By Michael Shavel, Robert D. Lamb, and Diane B. Glossman ■ In a post Global Financial Crisis world, investors are questioning long-term earnings and valuation prospects for the banking sector. Tougher regulation, particularly on capital, liquidity and structure, are exerting pressure on the traditional banking business and clouding the outlook for investors. To better understand an […]
Read more...Category: Analysis of Intangibles
Not everything important to businesses and organizations can be measured directly. The quality of relationships, the dynamics of influence, moral outrage, and risks of instability are examples of intangible factors that influence strategic success.
Rethinking Legitimacy and Illegitimacy: A New Approach to Assessing Support and Opposition across Disciplines (CSIS report)
By Robert D. Lamb ■ This report introduces a new assessment framework for legitimacy and illegitimacy that governments, businesses, and other organizations can use to better understand the sources and dynamics of support or opposition for any entity, policy, or program. It includes an intellectual history of the concept of legitimacy, summarizes the literature, introduces […]
Read more...Absorptive Capacity in the Security and Justice Sectors: Assessing Obstacles to Success in the Donor-Recipient Relationship (CSIS report)
By Robert D. Lamb, Kathryn Mixon, and Andrew Halterman ■ In development, stabilization, and peace building, donors increasingly recognize the importance of being sensitive to the local contexts of their efforts. Yet the use of “blueprints” remains widespread. Even when standard approaches are modified for particular aid partners, there often remains a poor fit between […]
Read more...Rethinking Absorptive Capacity: A New Framework, Applied to Afghanistan’s Police Training Program (CSIS report)
By Robert D. Lamb and Kathryn Mixon ■ In development, stabilization, and peace building, donors increasingly recognize the importance of being sensitive to the local contexts of their efforts. Yet the use of “blueprints” remains widespread. Even when standard approaches are modified for particular aid partners, there often remains a poor fit between donor efforts […]
Read more...Measuring Absorptive Capacity (MAC): A New Framework for Estimating Constraints (CSIS brief)
By Robert D. Lamb ■ This policy brief describes a new framework for measuring absorptive capacity in international development, peacebuilding, and stabilization efforts. Absorptive capacity is the form and amount of foreign aid and attention that recipient communities, institutions, or societies can receive without suffering significant social, economic, or political disruptions. Conventional measures of absorptive […]
Read more...MAC: Prototype of a Tool Linking Program Designs and Local Conditions
I spent a good part of last year on a UK-funded project on “absorptive capacity” — which I think too many people in the international development community still think of as “why can’t poor people spend our money better?” Our answer to that, though this research, was basically: “Because we keep asking them to do […]
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