The purpose of this dissertation is to describe, explain and understand how slowness appeared when some decisions were made in the area of welfare policy and how this slowness was eliminated. The study focuses on major changes. It is argued that such changes follow another logic than small gradual adjustments. Four breaking points have been selected for a deeper analysis: the pension policy decisions of 1913 and 1994 and the housing policy decisions of 1935 and 1992. These decisions led to the emergence of fundamentally new institutional structures concerning the relation between the central government and the citizens. The study shows that an established institutional structure within a welfare policy area generated mental constructs and decision rules that governed political decision-making. This governance resulted in slowness in the form of lengthy decision-making processes. The fundamental institutional structure was being altered only when the mental constructs were broken down. A common feature was that the decisions were first made when discontent with the prevailing order became so strong that it overwhelmed the fear of a new institutional structure. The general tendency was also to shape the fundamental changes in relation to the citizens so that the changes could be portrayed as small. The established mental constructs are the determining explanation for slowness. The interest organizations played a secondary role, as their interests are shaped in accordance with the mental constructs. Their resistance was declined at the same time when the mental constructs were broken down. The individuals – agents of change – that constantly worked for the change of system in reality appear to be significantly more interesting than hindering organization. Their influence showed a recurring pattern.

Based on the concept of path-dependence, this thesis examines regional representatives’ notion of rationalizations in three Swedish regions. In the provinces of Skåne and Västra Götaland the responsibility for welfare issues like health care, regional development, communications, and culture, is appointed to the two organizations Region Skåne and Västra Götalandsregionen. Both organizations are results of merger processes between old organizations called landsting, with a smaller geographical scale and less responsibility. In Svealand three landsting formally have applied for a similar fusion like the ones in Skåne and in Västra Götaland. The idea behind these fusions is that rationalizations in the field of welfare, are achieved by changing the scale of production, from lesser to larger units. This thesis shows that the perceived effect of rationalization by fusion, can take time. Old norms, values, and cultures that emanate from the landsting are for example conceived by the regional representatives in Västra Götaland and in Svealand, to prevent what kind of rationalizations the organizations are able to accomplish. In Skåne, on the contrary, the notion that the regional organization has overcome its historically defined problems, dominate. In that sense, Västra Götalandregionen and the region-building process in Svealand are path-dependent. But Region Skåne, on the other hand, has overcome its historical institutional legacy. This thesis highlights the importance of examining organization histories to be able to understand why certain decisions are hard to make, and why institutions evolve or not. This is also important to acknowledge when the regions’ representatives try to construct regions. From this perspective, the thesis tries to clarify how people’s expectations can delay what kind of rationalizations an organization can implement and how these expectations seem to legitimize what decisions the organization are able to take. The thesis also tries to clarify one way of using the concept of “path-dependence” in academic studies by the usage of ideal types.

Estonia is the only country in the world, which is totally dependent on oil shale in its energy system. Although this fossil fuel exists in enormous quantities around the world, it has so far not been utilized on a larger scale. The reasons for this have been both economic and, in recent times, ecological. It can therefore be argued that in most cases, oil shale represents an inferior solution compared to other energy sources. This work examines why a technology utilizing oil shale has developed in Estonia and why Estonia appears not to be in a position to switch to other energy sources. In this work it is claimed that oil shale actually has been an appropriate solution to short-term concerns, despite the fact that its long-term drawbacks have been identified. These circumstances led to path dependence. Once the technology was in place, it advanced along its learning curve producing a satisfactory outcome, but not an optimal one. However, this situation has been accepted due to the extremely turbulent institutional environment Estonia has undergone in the 20th century. In Sweden, a somewhat similar (but smaller) oil shale industry was shut down in the 1960s because of poor economic performance, but also because of the competition from other energy sources. Such competition did not take place in Estonia, in part due to the specific institutional set-up of the Soviet Union. This made it possible for the Estonian oil shale industry to develop further, causing the present lock-in. Today the existing infrastructure, the knowledge-base, and the particular socio-political circumstances of Estonia effectively prevent change. Furthermore, it is argued that because there was only little oil shale-related technology developed outside Estonia, most technology had to be developed domestically. This in turn has forced the Estonian oil shale industry to make several highly inconvenient alliances in order to gain room to manoeuvre. Partially as a result of this, there is today wide-spread scepticism towards the industry, but no exit in sight in the foreseeable future. One purpose of this work is to contribute to a broader understanding why human societies have become dependent on fossil fuels and to extend our knowledge on where to search for an exit.

This study explains the rise and fall of the Innovations Foundation, the University of Toronto's first office dedicated to the transfer of university-developed technologies to industry. Drawing on extensive archival research, ten interviews with key informants, and other sources, the case study traces the evolution of the Foundation from its launch in 1980 to its closure in 2006. The study delineates three distinct business models under which the Foundation operated from 1980 to 1990, 1990 to 1999, and 1999 to 2006. The reasons for the adoption and failure of each model are explored and a historically grounded, context-sensitive explanation of the university's decision to dismantle the Foundation in 2006 is provided. This explanation emphasizes the importance of managing unrealistic expectations for Canadian university technology transfer, and adds weight to a growing consensus on the importance of historical path-dependence as a conceptual tool for understanding the persistence of differentials in technology transfer performance among universities.

This study explains the rise and fall of the Innovations Foundation, the University of Toronto's first office dedicated to the transfer of university-developed technologies to industry. Drawing on extensive archival research, ten interviews with key informants, and other sources, the case study traces the evolution of the Foundation from its launch in 1980 to its closure in 2006. The study delineates three distinct business models under which the Foundation operated from 1980 to 1990, 1990 to 1999, and 1999 to 2006. The reasons for the adoption and failure of each model are explored and a historically grounded, context-sensitive explanation of the university's decision to dismantle the Foundation in 2006 is provided. This explanation emphasizes the importance of managing unrealistic expectations for Canadian university technology transfer, and adds weight to a growing consensus on the importance of historical path-dependence as a conceptual tool for understanding the persistence of differentials in technology transfer performance among universities.

本論文利用超穩定機器的概念，用以解釋天津城市成長轉型的路徑選擇，三個觀察的指標包括支柱產業的選擇、土地政策的更迭以及行政區劃的調整成果。既有針對中國大陸城市治理的文獻概以成長機器作為主軸。但本文認為，受政績誘因以及中央地方關係制約下的初始條件影響，1980年代的天津以超穩定機器而非成長機器的方式運作，具體運作面向包括漸進的經濟改革、具福利性質的土地使用政策以及對外資的保守與防範。事實證明，當時建立的產業發展方向、土地運用制度與城市內部行政體制，對於天津今天在加速經濟增長階段仍然具有相當的影響力。天津經濟轉型過程中呈現的路徑依賴特質，也突顯出地方政府從超穩定機器邁向成長機器轉型的過程中，實際上涉及了學習與轉化的考驗。 / This dissertation aims to identify the patterns of urban transition in China that uses Tianjin as a specific case. In order to illustrate my argument, an analytical approach that combines path dependence and pro-stability machine is employed. Existing literature that attempts to explore the dynamics of urban development in China has been made predominantly on the basis of the “growth machine” model, which takes the growth of cities as a result of interaction among some internal urban-based players for pecuniary gains and property development. Yet, I argue that Tianjin as a pro-stability machine in the 1980s and the story background was bounded by the official’s incentive of promotion and initial provincial conditions backed by the central government influences. This dissertation identifies three core issues in relation to the pro-stability machine, including: incremental reform in economic area, welfare implication in land use policies and conservative attitude toward foreign forces. Such issues associated with challenges of rapid urban growth in Tianjin today: the selection of pillar industries, reforming land policies and drastic administrative restructuring in Binhai New Area. This dissertation argues that Tianjin’s experience significantly highlights difficulties faced with local governments when they confront with the ‘path dependency’ dilemma in economic transition. The Tianjin government has to not only adjust itself to the roles shifted from a pro-stability machine to a developmental machine but also deal with the accompanied challenges of learning and transformation. It seeks to fill the gap in the existing literature that pays scant attention to the urban renewal experience in Tianjin as a traditionally significant developmental center in north China. This dissertation, therefore, will make important contribution in two aspects. First, it will shed light on the institutional reform process in Tianjin that is critical to the developmental catch-up of the city. Second, it will offer a fresh insight into the debates upon the urban development models in contemporary China.

The Swedish bus and railway sectors have been recognised as important early cases of regulatory reforms that led to both vertical and horizontal disintegration as well as market-opening. This thesis investigates the origin and evolution of these reforms from 1979 to 2009, focussing on the markets for passenger services. The aim is to improve our understanding of the background, resulting nature, and consequences of these regulatory reforms. A combination of qualitative and quantitative analyses has been applied; e.g. the thesis makes use of a unique database of longitudinal industry statistics. This thesis shows that the origins of the Swedish reform process were internal and largely unrelated to any objectives of deregulated market-opening. However, a combination of the nature of the initial reforms, the behaviour of market actors, and certain key events accidentally sparked a trend towards deregulation, which has had profound effects on market structure and performance. The step-by-step evolution, in particular the introduction and expansion of competitive tendering, is shown to have had path-dependent characteristics. Swedish competitive tendering of bus and railway services has had important effects on costs and subsidies, but has also generated the problematic behaviour of strategic bidding. Included within are detailed articles which make additional contributions to relevant theories and offer normative advice concerning the design and implementation of regulatory reforms in these as well as other sectors.

Urban research is aware of being culturally embedded, and inability to break free from history in some cases may explain why the change goes in a particular direction. After more than 70 years of centrally planned community and isolation, present urban structures in Russia stand as arenas for the system transitions. The political and socio-economic changes of the last decades had an impact on urban structures and relations between the different levels of planning. The municipalities are now assumed to be independent in terms of decision-making and local priorities, urban programs and civic engagement procedures. While the degree of success in urban development varies between the different Russian cities, the paper studies the local planning functions as well neighborhood governance and puts the results into the soviet planning context. By using in-depth interviews, the data has been collected providing a knowledgebase of the subject across the study area. The results show both various gaps of transformation (e.g. insufficient legislature, lack of local initiative and federal guidance, marginalized master plan, poor neighborhood governance) and path-dependent system (normativism, unsuccessful civic engagement, lack of communication between different institutions, companies and publics). The discussion argues that at the national scale the issue lies in the uncompleted socio-cultural transformation, which creates a quasi-existent planning system at the local level.

A fundamental research question in regional economic development, is why some regions are able to diversify into new products and industries, while others continue to face challenges in diversification? This doctorate research explores the different pathways to diversification. It follows the three-stage modular structure of DBA for Cranfield School of Management. This thesis consists of a systematic literature review, a single qualitative case study on UAE, and a research synthesis of published cases on Singapore, Norway and UAE. The linking document provides a summary of the three projects and consolidates findings and contributions into a path creation model that provides new understanding on the pathways to regional diversifications. This research integrates existing theoretical foundations of evolutionary economic geography, institutional economic geography, path dependence, industry relatedness, economic complexity, and path creation into a unified conceptual path creation model. It generates propositions, builds a framework and develops a matrix for path creation that integrate context, actors, factors, mechanisms and outcomes shaping regional diversification. It finds that in the context of path dependence and existing conditions of a region, economic actors undertake strategic measures to influence the institutional capabilities to accumulate knowledge and trigger indigenous creation, anchoring, branching, and clustering diversification mechanisms to create complex varieties of related and unrelated diversification outcomes. The institutional collaboration capabilities are found to be instrumental in accumulating knowledge and determining the relatedness and complexity of diversification outcomes. This research further provides a set of integrated platform strategies to guide policy-makers on setting up the pathways to regional diversification.

Submitted by Laura Campedelli (romanocampedelli@gmail.com) on 2016-04-06T18:08:55Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_Laura_Versão Final.pdf: 1334518 bytes, checksum: f105451c8201fe1b10751d9c0d499ceb (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Letícia Monteiro de Souza (leticia.dsouza@fgv.br) on 2016-04-06T18:19:15Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_Laura_Versão Final.pdf: 1334518 bytes, checksum: f105451c8201fe1b10751d9c0d499ceb (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-06T21:01:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação_Laura_Versão Final.pdf: 1334518 bytes, checksum: f105451c8201fe1b10751d9c0d499ceb (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-03-09 / This paper aims to propose a new approach to the tax aspects involved in the implementation of international accounting standards (IFRS) in Brazil, based on the theoretical framework of law and development. After presenting the international accounting harmonization movement and the contextualization of the historical and legislative evolution in the implementation of IFRS in Brazil, is held a literature review from the national legal and tax doctrine, about the impacts that arise from the use of new accounting standards for tax matters, identifying four kinds of problems: (i) qualification problems, related to the use of the "substance over form" principle; (ii) problems related to temporal conflicts at the recognition moment of accounting and tax results; (iii) problems related to the emergence of legal gaps and; (iv) problems related to the subjectivism of the new accounting standards. Following is argued that this strictly 'legal and tax' approach on the subject, named in this paper as a "legal and tax perspective', has led to the idea that the IFRS would be the bearers of complexities and insecurities that permeates the brazilian taxation, which may represent a narrow analysis paradigm for the issue. From the legal and institutional perspective, typical of the law and development approach, the paper presents a new analysis paradigm for the theme, classifying the IFRS implementation movement in Brazil as a process of institutional reform and developing the hypothesis that the problems presented by the legal and tax doctrine are only symptoms of the existence of a path dependence in tax matters in Brazil, concept of law and development literature which means "dependency of the previous institutional trajectory'. The adoption of this distinct analysis referential has the scope to increase the debate, making room to reframe the problems presented by tax doctrine and consider the legal and institutional re-accommodations that may be necessary in the national tax system in favor of a greater demand for development: align brazilian accounting practices to international practices, using the tax system as an element that enables this change, not as a barrier designed to prevent it. / O presente trabalho tem o objetivo de propor uma nova abordagem para os aspectos tributários envolvidos na implementação das normas internacionais de contabilidade (IFRS) no Brasil, o que se faz a partir do referencial teórico do direito e desenvolvimento. Após a apresentação do movimento de harmonização contábil internacional e a contextualização da evolução histórica e legislativa da implementação das IFRS no Brasil, realiza-se um levantamento bibliográfico, a partir da doutrina jurídico-tributária nacional, sobre os impactos decorrentes da utilização das novas normas contábeis em matéria tributária, identificando-se quatro ordens de problemas: (i) problemas de qualificação, relacionados à utilização do princípio da primazia da essência sobre a forma; (ii) problemas relacionados a conflitos temporais no momento de reconhecimento dos resultados contábeis e tributários; (iii) problemas relacionados ao surgimento de lacunas jurídicas e; (iv) problemas relacionados ao subjetivismo das novas normas contábeis. Em seguida, argumenta-se que essa abordagem estritamente jurídico-tributária sobre o tema, denominada no trabalho de perspectiva jurídico-tributária, tem conduzido à ideia de que as IFRS seriam as portadoras das complexidades e inseguranças que permeiam a tributação no Brasil, o que pode representar um paradigma de análise estreito sobre a questão. A partir da perspectiva jurídico-institucional, própria do direito e desenvolvimento, o trabalho apresenta um novo referencial de análise para o tema, classificando o movimento de implementação das IFRS no Brasil como um processo de reforma institucional e desenvolvendo a hipótese de que os problemas apresentados pela doutrina jurídico-tributária são apenas sintomas da existência de uma path dependence em matéria tributária no Brasil, conceito da literatura de direito e desenvolvimento que significa 'dependência da trajetória institucional pregressa'. A adoção desse referencial de análise distinto tem o escopo de incrementar o debate, abrindo margens para se ressignificar os problemas apresentados pela doutrina tributária e considerar as reacomodações jurídico-institucionais que se façam necessárias no direito tributário nacional em prol de uma demanda maior por desenvolvimento, qual seja: alinhar as práticas contábeis brasileiras às internacionais, usando o ordenamento tributário como um elemento que viabilize essa mudança, e não como uma barreira destinada a evitá-la.