James R. Faulconbridge

James R. Faulconbridge
Lancaster University | LU · Department of Organisation, Work and Technology

BSc, PhD

About

148
Publications
52,912
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5,262
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Introduction
For full details of my research and publications see http://www.lums.lancs.ac.uk/owt/profiles/james-faulconbridge/ My research focuses a range of business services including accounting, architecture, advertising, executive search and law. In particular my projects have examined: 1) processes of globalisation; and (2) learning and innovation, most recently through a UKRI funded project on the ‘next generation professional service firm’ – focusing on the adoption of artificial intelligence
Additional affiliations
August 2012 - present
Lancaster University
Position
  • Professor (Full)

Publications

Publications (148)
Article
Full-text available
Machine learning algorithms, as one form of artificial intelligence (AI), are significant for professional work because they create the possibility for some predictions, interpretations and judgements that inform decision making to be made by algorithms. However, little is known about whether it is possible to transform professional work to incorpo...
Article
Full-text available
The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has generated extensive debates about the future of work in the professions. However, few studies take account of the potential for AI's disruptive effects to trigger robust defence by professionals of their interests and resources. By examining the adoption of AI in accounting and law professional service f...
Article
Full-text available
This study contributes to the technology management literature on the effects of IT on operations processes by examining the use of systems based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in professional services. The paper builds on key concepts on AI, information systems, professional work, and professional services operations management. A model is develo...
Article
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Below we provide responses to the ongoing debate sparked by Mirko Noordegraaf’s intervention in suggesting that we are moving toward forms of ‘connective professionalism’. Critics in this debate have objected to Noordegraaf in a number of ways. Some object to a conflation of ideal types and empirical description. Others assert that Noordegraaf sugg...
Article
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Existing studies have developed increasingly sophisticated accounts of the performative agency of valuation devices and their effects on markets and organizations. In particular, research has focused on the work of different actors to legitimize valuation devices and ensure their adoption, which then leads to performativity. This paper extends work...
Article
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Theorising the relationships between information communication technology (ICT), travel and work continues to preoccupy researchers interested in multinational corporations (MNCs). One motivation is the desire to understand ways of reducing demand for and the negative consequences of business travel. Existing studies offer, however, little in the w...
Article
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The impacts of digital technology on the spaces and practices of firms are of increasing concern, yet we know comparatively little about how emerging digital business models affect the ‘business spaces’ of service firms. We draw on case study research within five leading online fashion retailers to identify interweaving virtual and physical spaces...
Article
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The continued failure to put transport on a robust low carbon transition pathway calls for new approaches in policy and research. In studies of transport systems and patterns of mobility, established approaches to data collection, analysis and subsequent policy design have focused on capturing ‘typical’ conditions rather than identifying the potent...
Article
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This paper develops the concept of the subfield as a key feature of field-level change. In particular, it analyses how a subfield emerges, develops and consolidates itself over time. It does this through the concept of field partitioning whereby a formerly established field generates a distinct subfield with its own institutional infrastructure. Th...
Article
In the light of its surprising absence in extant literature in the domain of the sociology of work, specifically within the journal Work, Employment and Society, this article represents a ‘call to arms’ for research focused upon professional misconduct in healthcare. Specifically, interrogation of four dimensions of professional misconduct in healt...
Article
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Financial and business services (FABS) as intermediaries play a significant role in global production networks (GPNs). Yet the mechanisms through which they influence the activities of lead and supplier firms in GPNs have received little in-depth attention. The paper addresses this shortcoming and examines how global legal business services configu...
Chapter
Full-text available
In this chapter, we ask how those developing new and refurbishing existing offices produce building infrastructures that service a particular form of ‘normal’ office work. In particular, we focus on how various standards shape the design of office infrastructures and their utilisation of infrastructures of electricity provision. By standards, we me...
Chapter
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To date, virtual ways of working have yet to substantially reduce demand for business travel. Emerging research claims that virtual and physical work complement rather than substitute for one another. This suggests travel demand stems from business strategies and achieving business outcomes. In building on these ideas, this chapter draws upon Schat...
Article
In the light of its surprising absence in extant literature in the domain of the sociology of work, specifically within the journal Work, Employment and Society, this article represents a ‘call to arms’ for research focused upon professional misconduct in healthcare. Specifically, interrogation of four dimensions of professional misconduct in healt...
Article
Full-text available
This article explores the work and career of law firm partners in the context of a financialized organizational regime, highlighting the effects of performance measures and metrics on the ways partners see themselves and their careers. The empirical analysis reveals a sense of fear and anxiety as partners experience the scrutiny and pressure of fin...
Article
In recent decades, numerous professional service firms have gone 'global' in search of new markets and to support clients requiring services across nations. Whilst a lively debate has developed over the organizational implications of this phenomenon, the role of the firms in globalizing the wider world economy has received less attention. In this p...
Article
Full-text available
In recent decades, numerous professional service firms have gone 'global' in search of new markets and to support clients requiring services across nations. Whilst a lively debate has developed over the organizational implications of this phenomenon, the role of the firms in globalizing the wider world economy has received less attention. In this p...
Article
Full-text available
Professional misconduct has become seemingly ubiquitous in recent decades. However, to date there has been little sustained effort to theorize the phenomenon of professional misconduct, how this relates to professional organizations, and how this may contribute to broader patterns of corruption and wrongdoing. In response to this gap, in this contr...
Article
Karl Polanyi is arguably one of the most significant economic sociologists. At first glance the links between Polanyi’s ideas about markets, society and institutions and strategy may not be obvious. However, there is a hereto unrecognised link between recent writing about institutions and strategy and Polanyi’s work. In this paper we, therefore, ch...
Article
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This paper develops existing work on building design through a focus on one important yet understudied form of regulation: market standards. Market standards are agreed upon definitions of 'necessary' provision in buildings and are fundamental in 'formatting' markets and determining the value of a building in the market. The paper presents a case s...
Article
Full-text available
Karl Polanyi is arguably one of the most significant economic sociologists. At first glance the links between Polanyi's ideas about markets, society and institutions and strategy may not be obvious. However, there is a hereto unrecognised link between recent writing about institutions and strategy and Polanyi's work. In this paper we, therefore, ch...
Article
Full-text available
This Exchanges commentary is concerned with the health of Economic Geography as a sub-discipline, and economic geography (as a wider community of practice) in one of its historical heartlands, the UK. Against a backdrop of prior achievement, recent years have witnessed a noticeable migration of economic geographers in the UK from Departments of Geo...
Chapter
This chapter investigates the cities as strategic places in contemporary globalization using the methodology developed as world city network analysis. It explores different ways in which cities are being strategic, drawing on the literature dealing with selected individual cities. The chapter presents the basic model which specifies contemporary in...
Chapter
Full-text available
Who controls how transnational issues are defined and treated? In recent decades professional coordination on a range of issues has been elevated to the transnational level. International organizations, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and firms all make efforts to control these issues. This volume shifts focus away from looking at organizatio...
Chapter
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This chapter examines how critical analysis of communities within and without of the corporation can provide valuable insights into the way communities emerge, are leveraged, are imbued with power and politics, and are used to serve the interests of different parties. The starting point for discussions is geographical and organization studies liter...
Chapter
There are three main trends in the corporate spatial organization of producer services: the urban fix of firms, the internationalization of firms, and the spatial organization used to coordinate the work of firms. Short case studies of accountancy, executive search, and executive education producer service firms are used to illustrate the key theme...
Technical Report
Key points • The ability to transfer large amounts of data electronically, share work computer screens and conduct videoconferencing enables some forms of business activity to take place without travel. • The idea that communications technology is a substitute for business travel is flawed. Virtual ways of working lead to a reconfiguration rather t...
Article
Full-text available
Professional misconduct has become seemingly ubiquitous in recent decades. However, to date there has been little sustained effort to theorize the phenomenon of professional misconduct, how this relates to professional organizations, and how this may contribute to broader patterns of corruption and wrongdoing. In response to this gap, in this contr...
Article
Full-text available
The automobile commute makes an important contribution to carbon emissions but has proven stubbornly resistant to modal shift policy initiatives. In this paper we use theories of social practice to develop insights into why this stubbornness might exist, and what might help accelerate transitions to bus-and cycle-commuting. By analyzing qualitative...
Article
Since the launch of this journal 10 years ago, the field of mobilities research has developed at a rapid pace. In this editorial introduction, we explore how this development has been curated, how the field has evolved and what maturation might mean for mobilities research. After reviewing how early editorials encouraged particular trajectories of...
Article
This article explores the obligations of presence behind work-related mobility for academics in internationalizing higher education systems. By further developing John Urry’s concept of ‘meetingness’, the article reveals how academics depend on corporeal and virtual mobility to create and maintain a networked professional life outside their own ins...
Article
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This paper engages with theoretical insights into understanding everyday travel (from the mobility turn and theories of social practice) in an analysis of everyday mobility using data from ethnographic research. The analysis of mobile performances draws attention to how travellers incorporate valued dispersed practices into mobility. We argue that...
Article
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Questions remain about the factors that influence the ability of transnational corporations (TNCs) to shape processes of institutional change. In particular, questions about power relations need more attention. To address such questions, this article develops a neo-institutional theory-inspired analysis of the case of English law firms and their im...
Chapter
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Professions have traditionally been thought to act as 'social trustees' of key skills for the benefit of society as a whole or as 'gatekeepers' who play a fundamental role in maintaining the integrity of broader institutions. Yet recent scandals from Enron to Parmalat and the recent financial crisis call into question the fiduciary role played by t...
Article
The globalization of sustainable building assessment models is now a familiar topic, as are related debates about the degrees of local sensitivity of such models. The contribution of this paper is to examine empirically the way marketization affects the mutation of models as they travel, and the implications of this for local sensitivity. By market...
Article
Architecture and urban planning have always been subject to, and affected by, processes of transnational cultural exchange and professional networking. Yet, the modes and geographies of knowledge mobility in urban development have matured in the last two decades, with various forces resulting in faster, more frequent and more impactful forms of tra...
Article
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In this paper we use the case of the internationalization of English law firms into Italy, and the refocusing of their operations on the city of Milan, to make a number of contributions to existing literatures on responses to institutional complexity. Firstly, we contribute to the literature on how organizations address complexity at the field leve...
Conference Paper
Personal travel is responsible for a significant proportion of both global carbon emissions and energy use but is often held to be particularly difficult to reduce through changing behaviour rather than through technological adaptation. This is because most travel is considered to be a ‘habitual’ behaviour which is relatively fixed and possesses a...
Article
This paper considers how work on knowledge and policy mobilities can be used to analyse the processes behind and the local impacts of mobile sustainable building assessment models such as BREEAM and LEED. After reviewing existing concerns and critiques relating to the impacts of these models on the local sensitivity of sustainable building designs,...
Chapter
Executive search agencies now play a central role in elite labor markets. This article traces the rise of the industry in the 20th century and the globalization of key agencies. The role of executive search agencies in the identification, selection, and recruitment of executives is described, and the techniques developed by search firms are outline...
Conference Paper
Full-text available
This paper sets out eight key contentions about the need to re-think transport policy that emerged from three years of quantitative and qualitative research into people’s travel practices. Based on these contentions we suggest the need for a ‘toolkit’ to be assembled to take a new approach to enabling a transition to the wider use of low carbon mob...
Chapter
Full-text available
This chapter reveals that three fundamental lines of research about professional service firms – (a) organizational form, management and governance, (b) the varying roles and effects of knowledge networking via databases versus knowing in practice through communities, and (c) the jurisdiction of a firm and claims about exclusive rights over a marke...
Article
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James Faulconbridge is Professor of Transnational Management at Lancaster University. His research focuses upon the globalisation of professional service firms. Recent articles have examined the nature of stretched communities of learning in such firms, and institutional effects on globalising firms. He is co-author of The Globalisation of Adverti...
Article
In this paper we use the case of the internationalization of English law firms into Italy, and the refocusing of their operations on the city of Milan, to make two contributions to existing literatures on MNCs’ responses to institutional complexity. Firstly, we show through our longitudinal qualitative analysis that responses are determined by the...
Article
Sassen's identification of global cities as “strategic places” is explored through world city network analysis. This involves searching out advanced producer service (APS) firms that constitute “strategic networks,” from whose activities strategic places can be defined. Twenty-five out of 175 APS firms are found to be strategic, and from their offi...
Article
Full-text available
In this paper we argue that postgraduate education forms an important, but hitherto neglected, element in the distinctive institutional landscape of the City of London. In particular, and drawing on research into early-career financial and legal elites in the City, we show how postgraduate education tailored to the demands of employers within Londo...
Chapter
Full-text available
Article
The production and exchange of knowledge are inextricably linked to different compulsions to corporeal proximity and therefore travel. As primary producers and transferors of knowledge, academics are no exception to this rule, and their compulsions seem to be further propelled by institutional discourses regarding the alleged virtues of “internatio...
Article
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There are significant opportunities to learn from but also develop the literature on multinational corporations (MNCs) when analysing bottom of the pyramid (BOP) markets. This short review explores three potential opportunities relating to market making dynamics, knowledge mobilities and embedded power geometries. Each is explored in turn and helps...
Article
Full-text available
Through a historical case study of the internationalization of large English law firms into Italy, this paper uses Scott’s (2005) three pillars approach to look at how local institutions constrain and mediate the strategies and practices of global professional services firms. In doing so, it corrects the economic bias in the growing body of literat...
Article
Buildings are responsible for on average 43 per cent of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions, a figure that can rise to 70 per cent in cities. Consequently, ‘green’ building design has been focused on in efforts to reduce environmental degradation and change. It has been suggested, however, that collective learning and the mobilisation of knowled...
Article
Full-text available
How can the modalities and whereabouts of power – and specifically the spatiotemporal contingencies and reach of power relations – be more effectively studied? This paper shows how issues of validity and reflexivity restrict existing empirical work’s ability to advance understandings of power, and demonstrates how such issues can be overcome throug...
Article
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The authors examine the ways in which recruitment and selection processes facilitate the reproduction of elites and elite cultures within City law firms. The research is based upon original research carried out during 2009, consisting of in-depth semistructured interviews, semiotic and content analyses of recruitment materials and websites, and the...
Article
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This paper highlights the effects of heterogeneous institutional contexts on transnational professional service firms, a relatively understudied issue. Specifically the paper provides empirical analysis of how the specificities of the Italian institutional context affect the activities of English legal professional service firms in Milan. This reve...
Article
Full-text available
Globalization has significant implications for the professions, with the societies and the regulators around them changing and the realities of professional work in large organizations taking on increasingly transnational dimensions. However, while there is no lack of empirical studies of the globalization of individual professions and firms, the i...
Article
Globalization has significant implications for the professions, with the societies and the regulators around them changing and the realities of professional work in large organizations taking on increasingly transnational dimensions. However, while there is no lack of empirical studies of the globalization of individual professions and firms, the i...
Article
In this article we highlight the effects of heterogeneous institutional contexts on transnational professional service firms, a relatively poorly studied issue. Specifically, we provide empirical analysis of how the specificities of the Italian institutional context affect the activities of English legal professional service firms in Milan. This re...
Chapter
Full-text available
Please cite as Faulconbridge JR. Jones A (2012) The geography of management consultancy firms. In Clark T. Kipping, M. (Eds) The Oxford handbook of management consulting. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 225-243.
Article
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This article discusses the geographies of management consultancy firms. It first considers some general insights that can be collected from studies of knowledge-intensive producer services, and then takes a look at the applicability of the insights to management consultancy firms in relevant literature. The next section studies two primary and impo...
Article
The objective of this Viewpoint is to scrutinize the commonsensical association between ‘business travel’ and ‘business class travel’. Indeed, in research on theory and practice in air transport, both concepts are often assumed to be almost one and the same. For instance, the number of ‘business visitors’ at an airport is often guesstimated based o...
Article
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This article explores patterns of professionalization in a number of 'new' knowledge-based occupations: management consultancy, project management and executive headhunters. Against a general assumption in the literature that such occupations are unwilling and/ or incapable to professionalize, this article suggests how a professionalization project...
Article
Research highlights ► The analytical connection between ‘business travel’ and ‘business class travel’ should be treated as an assumption that needs constant validation and specification rather than as a ground truth.
Chapter
Full-text available
Free download available at https://hdl.handle.net/2134/8735 | DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781446201114.n13
Book
The role of advertising in everyday life and as a major employer in post-industrial economies is intimately bound up with processes of contemporary globalization. At centre of the advertising industry are the global advertising agencies which have an important role in developing global brands both nationally and internationally. This book indentifi...
Article
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Studying sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) can tell us a lot about the financial services sector. Specifically, in this commentary I suggest that studying the reactions of financial service providers, such as asset managers but also the broader complex of professional services such as accounting and law that ‘lubricate’ (Dicken, 2007) the financial sys...
Article
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Urbanists have long held an interest in the design of spaces, objects and environments as a metaphorical expression of capitalist power. The processes of urbanization that build and tear up the capitalist city have often been treated as power-saturated, particularly by critical geographers and sociologists, and as a result the discourses and visual...
Article
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There is no abstract for this paper.
Article
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It is surprising that, despite widespread interest in the cultural industries, few questions have been asked about the geographies of learning and innovation in architecture. Particularly relevant to global architects are debates about the way stretched relational spaces and ‘global’ communities of practice connect individuals, firms, and regions i...
Article
Full-text available
Purpose This paper aims to explore the value of transdisciplinary dialogues for advancing critical perspectives on international business. Specifically, it seeks to consider how conceptualisations of transnational corporations as embedded social communities can be advanced through dialogues and collaborations between two broadly defined scholarly c...
Article
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There is widespread and longstanding interest in the "production of markets" and the various political- and cultural-economic strategies associated with demand creation. The aim of this paper is to show how the professions, because of their central role in contemporary economic and social life, provide a particularly interesting example of both the...

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