questioning under what better conditions the school is more neutral and objective, all in a context of rethinking public action, post given increasing importance to the credentialist and meritocratic competitions and it bet for to the introduction of market forces in the provision of education and public services in general.

This doctoral work gains deeper insight into the dynamics of knowledge flows within and across clusters, unfolding their features, directions and strategic implications. Alliances, networks and personnel mobility are acknowledged as the three main channels of inter-firm knowledge flows, thus offering three heterogeneous measures to analyze the phenomenon. The interplay between the three channels and the richness of available research methods, has allowed for the elaboration of three different papers and perspectives. The common empirical setting is the IT cluster in Bangalore, for its distinguished features as a high-tech cluster and for its steady yearly two-digit growth around the service-based business model. The first paper deploys both a firm-level and a tie-level analysis, exploring the cases of 4 domestic companies and of 2 MNCs active the cluster, according to a cluster-based perspective. The distinction between business-domain knowledge and technical knowledge emerges from the qualitative evidence, further confirmed by quantitative analyses at tie-level. At firm-level, the specialization degree seems to be influencing the kind of knowledge shared, while at tie-level both the frequency of interaction and the governance mode prove to determine differences in the distribution of knowledge flows. The second paper zooms out and considers the inter-firm networks; particularly focusing on the role of cluster boundary, internal and external networks are analyzed, in their size, long-term orientation and exploration degree. The research method is purely qualitative and allows for the observation of the evolving strategic role of internal network: from exploitation-based to exploration-based. Moreover, a causal pattern is emphasized, linking the evolution and features of the external network to the evolution and features of internal network. The final paper addresses the softer and more micro-level side of knowledge flows: personnel mobility. A social capital perspective is here developed, which considers both employees’ acquisition and employees’ loss as building inter-firm ties, thus enhancing company’s overall social capital. Negative binomial regression analyses at dyad-level test the significant impact of cluster affiliation (cluster firms vs non-cluster firms), industry affiliation (IT firms vs non-IT fims) and foreign affiliation (MNCs vs domestic firms) in shaping the uneven distribution of personnel mobility, and thus of knowledge flows, among companies.

This Doctoral Dissertation is triggered by an emergent trend: firms are increasingly referring to investments in corporate venture capital (CVC) as means to create new competencies and foster the search for competitive advantage through the use of external resources. CVC is generally defined as the practice by non-financial firms of placing equity investments in entrepreneurial companies. Thus, CVC can be interpreted (i) as a key component of corporate entrepreneurship - acts of organizational creation, renewal, or innovation that occur within or outside an existing organization– and (ii) as a particular form of venture capital (VC) investment where the investor is not a traditional and financial institution, but an established corporation. My Dissertation, thus, simultaneously refers to two streams of research: corporate strategy and venture capital. In particular, I directed my attention to three topics of particular relevance for better understanding the role of CVC. In the first study, I moved from the consideration that competitive environments with rapid technological changes increasingly force established corporations to access knowledge from external sources. Firms, thus, extensively engage in external business development activities through different forms of collaboration with partners. While the underlying process common to these mechanisms is one of knowledge access, they are substantially different. The aim of the first study is to figure out how corporations choose among CVC, alliance, joint venture and acquisition. I addressed this issue adopting a multi-theoretical framework where the resource-based view and real options theory are integrated. While the first study mainly looked into the use of external resources for corporate growth, in the second work, I combined an internal and an external perspective to figure out the relationship between CVC investments (exploiting external resources) and a more traditional strategy to create competitive advantage, that is, corporate diversification (based on internal resources). Adopting an explorative lens, I investigated how these different modes to renew corporate current capabilities interact to each other. More precisely, is CVC complementary or substitute to corporate diversification? Finally, the third study focused on the more general field of VC to investigate (i) how VC firms evaluate the patent portfolios of their potential investee companies and (ii) whether the ability to evaluate technology and intellectual property varies depending on the type of investors, in particular for what concern the distinction between specialized versus generalist VCs and independent versus corporate VCs. This topic is motivated by two observations. First, it is not clear yet which determinants of patent value are primarily considered by VCs in their investment decisions. Second, VCs are not all alike in terms of technological experiences and these differences need to be taken into account.

No description available.

Organizational and institutional scholars have advocated the need to examine how processes originating at an individual level can change organizations or even create new organizational arrangements able to affect institutional dynamics (Chreim et al., 2007; Powell & Colyvas, 2008; Smets et al., 2012). Conversely, research on identity work has mainly investigated the different ways individuals can modify the boundaries of their work in actual occupations, thus paying particular attention to ‘internal’ self-crafting (e.g. Wrzesniewski & Dutton, 2001). Drawing from literatures on possible and alternative self and on positive organizational scholarship (e.g., Obodaru, 2012; Roberts & Dutton, 2009), my argument is that individuals’ identity work can go well beyond the boundaries of internal self-crafting to the creation of new organizational arrangements. In this contribution I analyze, through multiple case studies, healthcare professionals who spontaneously participated in the creation of new organizational arrangements, namely health structures called Community Hospitals. The contribution develops this form of identity work by building a grounded model. My findings disclose the process that leads from the search for the enactment of different self-concepts to positive identities, through the creation of a new organizational arrangement. I contend that this is a particularly complex form of collective identity work because it requires, to be successful, concerted actions of several internal, external and institutional actors, and it also requires balanced tensions that – at the same time - enable individuals’ aspirations and organizational equilibrium. I name this process organizational collective crafting. Moreover I inquire the role of context in supporting the triggering power of those unrealized selves. I contribute to the comprehension of the consequences of self-comparisons, organizational identity variance, and positive identity. The study bears important insights on how identity work originating from individuals can influence organizational outcomes and larger social systems.

This study focuses on the processes of change that firms undertake to overcome conditions of organizational rigidity and develop new dynamic capabilities, thanks to the contribution of external knowledge. When external contingencies highlight firms’ core rigidities, external actors can intervene in change projects, providing new competences to firms’ managers. Knowledge transfer and organizational learning processes can lead to the development of new dynamic capabilities. Existing literature does not completely explain how these processes develop and how external knowledge providers, as management consultants, influence them. Dynamic capabilities literature has become very rich in the last years; however, the models that explain how dynamic capabilities evolve are not particularly investigated. Adopting a qualitative approach, this research proposes four relevant case studies in which external actors introduce new knowledge within organizations, activating processes of change. Each case study consists of a management consulting project. Data are collected through in-depth interviews with consultants and managers. A large amount of documents supports evidences from interviews. A narrative approach is adopted to account for change processes and a synthetic approach is proposed to compare case studies along relevant dimensions. This study presents a model of capabilities evolution, supported by empirical evidence, to explain how external knowledge intervenes in capabilities evolution processes: first, external actors solve gaps between environmental demands and firms’ capabilities, changing organizational structures and routines; second, a knowledge transfer between consultants and managers leads to the creation of new ordinary capabilities; third, managers can develop new dynamic capabilities through a deliberate learning process that internalizes new tacit knowledge from consultants. After the end of the consulting project, two elements can influence the deliberate learning process: new external contingencies and changes in the perceptions about external actors.