Felicity Kelliher

South East Technological University

Purpose To document our experiences as female non-native researchers carrying out qualitative research in another country (Bahrain), and to reflect on our interactions with cultural insiders (CIs) as informants in this qualitative study. CIs share cultural commonalities such as language, social background and culture and are considered accepted mem...

This ethnographic study concentrates on the co-creation of experiential value between the tourist and tour guide in a single historic tourism site; Huntingdon Castle, Ireland. Built upon the principles of service dominant logic, the research explores how storytelling acts as an engagement platform and value enhancing strategic resource. In doing so...

Purpose This article explores the value of engaging a hybrid learning strategy in a micro-enterprise setting when responding to a global pandemic. The research question asks: “Does a hybrid learning strategy enhance a micro-enterprise's response to extreme events?”. Design/methodology/approach A micro-enterprise owner–manager (OM) reflects on thei...

This research explores senior tourism adaptive strategizing capabilities through the lens of micro-firm owner managers. The findings derived from 24 qualitative tourism practitioner interviews demonstrated that senior tourism engagement does not necessitate a profound strategic change of direction or extensive resource reconfiguration. However, the...

Purpose This paper aims to develop a process model of business-to-business (B2B) relationship recovery after a transgression has placed the future of the relationship in doubt. The research questions ask, How are relationships recovered? and How does the relationship strength pre-transgression influence the recovery process? Design/methodology/app...

This chapter offers insight into how knowledgeKnowledgecodificationCodification has the potential to capture varying levels of tacitTacit content in pursuit of enhanced innovation and ultimately, competitive advantageCompetitive advantage. It recognizes the need for and importance of codifying knowledge in a variety of ways to allow codified materi...

This paper explores how individual, dyad and team levels of learning interact in a public healthcare medical team when managing patient care. The resultant learning framework provides greater insight into how to facilitate effective teamwork and learning interactions in medical teams and for those who are interested in the consistency and quality...

This paper explores the role of adaptive capability development among micro-tourism owner-managers (OMs) in pursuit of the niche potential of the evolving senior tourism market. We discuss strategic adaptive capability development in a tourism micro-firm environment, prior to outlining the research context and adopted interview method used to elici...

Exploring the Cloud Computing (CC) commercial landscape as it matures; this book asserts that the key ingredient in sustaining the Software as a Service (SaaS) business model is subscription renewal. Chronicling the evolution and future trajectory of the CC concept, the authors examine the new paradigm it is creating for the distribution of compute...

This research explores the enablers of green innovation in the micro-firm, applying a resource based view. The research poses the question, how are resources used to enable green innovation in a micro-firm? The authors apply a cross-country multi-case method, studying micro-firms in Ireland and Canada over a twelve month period. Results show that p...

Purpose This paper explores the role of goal setting and external accountability mechanisms in embedding strategic learning plans in small firms. The research question asks, how are strategic learning plans embedded in small firms? Design/methodology/approach Insights from in-depth action research carried out with three small firm owner-managers (...

Purpose This paper explores the role of goal setting and external accountability mechanisms in embedding strategic learning plans in small firms. The research question asks, does an external learning intervention influence how strategic learning plans are embedded in small firms? Design/methodology/approach Insights from in-depth action research c...

Chapter 2 presents a comprehensive review of literature that is directly relevant to understanding the concept of the “outsider,” and, more specifically, the “outsider” business leader. The chapter begins by providing a literature-informed background and rationale to the current book. Next, the idea of “outsiderness” is explored and outsider types...

This final chapter brings together a number of key themes that have been identified in the individual leader chapters, and examines these in the context of existing literature. Initially, the authors consider what an outsider leader is, before assessing what it is that outsider leaders bring to organisations by way of benefits. The arrival of the o...

This chapter considers the serial entrepreneur as an outsider business leader. John Teeling heads up several exploration companies including Botswana Diamonds and Petrel, as well as Great Northern Distillery, which produces Teeling Whiskey. Tracking John Teeling’s career from his first business venture at the age of 14 years old, the chapter chroni...

The chapter examines the transition made by a prominent political leader (Roland Koch) to become CEO of a very large publicly listed construction group in Germany. The chapter highlights the importance for an outsider of gaining the acceptance of insiders. An entry strategy for outsider leaders is discussed that entails adopting a “deep dive” into...

This chapter considers non-family leadership in a family firm. This complex role is reflected upon by Anthony Dinan, former MD of Thomas Crosbie Holdings, at one time the largest family-owned Print and Media Corporation in Ireland. Anthony reflects on being the first outsider MD in a five-generation family firm and the challenges and opportunities...

This chapter looks at the evolution of a technology leader trajectory through a female lens. It begins by considering the debate around gender imbalance in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) sector and contemplates the challenges and opportunities in addressing this anomaly. It then discusses the career of a female outsider...

Encompassing interviews with managing directors and CEOs, this book explores the role of business outsiders as leaders. Viewing the term ‘outsider’ in a broad sense, the book considers leader background, perspective, gender, training and family membership and examines the implications, challenges and benefits brought by outsider leaders to their re...

The chapter examines a “serial outsider leader” (Fiacra Nagle) who has been an outsider on a number of occasions as a professional manager/CEO. After considering his early life and career, the chapter goes on to discuss the transition from outsider to insider and how this occurs gradually over time. Also contemplated is the value of balancing outsi...

In this chapter, the entrepreneurial leader (Dennis Van Booma) of a growing Dutch technology business (Procentec) is presented. While spending the majority of his working life in one company, the leader adopts an outsider stance and perspective in a number of ways to best serve the needs of the business. In this context, while small in size, the bu...

This chapter discusses the challenges of an outsider leader running a business where the founder remains in an active role in the business. Grace O’Shaughnessy, the youngest business leader featured in this publication, considers her early management career in Kylemore Bakery and Lir Chocolates, each founder/family businesses, before reflecting on...

This chapter explores the perceived impact of strategic learning plans on growth-focussed small service firms from the owner-manager’s (OM) perspective. Adopting a social learning lens, the study employs the action research method, involving three cycles performed over a 12-month period wherein the authors studied the co-created design and implemen...

While many operations management journals are now publishing interpretive studies, there is still a need for more material on how to carry out such work under the interpretive gestalt. By offering a research account of a longitudinal interpretive multi-case study, this paper seeks to contribute to the literary gap in ‘how to do it [interpretive res...

It is argued that strategizing provides firms with deep and sustainable sources of competitive advantage. Despite an emerging literature base on the strategic management of the micro firm, there is limited research into strategizing in context. This article investigates the nature of strategizing in the micro firm. A critical review of the literatu...

This study examines the role of trust in building rural tourism micro firm network engagement in three case environments in Ireland, Canada and the USA. Researchers have rarely addressed the role of trust in tourism business relationships beyond acknowledging that it is a critical factor in network relationships/exchanges. This study contributes to...

Purpose This paper aims to develop a framework of executive capability for innovation in the Irish seaport context. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses an approach based on a critical review of literature. The paper takes the form of a critical review of academic literature, focussed by dynamic managerial capabilities theory. Specifically...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to report on an action learning (AL) approach to curriculum design and delivery of a two-year part-time executive masters program, facilitated in part through a longitudinal work-based action research project. Program participants were a mix of mid- to senior managers operating in both the public and private se...

Background While no normative definition exists, medical professionalism emphasises a set of values, behaviours and relationships that underpin public trust in a physician. The empirical setting for this study is the Irish health care system where GPs receive income through a unique mix of private fee income and state funded capitation. GPs’ income...

Hospitality micro firms, those with fewer than ten employees, represent the vast majority of hospitality providers worldwide. Innovation is regularly cited as a core capability in sustaining micro firm success; however, little is known about how dynamic innovation capability is developed and honed in the hospitality micro firm environment. This dis...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to evaluate key criteria underpinning network-facilitated green innovation capability development in micro-firms. Design/methodology/approach Micro-firms, those firms with less than ten full-time employees, need to continuously innovate in order to sustain their business in the emerging green economy. This st...

Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Consumer (B2C) markets are discussed before B2B Software as a Service (SaaS) supplier–subscriber relationships are explored. The progressive customer relationship management (CRM) framework is adapted to the B2B SaaS market, incorporating a guide to data mining in this environment. Subscriber needs, motiva...

Having proposed a recurring revenue model for the Cloud Computing (CC) Software as a Service (SaaS) market, this chapter explores the model in practice. The authors gained access to a data set containing over 10,000 Business-to-Business (B2B) SaaS customer exit data records, which listed both full and partial attritions, coupled with the historic r...

This chapter presents a Business-to-Business (B2B) Cloud Computing (CC) Software as a Service (SaaS) revenue renewal model, built upon the B2B taxonomy and the experience factors framework presented in Chap. 6. A key tenet of this model is that the user is never the owner of the software, but rather has the right to access, use or reference the kno...

This chapter seeks to define Cloud Computing (CC) and charts the evolution of the CC concept. The attributes of the CC computing environment include three types of CC—Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). The ongoing need for access to more and more powerful computing technologies is disc...

A revenue model describes the revenue flow in a business and the firm’s underlying framework for generating sales. Customers in the Business-Business (B2B) Software as a Service (SaaS) relationship subscribe to a specific level of service, normally for a defined period of time wherein the ‘per user’ fee paid will typically be a fraction of the trad...

The response rates received from the surveyed cohort in this study indicate a relationship ambivalence between subscriber and provider that is close to that of a utility. This has implications for the customer lifetime value (CLV) expectations inherent in the Cloud Computing (CC) Software as a Service (SaaS) business model. In addition, a perceived...

As software services become more ubiquitous, a sustainable subscriber base and its associated revenue are key to the Software as a Service (SaaS) provider’s competitive advantage. This chapter contemplates ‘what makes a subscriber renew’ by extrapolating the findings and outcomes of prior chapters in the presentation of revenue renewal taxonomy via...

This chapter provides an overview of the evolution of the Cloud Computing (CC) Software as a Service (SaaS) concept and its emergence of the 5th utility. Within CC, SaaS is defined as a software licencing and hosted delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and delivered as a service over the Internet. The chapter goes on...

Exploring the Cloud Computing (CC) commercial landscape as it matures; this book asserts that the key ingredient in sustaining the Software as a Service (SaaS) business model is subscription renewal. Chronicling the evolution and future trajectory of the CC concept, the authors examine the new paradigm it is creating for the distribution of compute...

The research considers a recently developed model of managerial capability for innovation in the microfirm context. Microfirms are firms employing less than 10 people. The research takes an interpretivist methodological approach based on a pilot study of five in-depth interviews with owner/managers of tourism microfirms. Findings indicate the incre...

This paper addresses the debate on rigour and relevance in management research to identify barriers to progress and identify the challenges and opportunities in moving forward. We identify strong calls from both North American and European literatures for a move to close this gap. It has, however, been 20 years since Hambrick asked scholars ‘What i...

Focusing on the Small and Medium sized Enterprise (SME) sector, this paper presents the owner manager (OM) process of evaluating business to business (B2B) relationships facing dissolution. Although research has brought new insights to the dissolution of relationships, few researchers have empirically examined how B2B relationships facing dissoluti...

This paper explores the design and operationalization of a food and beverage module, introduced onto a hospitality management program in a higher education institute (HEI) in pursuit of enhanced service competencies (e.g. knowledge, skills and attitudes) among its students. The goal of this research is to realign the teaching of hospitality managem...

The aim of this paper is to review the relevant literature on organisational learning and offer a preliminary conceptual framework as a basis to explore how the multi-levels of individual learning and team learning interact in a public healthcare organisation. The organisational learning literature highlights a need for further understanding of how...

The failure of generic training solutions to address the unique learning needs of tourism micro firms has led to the introduction of more flexible educational offerings, including academe-led facilitated learning networks (FLN). FLNs seek to develop micro firm competencies and cooperative norms to promote self-led learning and practice, however lit...

Knowledge sharing enhances the capability of rural microfirms to facilitate economic growth, competitiveness and employment. Knowledge exchange research predominantly focuses on larger firms in the same or related industries, and is of limited relevance in a rural micro-firm context, owing to significant differences in resource availability which c...

Knowledge sharing enhances the capability of rural micro-firms to facilitate economic growth, competitiveness and employment. Knowledge exchange research predominantly focuses on larger firms in the same or related industries, and is of limited relevance in a rural micro-firm context, owing to significant differences in resource availability which...

The GIFT concept hinges on integrated stakeholder engagement between government agencies, HEIs, SMEs, economic support groups and rural development groups, underpinned by a learning community philosophy. Once conceived, GIFT gathered cross-country/regional HEI colleagues from the natural, social and physical sciences to pursue the design, developme...

This book explores green innovation and future technology skill development within regional small to medium sized enterprises. Notwithstanding the goals of a greener Europe, there has been little debate as to how the skills required to fulfil the goals of sustainable development can be imparted within regions and within rural business communities....

This paper presents findings from research associated with a tourism micro-firm facilitated learning programme, carried out over a four-year period. Considering traditional educational interventions have had limited impact on micro-firm activities; the researchers propose an alternative approach to meeting the learning needs of micro-firms which en...

This book explores green innovation and future technology skill development within regional small to medium sized enterprises. Notwithstanding the goals of a greener Europe, there has been little debate as to how the skills required to fulfil the goals of sustainable development can be imparted within regions and particularly, within rural business...

This chapter provides the knowledge exchange dynamic in a micro-firm learning network environment over a four year period, and explores the impact of knowledge hoarding on micro-firm learning network exchange. It describes the longitudinal interpretive case methodology employed in research and subsequently presents the results of this study. The ch...

PurposeThis study tracked rural network activity among regional stakeholders, including government supported agencies, educational institutes, indigenous business representatives, economic support organizations and rural community groups. It explored the relationships that exist between regional stakeholders in a collaborative rural network environ...

This paper examines the experience and outcomes associated with an applied Change Management Module, completed as part of an executive MBA programme, built on the principles of critical thinking and reflective practice, with a distinct action learning approach to curriculum delivery and assignment completion. The action learning ethos seeks to faci...

In the rural context, inclusive stakeholder networks are considered pivotal in sustaining rural development; while a growing body of micro-firm tourism research acknowledges the value of collaborative learning networks and the learning relationships within. However, the question remains whether such networks can transition from facilitated cooperat...

Community pharmacy is often portrayed as a marriage of professional and business roles in a commercial domain, thereby creating a need for, and value in, pursuing the development of professional competencies for use in the community pharmacy business. In context, professional judgement is the application of knowledge, skills and attitudes (competen...

Micro-firms dominate the tourism sector internationally, yet there is a notable absence of studies specifically relating to their learning interactions with other tourism firms. Even when studied, a social learning lens is rarely applied in either micro-firm or tourism learning network research despite its relevance in this domain. In seeking to un...

Purpose – The paper has been developed from a critical review of available literature drawn from the micro firm, managerial capability and innovation management fields. The paper aims to address these issues. Design/methodology/approach – The paper has been developed from a critical review of available literature drawn from the micro firm, manager...

The aim of this paper is to discuss an insider action research project concerned with establishing an audit team, with responsibility for addressing a clinical and social services ‘assurance gap’ at corporate level in a healthcare organisation. The focus of the research account is on the knowledge that was generated internally by establishing the a...

Facilitated networks are regularly cited in tourism literature as a means to promote sustainable competitive advantage in small tourism firms. These networks function for a variety of reasons including marketing, innovation and research and development; however learning networks specifically seek to encourage learning among tourism entrepreneurs. O...

Learning networks are highlighted in contemporary literature as a means of leveraging resources to create and sustain competitive advantage in micro-firms. Despite their importance in the context of micro-firm development, micro-firm learning, learning processes and networks have previously been neglected as an area of academic study, and there is...

While there is a growing interest in learning networks, relatively little research has been published with a specific tourism focus. Thus, this paper is concerned with tourism learning networks (TLN) and the role of virtual learning environments (VLE) in sustaining member viability following facilitated TLN interaction. The authors investigate user...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss a resource‐based approach for exploring micro‐firm management practice, as informed by the relevant literature. Specifically, the paper analyses available literature and catalogues micro‐firm and managerial competence criteria in pursuit of managerial insights in this environment. Design/methodology/...

This paper examines the operationalisation of a small firm learning network model within the Fáilte Ireland (Irish tourism development agency) Tourism Learning Network (TLN) programme. Emerging from multiple calls for small firm training interventions to be based on helping entrepreneurs to learn, this model is based on an action learning ethos, in...

This article explores the patient consent process in modern community pharmacy practice and discusses the related ethical dilemmas in this environment. The myth of appropriately informed consent, and irrefutable evidence as to a pharmacist’s intentions when advising a patient, are core issues for discussion. The objective is to clarify where such d...

Having reflected on the elusiveness of intuitive development in management education in discussion with fellow academics and in my own research, I sought to develop a program for pre-experience Masters in Business (MBS) students to cultivate professional intuition, using a combination of applied learning tools and reflective practice techniques. Th...

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the Irish community pharmacy sector in the context of power relationship theory. Specifically, the paper analyses the relationship between dispensary software vendors and the independent community pharmacist; and explore dominant industry partners' influence on individual pharmacies in terms of tech...

Purpose The aim of this article is to offer insight into the factors affecting individual and organisational learning in a small business; specifically the identification of the learning relationships that are unique to the small business environment. Design/methodology/approach The authors apply Crossan et al. 's (1997, 1999) Organisational Learn...

Decision : Ireland's Business Review; 2006; 11, 2; ABI/INFORM Global pg. 10

While interpretive research is recognised for its value in providing contextual depth, results are often criticised in terms of validity, reliability and generalizability, referred to collectively as research legitimisation. This paper explores the criticisms levied on interpretive case studies and presents a research design that seeks to address t...

Facilitated networks are regularly cited in the literature as a means to promote sustainable competitive advantage in small tourism firms. These networks function for a variety of reasons including marketing and innovation; however learning networks specifically seek to encourage learning among entrepreneurs. Once established, the question remains...

The tourism learning network (TLN) initiative was established by Fáilte Ireland in response to research indicating that the learning needs of the small to medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Irish tourism industry were not being met*. Indeed, feedback from the SMEs indicated that they wanted training that was “short, snappy, relevant and local”*...