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Entering a Dialogue: Positioning Case Study Findings towards Theory
Abstract
Demonstrating a theoretical contribution is seen as a central challenge in case study research; however, the literature provides little guidance on the crucial step of positioning the study's theoretical claims in relationship to prior theory. This paper addresses the question of how to enter into a dialogue with extant theory in theory building case study research in the field of management. We present three ways of positioning to demonstrate a theoretical contribution, illustrating each with examples from recent case studies drawing on the dynamic capabilities approach. By distinguishing between seeking complementarities and dissimilarities in theory building, we add to this discussion and shed light on the benefits of entering a synergistic, antagonistic and pluralistic dialogue for making a significant theoretical contribution. Methodologically, we more fully specify how case study researchers can elaborate upon their theoretical claims in relation to prior theory.
... Our qualitative multiple case study research strategy draws on the assumptions of interpretivism and applies inductive methods (Charmaz, 2008;Ridder, Hoon and Mccandless Baluch, 2014). We conducted semi-structured interviews with multiple informants to enter their worlds and get close to real-life experiences (Denzin, 1978). ...
... Our analytical strategy was centred on developing an understanding of each case, comparing patterns across cases (Gerring, 2007) and developing theoretical analysis (Ridder et al., 2014). Detailed case descriptions and analytical memos were used to capture and share our observations and therefore, shape our theoretical focus (Charmaz, 2006). ...
... A necessary but challenging aspect of theory-building and elaboration is juxtaposing inductively-derived concepts and theoretical ideas in relation to existing theories (e.g., Gioia et al., 2013;Ridder et al., 2014). Exercises of judgement were required in how to draw comparisons between data and theories throughout the research process (Ridder et al.;Corley and Gioia, 2011). ...
Employee wellbeing activities constitute a space for organisations to realise a shared agenda with employees, and therefore a means to pursue mutuality. The pursuit of mutuality draws on assumptions of reciprocity in social exchange theory (SET) but is dynamic and put under pressure by external shocks. The first UK COVID-19 lockdown provided the setting to explore how organisations addressed employee wellbeing concerns under conditions of crisis. Using qualitative data from five organisations, we identify authenticity-building, which is the constellation of past and present activities through which organisations channel efforts to be authentic in their concern for employees. Attributions of authenticity emerge as fundamental to authenticity-building, while authenticity-work (the organisation noticing, understanding and acting on shifts in interests) is enabled by dialogic processes. Authenticity-building shifts the quality of the exchange relationship to allow for mutual benefits and is therefore, a vital and dynamic component of mutuality. Our findings contribute to the mutuality literature by providing a theoretically-embedded extension of SET and show how organisations may become more (or less) authentic within the context of the employment relationship. We highlight the complexity of organisational endeavour for mutuality and show how mutuality need not be compromised during external shocks.
... A case study is an empirical inquiry that "investigates a contemporary phenomenon (the 'case') in depth and within its realworld context" (Yin, 2018, p. 15). Given the limited insights we have regarding the use of history in managing strategy-identity-inconsistencies, conducting a case study enabled us to generate a new or extended conceptual understanding (Hall & Nordqvist, 2008), thereby elaborating theory from a rich set of qualitative data (Patton & Appelbaum, 2003;Ridder, Hoon, & McCandless Baluch, 2014). Choosing a single case approach allowed us to explore the case under study in detail and to benefit from the access to the rich historical data regarding strategy and identity in a family business (Yates, 2014). ...
... In addition, to specifically trace the strategy and identity development over time, relevant information was extracted in close connection to existing literature. This strategy was pursued to extend theoretical ideas and generate novel conceptual insights and distinctions (Ridder et al., 2014). To follow their development, the resulting codes were displayed with the help of visual maps. ...
... Finally, creating meaningful theoretical contributions in qualitative research entails moving iteratively between the phenomenal world and theory (Hoon & Baluch, 2019;Ridder et al., 2014). To this end, we iterated between our three instances of inconsistencies in strategy and identity as well as the literature on the use of history to develop a framework of how family firms draw on their past to address inconsistencies in strategy and identity. ...
Surviving a constantly changing environment is one of the challenges for the longevity of family firms. We assume that navigating through disruptive environments is inextricably linked to strategy and/or identity adaptation, modification and change. From a strategy-identity nexus point of view, these changes bear the risk of discontinuous shifts in strategy and identity. In this paper, we offer three types of strategy-identity inconsistencies and assume an alignment in strategy and identity as key for business survival. To uncover how family businesses bring order into their strategy and identity orientations, we draw upon the literature on the use of organizational history. We conducted a qualitative in-depth and longitudinal case study of a 100-year old German family business, which managed to survive major changes in the clothing industry. By exploring distinctive strategy-identity inconsistencies, we found three modes of the use of history (‘adjusting history’, ‘inventing history and historical forgetting’ and ‘invoking history’) whereby the family business drew upon historical accounts to ensure that identity was continuously enacted and expressed via strategy, and inferred, modified and affirmed from strategy. Our insights have significant implications not only for understanding the strategy-identity nexus in family businesses but also for research on the use of history.
... As is not uncommon in case study research, the eventual thrust of the research was constructed during the research process, as I entered into dialogue with previous theories and positioned the case study findings in that context (Ridder et al. 2012). ...
... Less is known about how these ambiguities emerge and are negotiated, however. Given the limited understanding of the research phenomenon in previous research, the main objective of the multiple case studies is to gather complementary material (Ridder et al. 2012), i.e., to find multiple examples of emerging ambiguities and a multitude of complementary ways of negotiating ambiguities. ...
Ambiguities have long intrigued design and new product development (NPD) researchers: The fascination seems rooted in an endeavor to understand how design outcomes may be created despite the ambiguous nature of such work. There are several classic contributions on how to categorize, avoid and approach ambiguities. Some of the newer theories have also pointed to benefits arising from temporarily sustaining ambiguity.
Little research has considered how ambiguities emerge, how ambiguities are sensed by practitioners, and the actions the practitioners take, either to harness or to reduce the generative and transformative power of ambiguity, however.
This is unfortunate, since ambiguities are at the heart of such knowing-work. If one does not know how to sense the emergence of ambiguities and act to reduce or harness their generative and transformative power, i.e. negotiate ambiguity, the work might become unproductive, confused, uncreative, and might require more energy and attention.
The purpose of this research is to portray how ambiguities emerge and are negotiated in knowing-work. This is achieved by drawing on two cases of design and NPD work, from practice epistemology.
The results indicated that the emerging ambiguities changed in the ongoing work, some being reduced, others becoming obsolete or persisting. The results also included five generalized actions to negotiate ambiguity: (1) constructing points of references, (2) mediating between perspectives, (3) anchoring in expertise, (4) disarming future resistance, and (5) creating shared visions.
This research has concluded that the very essence of design work concerns the emergence and fading away of ambiguity. The actions taken to negotiate ambiguity mediates the emergence of the design outcome. This research makes two contributions: first, it illustrates how ambiguities open up design work by creating a space for action; second, it illustrates how actions to negotiate ambiguity maneuver in this space for action.
... Comparative Thinking seeks complementarities or dissimilarities with related work (Mussweiler and Posten 2012;Marzano et al. 2001). Seeking complementarities refers to positioning findings to the extant theoretical stream (aka synergistic positioning) (Ridder et al. 2014). This favors knowledge accumulation by allowing researchers to elaborate a phenomenon in greater detail. ...
... This favors knowledge accumulation by allowing researchers to elaborate a phenomenon in greater detail. By contrast, seeking dissimilarities profiles one's work in contrast with theories that diverge in either the problem being tackled or the solution being proposed (aka antagonistic positioning) (Ridder et al. 2014). The aim is to fine-tune the hypothesis (i.e., the RQ) by challenging the researcher's assumptions. ...
Empirical Software Engineering rests on the understanding of practical problems and their solution counterparts. Frequently, solutions are not absolute but relative to the context where the problem is observed. This tends to imply that the solution and the problem unveil gradually together, and hence, researchers are not always in the position to state the research question (RQ) at the onset. Like software engineers when facing blurred requirements, researchers might not be familiar enough with the problem in the early phases of a research to properly scope their RQs (hereafter referred to as RQ Scoping). Here, the literature may play the role of the stakeholders in Agile methods: keeping the focus on the aspects that are essential (vs. accidental) of the RQ. Informed by Inductive Top-Down Theorizing, this article acknowledges RQ Scoping as iterative and incremental, entailing a conversation between the experimental work and literature reviewing. Yet, for literature reviewing to become “Agile” it is not only required to be driven by the RQ but also to have tool support. Tools might bring transparency and traceability, both factors especially welcome in a scenario characterized by testing (is my RQ relevant?) and adjustment (how can I make my RQ relevant?). Specifically, the advent of the RQ in close relationship with the literature advises for “Agile” literature reviewing to be conducted at the place where the literature is naturally kept: the Reference Management System (e.g., Mendeley). This article introduces the theoretical underpinnings, design principles, proof of concept and evaluation for FRAMEndeley, a Mendeley-integrated utility for RQ Scoping.
... Case studies are generally used to understand the dynamics of the studied subject within its setting or context, in contrast to lab experiments that try to isolate the phenomena from context (Eisenhardt and Graebner 2007). The goal is to try to identify what is happening and why, and to understand the effects of the situation and implications for regulatory actions, in order to develop or contribute to existing theory (Dubois and Gadde 2002;Ridder et al. 2014;Yin 2014). For this 18 See section 3.1. ...
... mplementing legislation, European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) guidelines, etc.) as archival data. Compiling the case study based on these 23 data allows us to identify themes in the data and connect these to the existing literature on contract automation to refine and extend existing theory, which is the ultimate goal of any case study (Ridder et. al. 2014). Understanding how algorithmic trading has been influenced by regulation and vice versa helps us to build a narrative about how regulation facilitated a specific shift in private governance on financial markets, namely the increased use of algorithms, which in return triggered changes in the institutions governing financial markets. The ...
An important part of the criticism raised against the adoption of advanced contract automation relates to the inflexibility of automated contracts. Drawing on rational choice theory, we explain why inflexibility, when seen as a constraint, can ultimately not only enhance welfare but also enable cooperation on algorithmic markets. This illuminates the need to address the inflexibility of contracting algorithms in a nuanced manner, distinguishing between inflexibility as a potentially beneficial constraint on the level of transactions, and inflexibility as a set of systemic risks and changes arising in markets employing inflexible contracting algorithms. Using algorithmic trading in financial markets as an example, we show how the automation of finance has brought about institutional changes in the form of new regulation to hedge against systemic risks from inflexibility. Analyzing the findings through the lens of new institutional economics, we explain how widespread adoption of contract automation can put pressure on institutions to change. We conclude with possible lessons that algorithmic finance can teach to markets deploying algorithmic contracting.
... In sync with the qualitative research methodology which is exploratory in nature and the objective of the study to seek to make sense and find practical answers of pro-growth CSR strategies and roles of large firms in township economies, a case study is an appropriate research design approach (Ridder et al., 2014;Gibbert et al., 2008). Creswell ...
... The study is aimed at developing rich, detailed, and nuanced descriptive data through working inductively to interpret meanings to understand the pro-growth CSR strategies for large firms in the Cape Flats Township economies (Ridder et al., 2014). This entailed a wider exploration of research questions so that there is a broadening of the CSR paradigm to strategic and sustainable concept of the business scholarship . ...
The study explored pro-growth corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies of large firms in township economies of Cape Town in South Africa. The reasoning behind the choice of Cape Town for this study was due to the entrenched economic inequalities in Cape Town which stems from the apartheid governance system that was abolished in 1994. The study argued that the remnants of the apartheid governance are still prevalent and frames the township economies of the Cape Flats.
The study found out that the endogenous growth of the Cape Flats township economies has been stunted and this aggravated the crime and murder rates in the Western Cape province of South Africa. Such an unfortunate trajectory still exists three decades after the abolishment of the apartheid system that propelled the minority races to higher echelons of wealth whilst leaving the black majority in adject poverty. These narratives have seen South Africa to be measured as one of the most unequal countries in the world.
The study argued that township economies can be used to stimulate endogenous economic growth by large corporations working in collaboration with institutional stakeholders through CSR programmes that are focused on pro-growth strategies. The pro-growth CSR strategies are arguably strategic and sustainable for township economies when they are underpinned by community economic development (CED) programmes, enterprise development (ED) programmes and the local development planning (LDP) programmes. The study puts forward a township economies capacity building CSR framework that can inform CSR initiatives and policies for large companies and listed companies operating within township economies.
The social capital theory was used to anchor the study as it postulates that positive social capital will increase the community wealth as well as benefiting individuals within the network structures of township economies. It therefore explores the relationships and classes of selected townships’ social networks of the business forums, township entrepreneurs, large firms, and local authority leaderships. The study was an embedded case study of the Cape Flats township economy pro-growth strategies within a period of ten years. The findings were limited to an inductive approach as no known similar study has been conducted before. The study was premised on the constructivism ontological and epistemological philosophical approach.
... Thematic data analysis methods were used to analyse interview questions, while content data analysis was used for observation and document analysis. The content analysis entails an inductive and interactive process to identify similarities and variances in the text that substantiate or disprove a proposed theory (Ridder et al., 2014). Data were broken up and separated into meaningful units, summarised and subsequently narrated. ...
Creativity is rapidly becoming central to scholarly discourse, research, and education practice. It is central to modern society and forms the basis for innovation and progress. In the current era, creative thinking skills (CTS) are pivotal skills one must possess to compete, succeed, and participate in the global economy. Therefore, the Ministry of Education must ensure the cultivation of such skills in today's classrooms to produce the kind of learners that will be the perfect fit for societal needs around the globe. As such, Creative Thinking Skills development is one of the core objectives of the South African Curriculum and Technology Education (TE), encouraging learners to be creative and innovative. The study examined how Technology teachers enact Creative Thinking Skills in their classrooms. The study was based on a qualitative research approach complemented by the case study research design. Purposive sampling was used to sample four Technology Education teachers as study participants. Data was collected through interviews and complemented by observations and document analysis concerning four Technology teachers. The study discovered that although the design process (DP) is available to support them, teachers still struggle to adequately articulate the idea of creative thinking and what it entails. The study suggests that to support learners, technology teachers should engage themselves in a lesson study approach with colleagues in nearby districts to receive continuous pedagogical training that will help them understand the nature and components of creative thinking.
... As the trust phenomenon and its interrelation with controls remain poorly understood, we aim to help fill this research gap by providing empirical insights into actor relationships to derive causal explanations. Therefore, we contribute to the theoretical debate over the trust-control nexus (Ridder et al., 2014), but these causal explanations can be derived 'if and only if researchers are attentive to the interaction between causal mechanisms and context regardless of whether the methods employed are small-sample, formal, statistical or interpretive' (Falleti & Lynch, 2009, p. 1143. Therefore, we also consider contextual factors identified in the literature (Long & Sitkin, 2018). ...
The high complexity of international supply chain (SC) relationships requires mechanisms to build trust among stakeholders. Therefore, understanding the underlying mechanisms of developing and maintaining high trust levels in exchange relationships is essential to managing associated SC risks. Third-party certification (TPC) is a widely used, control-based governance mechanism in organic food production that aims to help build trust. Drawing on the concepts of trust and control, this article presents an analytical framework for assessing TPC's effects on trust–control dynamics within food SCs. By using qualitative data on a buyer–supplier relationship between Cuba and Europe, this case illustrates the mutually reinforcing relationship between trust and control. We also demonstrate how trust is built across multiple levels. By considering contextual factors, the case illustrates controls' impact on building institutional trust while also pointing out TPC's limited efficacy in enhancing collaboration in SCs.
... This research adopted a case study strategy; chosen because it enables new understanding and insights into real-life contexts, such as that of the gig economy (Ridder et al., 2014;Yin, 2018). The case study was the physical gig economy of India; chosen because of its significant size and growth, with one estimate of nearly 8 million physical gig workers in 2020-21 and anticipated annual employment growth of 13% during the 2020s (Jain and Bansal, 2021;NITI Aayog, 2022). ...
The gig economy – a market system using digital platforms that matches workers and customers for short-term work opportunities – has spread rapidly worldwide, including in the global South. Despite significant research on this phenomenon across multiple disciplines, relatively little work has been undertaken from the perspective of development studies and using core development theories.
This paper analyses the development impact of the gig economy using Sen’s capability approach, operationalised through a framework of five freedoms: economic, political, social, informational and security. These freedoms were developed into a set of core capabilities deemed important for gig workers. Using this set as a framework, we gathered data from gig workers working for Uber and Zomato in India, and from secondary sources on gig work in India.
Some workers were able to realise capabilities such as decent income, freedom from ill-health and exclusion, and skill development. However, others were not, and there were general constraints on achievement of capabilities such as flexible working, freedom of association, information accessibility, social protection, and freedom from harm. On this basis we recommend ways to improve the development of freedoms through gig work.
The contribution here is not so much in exposing unknown features of gig work in the global South. Instead, we show how applying this development theory can enable a direct connection from gig work to development discourse; we develop a systematic and customisable framework for application of capability theory to gig work; and we show the new perspectives on gig work that a capability approach offers in terms of the role of context and choice, the differential value attributed to different freedoms, and the way in which those freedoms are interconnected.
... Combining top-down theorizing and inductive theory building, our main theoretical approach rests on combining top-down theorizing (Lee et al., 1999;Shepherd and Sutcliffe, 2011) and inductive theory building (Eisenhardt, 1989;Ridder et al., 2014) to explore our research question. Combining top-down theorizing and inductive theory building is more appropriate when a phenomenon is not comprehensively understood and there is little or no built theory that explains the emerging relationships between relevant concepts and the mechanisms through which these relationships operate (Christensen and Raynor, 2003). ...
We develop a conceptual framework to examine the potential impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and its associated technologies on five dimensions of management education. Through the analysis of the mission statement of 785 educational technology startups, we identify five mechanisms through which AI may benefit and transform the field of management education in a post-COVID-19 world. Our research is one of the first to propose a global and comprehensive framework to advance our understanding of the impact of a disruptive technology on the traditional and immutable field of higher-education, and more particularly on management education.
... The study is part of several interconnected research projects in which we study how ALMP is organized locally, in Göteborg and in other Swedish municipalities. The study is enriched by the knowledge developed from these interconnected studies, which have helped us develop an in-depth understanding of the case as well as fruitful contrasts between ALMP in different localities (Ridder, Hoon, and Baluch A 2012). This paper builds on the material that focuses particularly on the development of the Göteborg model. ...
In this paper, we trace how ‘social procurement’ (SP) translates from policy to practice. Launched as a driver of social innovation and sustainability, SP offers a novel way of strengthening the implementation of active labor market policies locally. Policy tools are not neutral instruments, however; they shape the substance of policy in decisive ways. That is, how tools are used determines what the policy ‘becomes’. Building on a qualitative case study, the analysis shows how local translations enabled new roles, approaches and purchasing practices, and how the practice of purchasing ‘social goods’ largely became a practice of providing competence to private enterprises. The implications of such a shift for local work on active labor market policies, as well as broader implications of attempts to use procurement to attain social sustainability, need to be further explored in future research.
... Our research consisted of a single-case study conducted to understand how an incumbent firm implements an agile transformation at scale (Yin, 2017). Allowing a profound understanding of real-world phenomena that are too complex for surveys, case studies are especially suitable for comprehensively exploring an event to test a proposed theoretical, or conceptual setting (Cha et al., 2015;Ridder et al., 2014;Yin, 2017). In this section, we describe the primary steps of our study, the research context and our methods of collecting and analyzing data. ...
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the key challenges experienced and lessons learned when organizations undergo large-scale agile transformations and seeks to answer the question of how incumbent firms achieve agility at scale.
Design/methodology/approach
Building on a case study of a multinational corporation seeking to scale up agility, the authors combined 36 semistructured interviews with secondary data from the organization to analyze its transformation since the early planning period.
Findings
The results show how incumbent firms develop and successfully integrate agility-enhancing capabilities to sense, seize and transform in times of digital transformation and rapid change. The findings highlight how agility can be established initially at the divisional level, namely with a key accelerator in the form of a center of competence, and later prepared to be scaled up across the organization. Moreover, the authors abstract and organize the findings according to the dynamic capabilities framework and offer propositions of how companies can achieve organizational agility by scaling up agility from a divisional to an organizational level.
Practical implications
Along with in-depth insights into agile transformations, this article provides practitioners with guidance for developing agility-enhancing capabilities within incumbent organizations and creating, scaling and managing agility across them.
Originality/value
Examining the case of a multinational corporation's exceptional, pioneering effort to scale agility, this article addresses the strategic importance of agility and explains how organizational agility can serve incumbent firms in industries characterized by uncertainty and intense competition.
... Indeed, a case study analysis allows a better understanding of actual work (Ridder et al., 2014) and managerial practices (Massaro et al., 2020). A case study methodology is also preferred when, as in this study, the RQs are "how" or "why" questions which are being asked about a contemporary set of events over which the investigators have no control (Yin, 2003). ...
Blockchain is a promising and emerging technology. Despite the number of studies on the subject, several studies require further exploration of the relationship between blockchain and social innovation. Moreover, there is an increasing interest in social entrepreneurship and in how technical solutions may address social or environmental issues. Hence, this work aims at understanding how a venture can apply blockchain technology for social good. The study adopts a qualitative approach based on a case study and builds on stakeholder theory as a theoretical background. The case study under review is a social venture working on Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) number 10. Our findings present four peculiarities of blockchain for social good: (i) reliability, (ii) transparency, (iii) decentralization, and (iv) accessibility. Moreover, the present study develops a framework on blockchain for social good based on the possible stakeholders' involvement. Finally, four challenges related to blockchain for social good are presented and discussed.
... According to Yin (Yin, 2014), case study methodology looks particularly promising when a how or why the question is asked on present issues where the researcher has no control. In addition, an insightful comprehension of a real-world case is facilitated through the use of case studies (Ridder, Hoon, & McCandless Baluch, 2014). ...
... Reflecting IB disciplinary convention (Piekkari et al., 2009), the case study design tends towards a more post-positivist positioning (Guba and Lincoln, 2005). This paper follows a 'deductive bottomup theorising' approach (Shepherd and Sutcliffe, 2011), which favours a sound a priori conceptualization of the main constructs (Gioia and Pitre, 1990;Ridder et al., 2014;Yin, 2013). This integration of the literature contributes to the study's internal validity by supporting the thematic coding of the data and its external validity, through analytical generalization (Yin, 2013). ...
In a globalized economy, multinational enterprises (MNEs) pursue competitiveness through cross-border knowledge exploitation and exploration in international R&D. It is conventionallyassumed that for subsidiaries to effectively access co-location advantages in knowledge milieusabroad, high levels of resource commitment are required. This paper analyses the relationshipbetween resource commitment and access to co-location advantages, first theoretically and thenthrough a case study of two MNEs in high-tech industries. We disaggregate the composite conceptof resource commitment and demonstrate the dimensions accentuated, respectively, by theresource-based view, transaction cost economics and institutional theory. Next, we analyse therelationship between resource commitment and co-location advantages for 11 R&D subsidiariesof the two MNEs. Based on this analysis, we discuss the relationships between the empiricalfindings and the theoretically differentiated resource commitment dimensions. The study findsthat high resource levels are less important for access to co-location advantages than conven-tionally assumed, while the level of commitment associated with allocated resources appearsconsistently to be important, lending more support for the relevance of institutional theory-related dimensions of resource commitment than the resource-based view-related ones. We alsofind support for the claim that more flexible governance arrangements promote access to co-location advantages in asset exploration.
... The design draws on a strong theoretical foundation for developing working propositions that Banking and automotive industries serve to draw attention to the central themes of the study (Yin, 2003). The design allows for credible theoretically embedded incremental theory development (Ridder et al., 2012) that extends existing theory (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007), specifically with respect to the degree to which FDI location motives can be associated with specific types of cities. The research design described here is presented in more detail in a supplementary online material file (to meet the word limit of the journal). ...
Purpose
Cities remain an understudied unit of analysis for understanding the motives of multinational enterprises’ (MNE) foreign direct investment (FDI), with subnational locations in International Business (IB) research to date predominantly captured via the phenomenon of agglomeration. As regional integration projects, such as the European Union and to a lesser degree NAFTA, increasingly reduce the importance of national institutional environments, this paper argues regional and subnational levels become more important for studying MNE location choice. This paper aims to evaluate the explanatory contribution of regional and subnational levels of analysis to understanding MNE location choice.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative deductive bottom-up multiple-case study research design is adopted to study the city location choices and FDI motives of six automotive and six commercial banking companies. These purposefully sampled manufacturing and service MNEs have different home countries and regional orientations. Data on their foreign investments across the extended Triad of Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific were collected for the time period of 2000–2021.
Findings
Findings suggest that different classes of city tend to attract specific types of FDI and that these patterns might vary across sectors and be influenced by the regional strategic orientations of MNEs. Industry-specific findings reveal the importance of related and support industries and partners in a city location for the automotive MNEs, while the commercial banks seek investment opportunities in cities that allow acquisition targets that have an attractive customer based and will improve their local market knowledge.
Originality/value
The findings provide evidence in support of MNEs in manufacturing and service industries perceiving the attractiveness of three city types in different ways across the Triad regions.
... Case studies are particularly relevant for questions related to recent and contemporary events in which there is no data length (Yin, 2009). Furthermore, the case studies offer a detailed understanding of a real-world scenario (Ridder, Hoon, & McCandless Baluch, 2014), which allows for bridging the gap between firm theory and practice, as qualitative methodologies are better suited for firm management (Massaro, Dumay, Garlatti, & Dal Mas, 2018). ...
Lending business crowdfunding (LBC) is an innovative financing tool for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and is especially useful in vulnerable and risky markets. To date, little is known about the information transparency and management dynamics of these new platforms, partly as a result of a lack of harmonization in the crowdfunding sector. This article draws on a qualitative multicase approach to map and classify the main characteristics of the credit supply provided by nine LBC platforms. The database is unique and makes this analysis particularly original. The study found some limitations to the information transparency on services offered to SMEs who could access LBC. Alongside this, some advantages emerged, such as the timeliness of the service, and some critical points, such as the high interest rates and the numerous fees applied to the crowd-borrowers. The study also has practical implications, allowing SMEs to carefully assess the costs and benefits of the LBC model.
... Secondly, this study used a single case study. The qualitative case study has been much used in the field of management and marketing (Boddy, 2016;Ridder et al., 2014;Runfola et al., 2017;Tsang, 2014;Yin, 2002). Yin (2002) argued that a single case study can be used for further theoretical development of a relevant field (Tsang, 2014). ...
... According to Yin (Yin, 2014), case study methodology looks particularly promising when a how or why the question is asked on present issues where the researcher has no control. In addition, an insightful comprehension of a real-world case is facilitated through the use of case studies (Ridder, Hoon, & McCandless Baluch, 2014). ...
Seldom do we think that we will witness something such as COVID-19 in our lifetime.
We have witnessed SARS before, and we have grown reading the history of Bubonic
plague, Cholera, Chicken Pox, and Typhoid. We have also felt proud learning the victory
of our forefathers over these diseases. However, when the First COVID patient was
found in late 2019 in the Wuhan province of China, even in our worst nightmare, we did
not think it would turn into the most devastating pandemic in human history so far.
Being one of the closest neighbors of China, the first COVID patient in India was identified
on January 27, 2020. Just 3days later, on January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization
(WHO) declared the 2019–20 Novel Corona Virus Diseases (COVID-19)
epidemic a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC).
... It is also one of the most widely used methodologies to bridge the gap between theory and practice (Piekkarri et al., 2009). The case is discussed with a synergistic positioning to theory, which helps to capitalize on and accumulate existing knowledge, allowing researchers to describe a phenomenon in greater detail (Ridder et al., 2014). ...
Purpose
Healthcare organizations worldwide were badly hit by the “surprise” of the pandemic. Hospitals in particular are trying hard to manage problems it caused, searching for solutions to protect the health of citizens and reorienting operations. The implementation of resilience solutions in the coping phase and the ability to react promptly and redefine activities is essential. Integrating crisis management and resiliency literature, this paper discusses how health organizations were able to cope with adversity during the crisis.
Design/methodology/approach
The research is conducted through a case study of a large Italian hospital, the Gemelli Polyclinic Foundation, which was one of the leading hospitals in the Italian response to the pandemic.
Findings
The case reports actions taken in order to continue functioning and to maintain core activities despite severe adversity. The overall response of the Gemelli was the result of the three types of response: behavioral (effective leadership), cognitive (rapid resource reallocation) and the contextual reinforcement (multiagency network response). The authors highlight how an integrative framework of crisis management and resiliency could be applied to healthcare organizations in the coping phase of the pandemic. The experience of the Gemelli can thus be useful for other hospitals and organizations facing external crises and for overall improvement of crisis management and resilience. Responding to crisis brings the opportunity to make innovations introduced during emergencies structural, and embed them moving forward.
Research limitations/implications
The paper focuses only on the coping phase of the response to the pandemic, whereas building long-term resilience requires understanding how organizations accumulate knowledge from crises and adapt to the “new normal.”
Originality/value
The paper responds to the call for empirical studies to advance knowledge of an integrative framework of crisis management and resiliency theories with reference to complex organizations such as healthcare.
... According to Yin (Yin, 2014), case study methodology looks particularly promising when a how or why the question is asked on present issues where the researcher has no control. In addition, an insightful comprehension of a real-world case is facilitated through the use of case studies (Ridder, Hoon, & McCandless Baluch, 2014). ...
At present, telemedicine and remote visits represent one alternative to in-person visits to meet patients’ ambulatory care needs during the COVID-19 pandemic and its enforced social distancing requirements. Telemedicine is becoming popular in several clinical disciplines, including pain medicine and oncology. Two out of three chronic pain patients are women. Moreover, most women can be considered vulnerable patients, as they often need to take care of their families and jobs while under chronic pain or oncological treatment. By employing a case study, this chapter aims to delve deep into how this new paradigm can benefit patients’ quality of life. This chapter broadens the gender perspective on e-health, seeing this as an opportunity for patients, clinicians, and entrepreneurs in the field.
... The case study methodology is considered applicable in the literature when a how or why question is posed about current circumstances over which the researcher has no control (Yin, 2014). Furthermore, case studies allow for a more in-depth understanding of a real-life situation (Ridder et al., 2014). ...
The general objective of the paper is to identify how gender diversity can enable resilience in firms.The pandemic constitutes a sui generis contingency factor that had not yet been concretely taken into consideration in the research field of the relationship between gender diversity and resilience.Recently, the Covid-19 crisis has been a major concern for companies around the world.Specifically, what caught our attention were the distinctive features of the phenomenon compared to other traumatic events that have occurred in the past. On the other hand, companies have shown a different way and capacity to react and respond to the crisis generated by the pandemic. Therefore, many researchers are investigating the impact that the crisis has had and is having in different economic areas, in terms of costs, sectors affected, etc. This research work considers the implications of the pandemic on firms.From a methodological point of view, the analysis is carried out as a qualitative case study; the approach is particularly useful for responding to “how” and “why” questions about a contemporary set of events.The conclusion from this empirical study is open to interpretation.KeywordsGender diversityResilienceCOVID-19 pandemic
... The qualitative multiple-case study research design (Eisenhardt, 1989;Yin, 2018) of this study is commonly adopted in management and strategy (Gibbert et al., 2008), entrepreneurship and small business/SME (Chetty, 1996;Perren and Ram, 2004) and information systems (Benbasat et al., 1987) research. The focus of this paper on providing a first managerial analysis of SME digital transformation draws on the strengths of this design to generate new insights (Gibbert et al., 2008) and incremental theory building (Eisenhardt, 1989;Ridder et al., 2014). We adopt the design to incrementally develop a managerial understanding of digital transformation in Swiss SMEs. ...
Purpose
The study explores the alignment of Swiss small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) managers' understanding of digital transformation, with evidence of digital tool adoption in managerial and operative work. This reveals opportunities for more fully realizing the potential of digital transformation for SMEs.
Design/methodology/approach
This multiple-case study, with four theoretically sampled cases, analyzes data from the qualitative answers of 1,593 respondents to a survey of Swiss SMEs about digital transformation. The study draws on a convenience sample of Swiss SME managers.
Findings
The analysis shows little understanding of digital transformation as related to managerial work. However, there are two clear digital tool adoption patterns for managerial work: (1) workflow and workforce management and (2) work-flow and team management. Understandings of digital transformation and operative work focus on the (1) organization of operational work or (2) a combination of organization and changing the way people work. The digital tool adoption in operational work additionally focuses on the digital skills of operational employees.
Research limitations/implications
The study is only able to identify patters of understanding of digital transformation and digital tool adoption in managerial and operative work. More research is needed to understand why these patterns are observed.
Practical implications
SME managers need to think far more carefully about aligning their vision for digital transformation and the digital tools they adopt in both managerial and operational work, but especially in managerial work.
Originality/value
This is the first empirical study of the digital transformation of Swiss SMEs and their digital tool adoption. Significant potential for alignment is revealed, suggesting potential performance gains are possible.
... It is a strategy capable of gaining insights into phenomena in the real world from in-depth research (Eisenhardt, 1989). The case study method is suitable for inductive work to perfect, expand or generate theory (Ridder, Hoon, & McCandless Baluch, 2014), especially with flexibility in developing creative theory development (Voss, Tsikriktsis, & Frohlich, 2002). In addition, it can gain insight into real phenomena (Yin, 2014). ...
The threat to the environment and humanity caused by marine plastic debris has aroused global attention. This research aims to explore the feasibility of applying blockchain technology (BCT) in marine plastic debris management. A case study on three pioneer recycling organizations is conducted based on secondary data. The study found that BCT can be applied to solve some of the existing challenges of marine plastic debris management. A digital token system and identity recognition mechanism based on BCT can increase the public awareness for marine plastic debris governance. The derived digital wallets and distributed ledgers can effectively replace paper documents and cash transactions in the traditional recycling chain, and minimize global impact on local economies, thus improve efficiency and safety. Also, the traceability and high transparency of blockchain and the application of smart contracts can effectively build a global recycling network. In addition, the application of BCT can greatly improve the transparency of recycling value chains, and make them more accepting of supervision from society and consumers. This research is one of the first studies on BCT in marine plastic debris management and explores worldwide pioneering companies. In practice, this study can help companies analyse the defects in their own waste disposal models and help practitioners make decisions to adopt BCT. In academia, as one of the early exploratory studies on the application of BCT to the treatment of marine plastic debris, this study provides further empirical reference on BCT based business models and recycling chains, and can guide future research in this field.
... Of the six research methods, the Case Study (CS) remains and is the method that will be used for this research with a qualitative approach. The CS strategy has the capacity to generate insights from intensive and in-depth research into the study of a phenomenon in its real-life context, leading to detailed, empirical descriptions and development of the theory (Dubois & Gadde, 2002;Eisenhardt, 1989;Eisenhardt & Graebner, 2007;Ridder, Hoon, & McCandless Baluch, 2014;Yin, 2014). CS meets all the requirements of the research criteria and gives the flexibility to collect data by means of interviews, and makes it possible to steer to the data that is needed. ...
The success of companies in the manufacturing industry depends partly on sustainable performance and flexible response to market developments. This requires that an organisation continuously adjusts its strategy, processes, competencies, and IT systems. The manufacturing industry is currently undergoing a transition towards Industry 4.0. This transition is extra challenging because the organisational structure and reporting processes are, in many cases, based on legacy systems. As a result, innovations, business changes, and flexibility to maintain or strengthen the market position can stagnate. Enterprise Architecture (EA) is used for more structure and better overview, and manageability. Implementing EA can cause resistance in terms of adoption in the organisation. When these resistances are overcome, and enterprise-level goals are achieved, EA can act as a catalyst in the transition to Industry 4.0. This study examines the factors that influence EA adoption within the MI and focuses mainly on the aspects related to organisational change. An inductive research approach is used as a basis, combined with a deductive approach using propositions from the existing theory of Syynimaa (2015). Syynimaa (2015) designed the ‘Resistance in EA Adoption Process’ model and ‘EA Adoption Method’ to understand and steer the resistance of EA adoption. His study took place in the domains of higher education in Finland.
... Case study research appears to be particularly relevant when a how or why the issue is raised on contemporary events where the investigator has no power to control (Yin, 2014). Last but not least, case studies permit to gain a detailed understanding of a realworld scenario (Ridder et al., 2014), allowing to fill better the gap between academia and practice (Massaro et al., 2018), as qualitative methodologies are more understandable by practitioners (Dal Mas et al., 2019b). These premises allow us to consider that a case study research method is appropriate. ...
Purpose: The paper aims at analysing the role of business plan development as a knowledge translation tool, especially for the creation of start-ups. In a complex knowledge ecosystem populated by multiple diverse and autonomous actors (like potential entrepreneurs, local companies, local public entities, and business consultants) bonded together by a joint search for valuable knowledge, business plan development can work as a powerful enabler for the translation of knowledge.
Design/methodology/approach: The study employs a qualitative multi-case study approach by examining the results of a public program devoted to the creation of new entrepreneurial ventures. We analysed 418 complete business plans and followed up all the participants with an interview. 40 cases were investigated more in detail.
Findings: Results show how business plan development can function as a bridge between academic, theoretical and general knowledge on start-up creation on the one hand, and practical contextualised activities of potential entrepreneurs on the other.
Originality/Value: The paper contributes to knowledge management and knowledge translation literature by demonstrating the role of business plan development as an effective knowledge translation enabler. It also adds to the understanding of innovation management and entrepreneurial education by proving the relevance of the translation of knowledge for the creation of new business ventures.
Practical implications: The process of knowledge translation is crucial to ensure that relevant knowledge coming from both the inside (the entrepreneur) and outside (the stakeholders) of the organization is effectively applied. To facilitate the translation process, key knowledge users should be supported in contextualising and making sense of the research knowledge. Initiatives carried out by local entities and other actors, gathering several stakeholders to develop business plans, can become valuable opportunities to facilitate the translation process for start-up development.
... As insights about the role of religion started emerging, we added two more countries. We sought to inductively theorize religion as an institution, and to develop its empirical constructs (Eisenhardt & Graebner, 2007;Ridder, Hoon, & McCandless Baluch, 2014). Theoretical sampling of the cases was guided by the propositions that were developed as new insights on religion were emerging (Eisenhardt, 1989). ...
We use institutional theory to understand how managers in different types of firms make sense of the dysfunction of institutionally weak environments. We interviewed ninety executives working in Botswana, Kenya, Nigeria and Zimbabwe, and found that religion was used as a normative institution when dealing with remediable institutional dysfunction, typically corruption, and as cultural-cognitive institution when dysfunction was perceived as non-remediable (associated with pervasive uncertainty) for those working for domestic firms and so-called nascent multinationals. No executives working for developed country (European) multinationals used religion as a system of meaning-making; executives of emerging market (South-African) multinationals used religion only normatively.
... Além disso, os métodos de estudo de caso parecem encaixar melhor no contexto quando é feita uma pergunta de tipo "como" ou "porquê" sobre eventos contemporâneos onde o investigador não tem controlo (Yin, 2014). Por último, mas não menos importante, os estudos de caso proporcionam o aprofundamento de um caso no mundo real (Ridder et al., 2014). Para garantir a transparência , nos seguintes parágrafos explicamos o contexto da investigação, a recolha e a análise de dados. ...
O livro Saúde Societal: Percursos de Investigação do Iscte reúne uma parte do vasto conjunto de estudos desenvolvidos no Iscte no âmbito da saúde societal, originalmente publicados em revistas científicas e, logo, de circulação muito restrita. Ao disponibilizar estes estudos em português, este volume procura aproximar-se de todos aqueles para quem esta língua continua a ser o meio privilegiado de leitura, mas também de apropriação, discussão e elaboração de conhecimento num campo central para a existência humana.
... Scholars interested in explanatory mixed methods and ethnography 16 could immerse themselves in VC and portfolio firms and focus on "events, language, rituals, institutions, behaviors, artifacts, and interactions" (Cunliffe, 2010, p. 227) study the process(es) underlying the relationships between concepts/constructs (Eisenhardt, 1989;Hartley, 1994;Ridder, Hoon, and McCandless Baluch, 2014;Wood and Wright, 2009). ...
Professor Wright's body of research on Venture Capital (VC) has advanced the field and has facilitated recent research on new sources of financing for start-ups such as crowdfunding and blockchain. In this article, inspired by Professor Wright's pursuit in encouraging new directions in research, we first demonstrate, with an illustrative study on VC learning, that mixed methods research, which combines quantitative and qualitative data, can be helpful in VC research. We also present some possible mixed methods directions for future research. We conclude with a short and critical discussion on both methods and research practices. In doing so, we hope to stimulate scholars' interest in these underutilised methods.
... Furthermore, a case study design was adopted for this study in order to research questions and will explore on the coffee tourism context of "樂野鄒築園 Cou Garden." This approach is appropriate to uncover and understand the complexity of the phenomenon while discussing the relationships among the actors in the research context in which the researchers have no control of (Massaro et al., 2019;Ridder et al., 2014;Yin, 2014). A case study research design is explained as "a method that uses multiple data sources to develop a contextualized understanding of the phenomenon with the intention of confronting theory by (Hoorani et al., 2019, pp. ...
... Secondly, this study used a single case study. The qualitative case study has been much used in the field of management and marketing (Boddy, 2016;Ridder et al., 2014;Runfola et al., 2017;Tsang, 2014;Yin, 2002). Yin (2002) argued that a single case study can be used for further theoretical development of a relevant field (Tsang, 2014). ...
This study examines the relationship between customer knowledge degree and integrative activity of customer knowledge in a new custom product development process by using an exploratory and qualitative single case study of a knowledge-intensive business service (KIBS) firm. In spite of the importance of customer knowledge integrative activities to a KIBS firm and the traditional significance of customer knowledge in the field of marketing, there is an unexplored question of to what extent a KIBS firm needs to have customer knowledge integrative activities. This study empirically identifies that a KIBS firm requires much effort and time for customer knowledge integrative activity to develop a new custom product, while there were different properties and contents of customer knowledge integrative activity at each stage of a new custom product development process. It also identifies that the degree of customer knowledge integrative activity depends on the degree of complexity of a customer product, while the degree of prior customer knowledge in a KIBS firm can reverse influence the degree of customer knowledge integrative activity. Finally, this study further explores two factors which can influence customer knowledge integrative activity: the range of customers and product characteristics.
... Moreover, an induction approach is also suitable to build theory from data, as a picture-drawing approach and exploratory in purpose. Nevertheless, the proposed research strategy is case study; the case study strategy gives the researcher a chance to witness the phenomena in real-life settings (Yin, 2018) which give an opportunity for empirical descriptions (Dubois, A. Gadde, 2002;Eisenhardt, K.M. Graebner, 2007;Eisenhardt, 1989;Ridder, H.G., Hoon, C. McCandless Baluch, 2014;Yin, 2018). ...
The purpose of this qualitative case study is to explore the socio-technical transition to AI during COVID19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia and identify transition pathways that could advance the governmental services from e-services to AI-services. The opportunity at hand is that socio-technical change usually requires significance amount of time to alter and diffuse gradually, however, due to COVID19 the change happened precipitately. The eventful, fairly short period changed social norms, routine, behaviour, habits, and regulation at an expedited pace, especially with exceptional governmental support for change, makes it a fertile period and place for socio-technical transition, empirical investigations to take place. Additionally, looking historically at the eventful digital transformation (DT) initiatives that was initiated in 2017 to sense the transition mode of governmental traditional services to e-services. Respectively, the foreground meaning for this dissertation is to pinpoint and shed light empirically using a case study approach on the complexity of AI socio-technical transition; contentions, congestion points, propellant factors as well obstacles, since COVID19 offered miniature transition that temporally condensed these factors enough to be identified to learn lessons from. Therefore, the preferred transition mode of certain country’s (socio-technical) from one technology to another is assumed to be revealed in the historical investigation of COVID19 & DT. Therefrom, to identify and conceptualise future full-size sociotechnical transition pathway that is an outcome of different developmental alignments at multiple levels (Geels & Schot, 2007). Nevertheless, the COVID19 period & DT are assumed to reveal transition factors in a condensed manner, rather a blueprint or a guideline for transition. Finally, the findings are meant to generate foresights of AI transition for policymaking purposes.
... However, the Case Study strategy is chosen for this dissertation to answer the research questions and meet the objectives. The case study strategy gives the researcher a chance to witness the phenomena in real-life settings (Yin, 2018) and the ability to generate new insight from intensive and in-depth research of the phenomena in its real-life context, leading to rich and empirical descriptions and development of the theory (Dubois, A. Gadde, 2002;Eisenhardt, K.M. Graebner, 2007;Eisenhardt, 1989;Ridder, H.G., Hoon, C. McCandless Baluch, 2014;Yin, 2018). ...
... Furthermore, a case study design was adopted for this study in order to research questions and will explore on the coffee tourism context of "樂野鄒築園 Cou Garden." This approach is appropriate to uncover and understand the complexity of the phenomenon while discussing the relationships among the actors in the research context in which the researchers have no control of (Massaro et al., 2019;Ridder et al., 2014;Yin, 2014). A case study research design is explained as "a method that uses multiple data sources to develop a contextualized understanding of the phenomenon with the intention of confronting theory by (Hoorani et al., 2019, pp. ...
COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the global economy in an unprecedented
manner, which includes the coffee industry. This paper seeks to provide insights as to
how coffee farmers on Ali Mountain, Taiwan transitioned to sustainable futures as an
outcome of the pandemic. A case study approach is adopted to explore how COVID-19
influences the coffee business and corresponding tourism implications, along with crisis
management strategies for a post-pandemic era. Through a case study approach, the study
revealed that the current pandemic has conditioned the perception of risk towards all
actors of the coffee estate and thereby causing a shift in consumer preference. Despite the
adaptive strategies employed by the business to establish some form of normality, the
coffee estate operation in Ali Mountain remains reactive to crises and disaster in the
absence of a strategic and holistic plan to deal with situations such as the COVID-19
pandemic. Theoretical and practical suggestions are provided to inspire coffee farm
owners in terms of disaster management scenarios, sustainable anti-pandemic strategies,
as well as the desire and quest for industry resuscitation and activation.
... The application of the case study method is a relevant way to understand "a how or why question is being asked about a contemporary set of events over which the investigator has little or no control" (Yin, 2014, p. 14). Case studies grant a better analysis of a "real-world case" (Ridder et al., 2014) and they help to bridge the gap between academia and practice (Massaro et al., 2018). They seem ideal when the context is observable and transparent. ...
The paper aims at showing how innovations in agri-food business models influence the corporate sustainability of rural ecosystems, assuring the attainment of specific sustainable development goals. The purpose is achieved through a case study method, using a relevant farmhouse and agritourism “Anna dei Sapori” located in the Cilento Bio-District – rich of bio-cultural diversity and homeland of the Mediterranean Diet, Intangible Cultural Heritage by the UNESCO – in Italy. Results show as all corporate processes are managed according to agroecological principles, introducing useful innovations. The goal demonstrates the impact of this thrilling “philosophy”, based on a circular and holistic approach, on environmental, sociocultural, and economic dimensions of sustainability, and the achievement of specific Sustainable Development Goals and targets.
This study considers the role of leadership within the hospitality sector as a key tool in raising performance levels. Hospitality is unique in its service-based approach, which relies on employees to ensure effective service. Post-COVID-19 and Brexit, the hospitality sector has seen a shift in reliance towards a home workforce, and as such, retention has become an area of greater importance. This case study investigation adopted a qualitative approach to consider the perceptions of six managers within a UK-based luxury hotel. Semi-structured interviews were used to draw out their experience of approaches used to ensure effective delivery in their areas of responsibility. The research concludes that a shift in leadership approach (from autocratic to democratic) is a necessity to retain staff, particularly as the shift to a greater reliance on a home workforce due to COVID-19 and Brexit starts to impact the sector. There does, however, remain a need to be more autocratic in certain situations to ensure the quality of service. Subsequently, communication becomes critical in the building of relationships. The research considers leadership approaches from a managerial perspective and is based on individual perceptions. Traditionally, research has been conducted from an employee perspective.
This study considers the role of leadership within the hospitality sector as a key tool in raising performance levels. Hospitality is unique in its service-based approach reliant on employees to ensure an effective service. Post Covid-19 and Brexit, the hospitality sector has seen a shift in reliance towards a home workforce and as such retention has become an area of greater importance. This case study investigation adopted a qualitative approach to consider perceptions of six managers within a UK based luxury hotel. Semi-structured interviews were used to draw out their experience of approaches used to ensure effective delivery in their areas of responsibility. The research concludes a shift in leadership approach (autocratic to democratic) as a necessity to retain staff, particularly as the shift to a greater reliance on a home workforce due to Covid-19 and Brexit starting to impact the sector. There does however remain a need to be more autocratic in certain situations to ensure quality of service remains. Subsequently. communication becomes critical in the building of relationships. The research considers leadership approaches from the managerial perspective and is based on individual perceptions. Traditionally research has been conducted from the employee perspective.
Although internationalizing small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are heterogenous as a population, they face similar resource constraints, such that resource management is central to their internationalization efforts. However, the management of diversity, as a specific resource, remains insufficiently studied. Building on resource-based theory, this article explores how SME managers assign value to diversity and implement diversity management across various types of internationalizing SMEs. The multiple-case qualitative study, involving 14 SMEs that represent traditional internationalizers, early internationalizing firms, and born-again globals, reveals that diversity is valued and managed differently by different categories of internationalizing SMEs. For early internationalizing firms, within-type heterogeneity is stronger than between-type heterogeneity. Furthermore, SMEs may value resource diversity as instrumental, terminal, or even destructive, which influences how they manage it. In presenting ideas for the effective strategic management of diversity, as displayed by some SMEs, this article contributes to research on SMEs’ internationalization and diversity management.
Purpose
The exponential growth of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, coupled with advanced algorithms and increased computational capacity, has facilitated their widespread adoption in various industries. Among these, the financial technology (FinTech) sector has been significantly impacted by AI-based decision-making systems. Nevertheless, a knowledge gap remains regarding the intricate mechanisms behind the micro-decision-making process employed by AI algorithms. This paper aims to discuss the aforementioned issue.
Design/methodology/approach
This research utilized a sequential mixed-methods research approach and obtained data through 18 interviews conducted with a single FinTech firm in France, as well as 148 e-surveys administered to participants employed at different FinTechs located throughout Europe.
Findings
Three main themes (ambidexterity, data sovereignty and model explainability) emerge as underpinnings for effective AI micro decision-making in FinTechs.
Practical implications
This research aims to minimize ambiguity by putting forth a proposition for a model that functions as an “infrastructural” layer, providing a more comprehensive illumination of the micro-decisions made by AI.
Originality/value
This research pioneers as the very first empirical exploration delving into the essential factors that underpin effective AI micro-decisions in FinTechs.
Forming the company's fundamental values is the first problem in building a corporate culture, including in a corporate holding. This success must be efficiently maintained and passed down to all employees from top management to lower-level executors, even if necessary, in the framework of organizational sustainability for the company. Furthermore, the founder's responsibility is to add new values according to the times to continue growing, developing, and satisfying stakeholders. The purpose of this study is to analyze the crystallization of Founders' values applied to corporate culture. This research used a qualitative approach with a case study meta-analysis method. This study concluded that the crystallization of corporate culture was built and implemented based on founders' values, which comes under the influence of several factors. Some of them include 1.) The mentor factor of thecompany founder; 2.) The family background of the company founder; 3.) The factors of the problematic life background of the company founder; 4.) The factors of the formal educational background of the company founder; 5.) The background factor for the founder's daily activities; 6.) The Factors of previous company founders' business experience; 7.) The factors causing starting a business; 8.) Any other negative background factor of the company founder.
Immer häufiger geben demokratische Gegenwartsgesellschaften Inklusionsversprechen ab, ohne sie einzulösen zu können. Verdeckung als analytische Kategorie ermöglicht es, Ambivalenzen sowie Gründe und Genese dieser Ein- und Ausschlussverhältnisse zu untersuchen. Daraus folgt keine Abkehr von Einschlussbemühungen, vielmehr ist die Auseinandersetzung mit Verdeckung essentiell für eine Gesellschaft, die aus kontingenztheoretischer Perspektive an ihrer normativen Semantik scheitern muss. In einer erziehungswissenschaftlichen, soziologischen und politikwissenschaftlichen Annäherung erkunden und konturieren die Beiträger*innen Verdeckungen interdisziplinär.
The intended focus of this research was to explore the relationship between the teaching approach of a postgraduate module and the development of critical management education pedagogy. We utilise a combined action learning and group work approach adopting principles of action learning and reflection. The paper reports on the views of three academics reflecting on the development of a new module, two years into the delivery and explores the impact of using an alternative delivery model to generate a transformational learning environment while developing students’ approach to scholarship, research, and writing.
The paper draws on literature on the Jazz metaphor and the relevance of a Jazz approach, with an emphasis on collaboration, trust, improvisation, and creativity, to developing critical research in management education. Key findings point to the ‘notion of pedagogical shock’ for both students and staff. Students found the change in teaching techniques to be a challenge. However, the anecdotal evidence seemed to suggest improved engagement culminating in improved results. The article therefore offers an opportunity for fellow academics to consider their approach to teaching and learning and whether such an adaptation would work for them, in their setting.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, with its mandated social distancing rules, telemedicine and remote visits stood as the only option for continuing to meet patients’ ambulatory care needs without requiring vulnerable people to travel back and to the hospital. Telemedicine is gaining traction in a variety of clinical fields, including pain medicine and oncology. Women account for two out of every three chronic pain patients. The literature has also considered several women vulnerable patients since they frequently need to care for their families and careers while undergoing chronic pain or oncological treatment. The same literature highlights the massive impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women workers and patients. The purpose of this article is to explore how this new paradigm can improve women’s health, facilitating their work-life balance while sick.
The research employs a case study approach, starting with The National Cancer Institute of Aviano’s “Doctor @ Home” (D@H) initiative.
While telemedicine is receiving more attention in the international clinical and management literature, there is still much to learn in practice. The article expands on the gender perspective on e-health, viewing it as a potential opportunity for patients, practitioners, and entrepreneurs. The co-production of care and the co-learning approach are the two fundamental factors of the program.
Although the D@H initiative is still in its infancy, the study provides new perspectives about an innovative telemedicine program that focuses primarily on female patients. Its techniques and methodologies may be easily replicable by other healthcare organizations, as telemedicine appears to have a bright future even in a COVID-free new normal.
Objective
The paper aims to deepen the issues related to female leadership of healthcare organizations, identifying, in the international literature and through a case study, the relevant characteristics that impact gender equality. The article investigates the possible solutions and tools that can support and foster female leadership in healthcare to see how the role of women leaders can be strengthened.
Methodology
The article employs a case study methodology about the National Center for Oncological Hadrontherapy (CNAO Foundation) of Pavia, Italy. The CNAO Foundation is characterized by a predominantly female middle-management (of the 130 employees, 66 are women, 30 of whom are mothers). Women lead the scientific, medical, technical-nursing direction. They also hold the responsibility of Communication and PR, Quality and Regulatory Affairs, Accounting and Finance, Clinical Administration, Human Resources, Supply Chain and General Services. Of the 12 current medical doctors, 10 are women, including the Medical Director, in contrast to the international average (for which only 25% of doctors in a hospital environment are women).
Results
The analysis conducted through the CAOS framework model allows determining some operational tools to facilitate women's access to leadership positions in the healthcare sector. The paper reports the flexibility solutions adequately applied during the emergency period caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The results make it possible to propose new tools to enhance women's role in healthcare management in highly multidisciplinary areas with a high impact on innovation and technology.
Theoretical implications
The article contributes to the topic of gender diversity in healthcare companies, with particular reference to the barriers, advantages, and operational tools to facilitate female leadership.
Operational implications
The CNAO Foundation's experience, adequately grounded on the current literature, makes it possible to identify some best practices of concrete applicability for healthcare companies, stimulating any comparative studies.
Based on inductive qualitative multiple case studies of MNE subsidiaries in a sub-Saharan African market, this study investigates how multiple political networking capabilities are developed and leveraged to institutionalize protection for strategic internationally transferrable intangible assets in weak institutional environments. The study finds that MNE subsidiaries use a three-phase process to institutionalize protection for intangible assets: diagnosis of the nature of transaction costs and risks in the weak institutional environment (Phase 1); development of political networking capabilities to generate multiple political resources (Phase 2); and leveraging of a multiplicity of political resources to institutionalize protection for internationally transferable intangible assets (Phase 3). The study concludes that an ability to develop and leverage political networking capabilities to recombine multiple political resources enables MNE subsidiaries to institutionalize protection for internationally intangible assets in challenging host-market institutional environments. The wider theoretical, managerial, and public-policy complications of these findings are discussed, and avenues for future research proposed.
There is a considerable gap in academic theoretical literature about the international training of expatriates in multinational enterprises (MNEs). While the majority of research has focused on developed (Western) multinationals operating in developing countries, very limited research has been conducted on emerging multinational enterprises (EMNEs) operating in developed countries and the expatriates who work in them. In this study, we explore the international training of expatriates in Indian MNEs from the information technology industry operating in Australia to examine how they provide training to their expatriate staff who are sent on international assignments. We collected qualitative data in the form of multiple case studies via interviews with senior executives based in the Australian subsidiaries. Our findings reveal that Indian IT MNEs provide a variety of centralised training programmes for their managerial and technical expatriates and use training as a key instrument to leverage and transfer home country knowledge to their Australian subsidiaries. We also found that each stakeholder involved in the training process plays a distinct role in the knowledge transfer process, which allows Indian EMNEs to integrate the training with their people-centred business model to deliver IT services in host countries.
Despite the growing literature on corruption, knowledge on how to control this phenomenon is still limited. Many scholars and policymakers suggest that social accountability (SAcc) initiatives may help to strengthen public accountability and combat corruption. SAcc is understood as citizen-based initiatives, beyond voting, aiming to prevent, detect or expose corruption by holding the State accountable and seeking direct or indirect sanctions by triggering horizontal accountability. In this vein, success depends heavily on the efficiency of control agencies in officially investigating and sanctioning corrupt acts. Furthermore, evidence suggests that outcomes of SAcc initiatives to fight corruption depend heavily on the context in which they are implemented. This thesis aims to build on the knowledge of how SAcc works in controlling corruption in practice. On this basis, this thesis focuses on three core points. First, it analyses the current debates and scholarship on corruption and how this problem has triggered many policy responses, including SAcc. It also discusses both the scholarship and empirical cases on SAcc to reach a broad understanding of its complementary role in controlling corruption. Second, this thesis offers an in-depth study of SAcc’s place in the Ecuadorian anti-corruption institutional framework firmament. Ecuador is an interesting case study due to its innovative and favourable SAcc and anti-corruption institutional framework. However, the way in which SAcc is carried out depends not only on a conducive framework, but also on how it works in practice. In this context, this research also analyses how the institutionalisation of SAcc may undermine SAcc’s main objective, holding the State accountable. Third, our understanding of how SAcc is practised is sharpened with an empirical analysis of two SACC initiatives: a citizen oversight initiative (veeduria in Spanish) in the city of Cuenca and the participatory budget in the province of Tungurahua. Taking these specific cases, this research analyses the interrelationship between citizens, control agencies and the State, at different levels, to understand SAcc’s capacity to sanction corruption in the Ecuadorian context. The findings of the research show that veedurias can be an effective mechanism for detecting corruption, but this outcome may be hampered by horizontal agencies’ inefficiency in investigating signs of corruption. Additionally, the process of participatory budgeting in Tungurahua is mainly based on the actions of local governments and does not offer many opportunities for citizens to control budget expenditure. Furthermore, there are several structural problems in the framework that weaken SAcc’s capacity to hold the State accountable. Without sanctions, there is no accountability. Furthermore, these weaknesses can make SAcc mechanisms vulnerable to being captured by the State and used to legitimise public actions.
Building on coherence theory and a pragmatist tradition, we offer an inductive model of top-down theorizing that can be a source of new theories of organization. We explain how an initial hypothesis is refined to enhance its potential contribution (consistent with abduction). But, unlike abduction, we explain how inquiry begins-how research tensions are carved out of the flux of the vast literature-and how constant comparison facilitates an abductive process.
The current article articulates how the expectation of theoretical consistency can be constraining for qualitative researchers. The author considers the origins of the tradition of theoretical consistency, and suggests that postmodern research-particularly that which focuses on social justice-might in fact be served by considering possibilities that emerge from multiple theoretical perspectives. To illustrate the application and contribution of theoretical inconsistency, three concrete examples of how these ideas have been applied within qualitative studies are discussed. By pragmatically drawing connections across theoretical differences, it is hoped that researchers will engage critically with their own theoretical commitments and assumptions, thus opening themselves up to new possibilities and to new and creative ways of coming together.
We distill existing literature on theoretical contribution into two dimensions, originality (incremental or revelatory) and utility (scientific or practical). We argue for a revision in the way scholars approach the utility dimension by calling for a view of theorizing that would enable theories with more "scope" (both scientific and practical utility). We also argue for an orientation toward "prescience" as a way of achieving scope and fulfilling our scholarly role of facilitating organizational and societal adaptiveness.
This article discusses management research and what makes it interesting. In a well-known paper, “That’s Interesting!” Murray Davis argued that what most makes scholarly work interesting is that it disconfirms some (but not all) of the assumptions held by its audience. Davis’ arguments about what constitutes interesting research are summarized, including something that engages readers’ attention, something that stands out for readers “in contrast to the web of routinely taken-for-granted propositions which make up the structure of their everyday life.” Some perspectives from a Brazilian scholarly journal, “Revisita de Administracao de Empresas,” are also presented.
In hypercompetitive environments, the established paradigms of sustainability of competitive advantage and stability of organizational form may have limited applicability. Using an in-depth case analysis of the firms Yahoo! and Excite, this study examines how the organizational form, function, and competitive advantage of these firms dynamically coevolved. The study introduces the concept of continuous morphing to describe the comprehensive ongoing transformations through which the focal firms sought to regenerate their transient competitive advantage on the Internet.
Examining a sample of journal articles, we develop a grounded theory of contribution that shows how organization studies theorists textually construct opportunities for making contributions to the field. The analyses reveal two major processes and the associated rhetorical practices that texts invoke in establishing opportunities for contribution. The study's findings point to the richness of contribution by illuminating how uniqueness claims are textually produced and legitimated in the context of science. The construction of contribution in organization studies is more complicated than has been assumed.
Joseph L. Bower and Clark G. Gilbert have collected together some of the leading experts on strategy to examine how strategy is actually made by company managers across the several levels of an organization. Is strategy a coherent plan conceived at the top by a visionary leader, or is it formed by a series of smaller decisions, not always reflecting what top management has in mind? Often it is by examining how options for using resources are developed and selected, that we can see how a company’s competitive position gets shaped. On the basis of this understanding, we can see better how these processes can be managed. The book’s five sections examine how the resource allocation process works, how the way it works can lead a company into serious problems, how top management can intervene to fix these problem, and where the most recent thinking on these problems is headed. A fifth section contains assessments of this work by thought leaders in the fields of economics, competitive strategy, organizational behavior, and strategic management. The implications for those who study firms are considerable. Activity that is normally thought about in terms of substantive outcomes such as market share and revenue growth, or present value and internal rate of return, is seen to be inextricably related to organizational and administrative questions. The findings presented here should inform the research of economists, strategists, and behavioral scientists. Thoughtful executives and those who consult with them will also find the book provocative. The processes described are complex, but clear enough so that the way toward effective management is apparent. The models developed provide a basis for building the systems and organization necessary for today’s competitive world.
Most contemporary theory construction methodologies attempt to build internally consistent theories of limited scope. Relatively little attention has been paid to the opportunities offered by tensions, oppositions, and contradictions among explanations of the same phenomenon. This essay attempts to spell out a set of theory-building strategies to help researchers take advantage of theoretical tensions. Such tensions can be regarded as paradoxes of social theory, and four different modes of working with paradoxes can be distinguished: (1) accept the paradox and use it constructively; (2) clarify levels of analysis; (3) temporally separate the two levels; and (4) introduce new terms to resolve the paradox. These four modes of paradox resolution are illustrated by application to the action:.-structure paradox in organizational theory
The mission of AMR is to publish new theoret-ical insights that advance our understanding of management and organizations. This mission sounds straightforward enough, but as anyone who is reading this piece is likely to know, authors, reviewers, and editors often struggle with the question "What exactly constitutes a sufficiently novel theoretical insight?" Provid-ing an answer to this question is further complicated because researchers can follow several different approaches in crafting theo-retical manuscripts, and the use of some of these approaches may result in manuscripts where it is more difficult to ascertain whether sufficiently novel insights are advanced. In our experience, scholars find it particu-larly vexing to assess the potential for theo-retical contributions of review-centric manu-scripts—those manuscripts that provide extensive reviews of the existing theoretical and empirical literature relevant to a given topic or content area and where the intended contribution of the manuscript is grounded pri-marily against the backdrop of this review material. The purpose of these comments is to discuss these types of manuscripts and to offer guidance for developing their potential so that the promise for novel theoretical insight and the implications for advancing theoretical un-derstanding become clearer. We should em-phasize here at the outset that our goal is not to advance a general strategy for writing a theoretical article or to delineate a broadly applicable set of elements of good theory, nor are we trying to argue that AMR's portfolio should shift toward a greater number of re-view-centric manuscripts. Rather, our narrow goal is to increase transparency—for authors, reviewers, and readers of AMR—regarding characteristics that review-centric manu-scripts should possess in order to make the type of novel theoretical insight necessary for publication in this journal. In a thought-provoking commentary, Martin Kilduff presented the key reasons for desk-rejects at AMR (Kilduff, 2007). For those of you who are lucky enough not to have firsthand ex-perience with a desk-reject, it is what happens when an editor makes a judgment that your pa-per is outside the purview of the journal's mis-sion and, as a consequence, rather than sending your paper out for review, sends you a letter explaining the reasons for the lack of fit and, if possible, suggestions for how the paper would need to be changed in order to be considered again. The first type of paper on Kilduff's list for desk-rejections are those that "simply review the existing literature, sometimes summarizing the literature in propositions but failing to offer distinctive contributions to theory beyond what has already been written by others" (2007: 700). On the one hand, we wholeheartedly agree with Kilduff's position on this type of review paper. After all, a manuscript clearly does not fit with AMR's mission if it fails to offer theoretical ideas beyond those that already exist in the literature. In fact, Kilduff echoes the sentiments of his predeces-sors at AMR, who, in the earliest issues of the journal, asserted that "manuscripts which are re-statements of present knowledge and do not pro-vide a new conceptual or theoretical position should not be submitted" (from the 1976 Sugges-tions for Contributors). On the other hand, review-centric manuscripts come in a variety of forms, and, therefore, it may be worthwhile to explore the potential of some of these forms as vehicles for theory development. In essence, we feel it may be useful to consider how review-centric manuscripts could be developed so that they convey the type of theoretical contributions that are reflected in the mission of AMR.
We know little about the impact of prior scholarly work. Focusing on citation frequency, studies have overlooked the question of how prior work is used. The authors argue for the development of a richer empirical foundation on which to base discussions of impact; its creation requires a situated and relational methodological approach incorporating an assumption of citation heterogeneity and comparative analyses of citation content in context with that of the referenced focal article. Conceiving focal articles as architectures of knowledge claims, the authors examine how knowledge from three award-winning articles is subsequently used during a 6-year period in 489 citations. Analyses generate a typology of prior knowledge use in citing and also disclose differences in prior knowledge use in each focal article. This situated and relational examination provides a more nuanced understanding of how prior work shapes ongoing knowledge development.
The borrowing and application of concepts and theories from underlying disciplines, such as psychology and sociology, is commonplace in organization theory. This article critically reviews this practice in organizational research. It discusses the borrowing of theoretical perspectives across vertical (cross-level) and horizontal (cross-context) boundaries and makes an associated distinction between theories in organizations and theories of organizations. It also explicates several unintended consequences and metatheoretical challenges associated with theory borrowing and highlights the legitimate reasons and ways for borrowing theories. By way of example, this article reviews how theories and concepts have been borrowed and applied in organizational research from two different literatures: individual identity and social movements. Overall, it is argued that treating organizations as social actors is the key to appropriate horizontal and vertical theory borrowing in organizational studies, in that it highlights the distinctive features of the organizational social form and organizational social context.
This article examines five common misunderstandings about case-study research: (a) theoretical knowledge is more valuable than practical knowledge; (b) one cannot generalize from a single case, therefore, the single-case study cannot contribute to scientific development; (c) the case study is most useful for generating hypotheses, whereas other methods are more suitable for hypotheses testing and theory building; (d) the case study contains a bias toward verification; and (e) it is often difficult to summarize specific case studies. This article explains and corrects these misunderstandings one by one and concludes with the Kuhnian insight that a scientific discipline without a large number of thoroughly executed case studies is a discipline without systematic production of exemplars, and a discipline without exemplars is an ineffective one. Social science may be strengthened by the execution of a greater number of good case studies.
Social mechanisms are theoretical cogs and wheels that explain how and why one thing leads to another. Mechanisms can run from macro to micro (e.g., explaining the effects of organizational socialization practices or compensation systems on individual actions), micro to micro (e.g., social comparison processes), or micro to macro (e.g., how cognitively limited persons can be aggregated into a smart bureaucracy). Explanations in organization theory are typically rife with mechanisms, but they are often implicit. In this article, the authors focus on social mechanisms and explore challenges in pursuing a mechanisms approach. They argue that organization theories will be enriched if scholars expend more effort to understand and clarify the social mechanisms at play in their work and move beyond thinking about individual variables and the links between them to considering the bigger picture of action in its entirety.
Joseph L. Bower and Clark G. Gilbert have collected together some of the leading experts on strategy to examine how strategy is actually made by company managers across the several levels of an organization. Is strategy a coherent plan conceived at the top by a visionary leader, or is it formed by a series of smaller decisions, not always reflecting what top management has in mind? Often it is by examining how options for using resources are developed and selected, that we can see how a company’s competitive position gets shaped. On the basis of this understanding, we can see better how these processes can be managed. The book’s five sections examine how the resource allocation process works, how the way it works can lead a company into serious problems, how top management can intervene to fix these problem, and where the most recent thinking on these problems is headed. A fifth section contains assessments of this work by thought leaders in the fields of economics, competitive strategy, organizational behavior, and strategic management. The implications for those who study firms are considerable. Activity that is normally thought about in terms of substantive outcomes such as market share and revenue growth, or present value and internal rate of return, is seen to be inextricably related to organizational and administrative questions. The findings presented here should inform the research of economists, strategists, and behavioral scientists. Thoughtful executives and those who consult with them will also find the book provocative. The processes described are complex, but clear enough so that the way toward effective management is apparent. The models developed provide a basis for building the systems and organization necessary for today’s competitive world.
The advancement of social theory requires an analytical approach that systematically seeks to explicate the social mechanisms that generate and explain observed associations between events. These essays, written by prominent social scientists, advance criticisms of current trends in social theory and suggest alternative approaches. The mechanism approach calls attention to an intermediary level of analysis in between pure description and story-telling, on the one hand, and grand theorizing and universal social laws, on the other. For social theory to be of use for the working social scientist, it must attain a high level of precision and provide a toolbox from which middle range theories can be constructed.
- This paper describes the process of inducting theory using case studies from specifying the research questions to reaching closure. Some features of the process, such as problem definition and construct validation, are similar to hypothesis-testing research. Others, such as within-case analysis and replication logic, are unique to the inductive, case-oriented process. Overall, the process described here is highly iterative and tightly linked to data. This research approach is especially appropriate in new topic areas. The resultant theory is often novel, testable, and empirically valid. Finally, framebreaking insights, the tests of good theory (e.g., parsimony, logical coherence), and convincing grounding in the evidence are the key criteria for evaluating this type of research.
The article focuses on the development of a theory. A discussion is presented about steps involved in developing a theory, such as seeing which factors logically should be considered as part of the explanation of the social or individual phenomena of interest. The authors assert that authors developing theories are considering these factors, they should err in favor of including too many factors, recognizing that over time their ideas will be refined. The article presents information about the importance of sensitivity to the competing virtues of parsimony and comprehensiveness.
Traditional approaches to theory building are not entirely consistent with the assumptions of alternative research paradigms that are nowassuming more prominence in organizational study. We argue for a multiparadigm approach to theory building as a means of establishing correspondence between paradigms and theory-construction efforts. Because of the implications of the multiparadigm approach, we also examine ways of bridging across blurred paradigm boundaries. In addition, we explore a metaparadigm perspective that might allow disparate approaches to theory building to be considered together. Such a perspective can produce views of organizational phenomena that not only allow scholars to recognize inherent and irreconcilable theoretical differences, but also can encourage them to adopt a more comprehensive view by accounting for those differences.
We summarize the manifest and latent content of the articles that make up the Special Topic Forum on Theory Development. Rather than offering new theories, however, most of the articles offer a series of critical accounts of current organizational theory and a range of novel ideas about the process of theory construction. We conclude by speculating about the institutional barriers to new theory creation and how those barriers might be changed.
Promoting new research practices in organizational research In editing our first volume of qualitative methods in organizational research (Cassell and Symon, 1994), we claimed that our aims were threefold and included: documenting the variety of qualitative methods available; providing accessible outlines of how to apply the methods in practice; and raising the profile of qualitative methods within organizational research. In a general sense, these aims have not changed, either with the second (Symon and Cassell, 1998a) or this third volume. Here, we aim to bring together many of the research approaches our contributors outlined in the earlier books, as well as providing introductions to other approaches not previously covered. Given this broad coverage, we felt entitled to call this an ‘essential guide’ and its production signals our last venture into this particular genre. Consequently, we felt that this introductory chapter would be a good opportunity to reflect back on our ...
The author offers readers of the “Academy of Management Review” journal the top ten reasons why their papers might not be sent out for review. Reasons include reviewing literature and introductions rather than offering distinctive contributions and analysis, papers geared towards practitioners, which isn't the primary audience of the journal, papers that lack organizational relevance and are targeted at another discipline, and replicas of already published works. Additional reasons include uninvited resubmissions, empirical research, guideline violations, and no theory.
Purpose: Case studies are detailed empirical investigations into a complex entity that emphasize the uniqueness of the case and are valuable for making a theoretical contribution. We aim to reveal the types of theoretical contributions case study research can make to the field of strategy and management and explore how case study design can create the opportunities for making a theoretical contribution.
Methodology/Approach: The dynamic capability approach focuses on the firm-specific processes through which firms integrate, build, or reconfigure resources. A comprehensive review of case studies in this field is conducted in five search engines, resulting in a data set of 13 in-depth case studies.
Findings: We demonstrate that using case studies to extend and refine theory enhances knowledge in the field of dynamic capabilities. In strategy and management research, case studies identify and refine constructs and their relationships, develop and confirm propositions, and embed constructs within a larger set of relationships. We reveal that sampling strategy, research setting, and multiple lenses are aspects of case study design that create opportunities for making a theoretical contribution.
Practical Implications: We suggest that case study researchers strategically and purposefully sample cases, vary the setting conditions, or draw upon numerous research fields to make a theoretical contribution.
Originality/Value of Paper: Going beyond the current discussion, we show that case studies have the potential to extend and refine theory. We shed new light on how dynamic capabilities can benefit from case study research by discovering the antecedents that shape the development of capabilities and determining the boundary conditions of the dynamic capabilities approach.
In this article I elaborate and codify the extended case method, which deploys participant observation to locate everyday life in its extralocal and historical context. The extended case method emulates a reflexive model of science that takes as its premise the intersubjectivity of scientist and subject of study. Reflexive science valorizes intervention, process, structuration, and theory reconstruction. It is the Siamese twin of positive science that proscribes reactivity, but upholds reliability, replicability, and representativeness. Positive science, exemplified by survey research, works on the principle of the separation between scientists and the subjects they examine. Positive science is limited by “context effects” (interview, respondent, field, and situational effects) while reflexive science is limited by “power effects” (domination, silencing, objectification, and normalization). The article concludes by considering the implications of having two models of science rather than one, both of which are necessarily flawed. Throughout I use a study of postcolonialism to illustrate both the virtues and the shortcomings of the extended case method.
Methodology can only bring us reflective understanding of the means which have demonstrated their value in practice by raising them to the level of explicit consciousness; it is no more the precondition of fruitful intellectual work than the knowledge of anatomy is the precondition of“correct” walking.
Max Weber— The Methodology of the Social Sciences
We introduce a taxonomy that reflects the theoretical contribution of empirical articles along two dimensions: theory building and theory testing. We used that taxonomy to track trends in the theoretical contributions offered by articles over the past five decades. Results based on data from a sample of 74 issues of the Academy of Management Journal reveal upward trends in theory building and testing over time. In addition, the levels of theory building and testing within articles are significant predictors of citation rates. In particular, articles rated moderate to high on both dimensions enjoyed the highest levels of citations.
We summarize the manifest and latent content of the articles that make up the Special Topic Forum on Theory Development. Rather than offering new theories, however, most of the articles offer a series of critical accounts of current organizational theory and a range of novel ideas about the process of theory construction. We conclude by speculating about the institutional barriers to new theory creation and how those barriers might be changed.
QUESTION: How do theories which are generally considered interesting differ from theories which are generally considered non-interesting ? ANSWER: Interesting theories are those which deny certain assumptions of their audience, while noninteresting theories are those which arm certain assumptions of their audience. This answer was arrived at through the examination of a number of famous social, and especially sociological, theories. That examination also generated a systematic index of the variety of propositional forms which interesting and non-interesting theories may take. The fertility of this approach suggested a new field be established called the Sociology of the Interesting, which is intended to supplement the Sociology of Knowledge. This new field will be phenomenologically oriented in so far as it will focus on the movement of the audience's mind from one accepted theory to another. It will be sociologically oriented in so far as it will focus on the dissimilar base-line theories of the various sociological categories which compose the audience. In addition to its value in interpreting the social impact of theories, the Sociology of the Interesting can contribute to our understanding of both the common sense and scientific perspectives on reality.
This essay describes differences between papers that contain some theory rather than no theory. There is little agreement about what constitutes strong versus weak theory in the social sciences, but there is more consensus that references, data, variables, diagrams, and hypotheses are not theory. Despite this consensus, however, authors routinely use these five elements in lieu of theory. We explain how each of these five elements can be confused with theory and how to avoid such confusion. By making this consensus explicit, we hope to help authors avoid some of the most common and easily averted problems that lead readers to view papers as having inadequate theory. We then discuss how journals might facilitate the publication of stronger theory. We suggest that if the field is serious about producing stronger theory, journals need to reconsider their empirical requirements. We argue that journals ought to be more receptive to papers that test part rather than all of a theory and use illustrative rather than definitive data.
The process of theory construction in organizational studies is portrayed as imagination disciplined by evolutionary processes analogous to artificial selection. The quality of theory produced is predicted to vary as a function of the accuracy and detail present in the problem statement that triggers theory building, the number of and independence among the conjectures that attempt to solve the problem, and the number and diversity of selection criteria used to test the conjectures. It is argued that interest is a substitute for validation during theory construction, middle range theories are a necessity if the process is to be kept manageable, and representations such as metaphors are inevitable, given the complexity of the subject matter.
Incompleteness of inductive reasoning presents an enduring dilemma for organizational researchers. We examine two practical reasoning strategies—idealization and contextualization—that can be used at the pinnacle of this dilemma: when theoretical conclusions are drawn from empirical data. Understanding the two strategies can lead to more effective argumentation and evaluation. Appreciating the methodological incompleteness of both strategies, in turn, helps us distinguish between the methodological and the policy dimensions of organization-scientific debates.
A resource-based approach to strategic management focuses on costly-to-copy attributes of the firm as sources of economic rents and, therefore, as the fundamental drivers of performance and competitive advantage. Interest presently exists in whether explicit acknowledgement of the resource-based view may form the kernel of a unifying paradigm for strategy research. This article addresses the degree to which a resource-based view represents a fundamentally different approach from theories used in industrial organization (10) economics. The central thesis is that, put informal terms, the resource-based approach is reaching for a theory of the firm. To determine its distinctiveness in comparison to IO, therefore, an appropriate comparison is with other theories of the firm developed within that tradition. Section I summarizes and analyzes five theories that have been significant in the historical evolution of IO. These are neoclassical theory's perfect competition model, Bain-type IO, the Schumpeterian and Chicago responses, and transaction cost theory. The first part of Section II analyzes the resource-based approach in terms of similarities to and differencesfrom these IO-related theories. The conclusion is that resource-based theory both incorporates and rejects at least one major element from each of them; thus resource-based theory reflects a strong IO heritage, but at the same time incorporates fundamental differences from any one of these theories. The second part of Section II analyzes resource-based theory as a new theory of the firm.
This essay discusses the character and significance of strategy process research. Process research in strategic management is paradigmatically diverse and empirically complex. Strategy process research has been narrow in its focus and its undoubted contribution has sometimes been obscured by the lack of explicit discourse about its analytical foundations. The essay draws on a wide range of social science ideas to lay out a set of internally consistent insights and assumptions to guide thinking and empirical inquiry about the analysis of process issues in strategic management. The essay also provides a guide to the eight papers contained in this special issue.
Based on an intensive and inductive study of a Fortune 100 corporation, this article describes how dynamic capabilities that reconfigure division resources - that is, architectural innovation - may operate within multibusiness firms. We suggest envisaging corporate divisions as combinations of capabilities and product - market areas of responsibility (charters) that may be recombined in various ways, highlighting the interplay of economic and social imperatives that motivate such recombinations. We detail the microsociological patterns by which such recombinations occur and then theorize about an organizational form, termed "dynamic community," in which these processes are embedded.
Summary This paper explains that the resource-based view essentially addresses issues of competitive strategy, but by integrating some arguments from its evolutionary version, the dynamic capability view, it can be extended to inform our understanding of corporate-level strategy. We concentrate on the issue of value creation from corporate centres and ask how the centre can possess or provide resources. The primary dynamic capabilities identified by Teece, Pisano and Shuen (1997) are elaborated into six distinct modes of resource creation. Each mode is considered in relation to a set of organizational design parameters. We then propose resource-creating configurations that are congruent with respect to the modes and the required states of the design parameters. We point out areas of tension that are likely to arise if corporations try to combine different modes of resource creation. We conclude that corporate centres may possess resources but must display dynamic capabilities otherwise they will destroy shareholder value.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a critical view of rhetoric, science, scientific research, and management that discloses the role of rhetoric in these fields and that offers a conceptual framework for this special issue of the Journal of Organizational Change Management .
Design/methodology/approach
The approach taken is a critical and historical analysis.
Findings
The following main topics are uncovered: first, even if we think on scientific theories in terms of the classical concept of proven knowledge by empirical evidence and logical deduction, they are constituted by propositions accepted by reasonable rhetorical arguments, which depend on the paradigm of each scientific community. Second, even if we consider that scientific research is a strictly rational activity that follows precise methods, it continuously involves rhetorical reflections, judgements, arguments and debates. Third, even if management sciences usually conceptualize management as activities led by rational arguments and decisions, management constantly involves rhetorical conversations, in which managers use language for achieving their aims.
Originality/value
Beyond the scope of many research papers and books that emphasize the role of rhetoric in science and in management, the paper offers a systematic approach on the foundations of the functions of rhetoric in science and in management.
Traditional approaches to theory building are not entirely consistent with the assumptions of alternative research paradigms that are now assuming more prominence in organizational study. We argue for a multiparadigm approach to theory building as a means of establishing correspondence between paradigms and theory-construction efforts. Because of the implications of the multiparadigm approach, we also examine ways of bridging across blurred paradigm boundaries. In addition, we explore a metaparadigm perspective that might allow disparate approaches to theory building to be considered together. Such a perspective can produce views of organizational phenomena that not only allow scholars to recognize inherent and irreconcilable theoretical differences, but also can encourage them to adopt a more comprehensive view by accounting for those differences.
In contrast to the prevailing image that elements in organizations are coupled through dense, tight linkages, it is proposed that elements are often tied together frequently and loosely. Using educational organizations as a case in point, it is argued that the concept of loose coupling incorporates a surprising number of disparate observations about organizations, suggests novel functions, creates stubborn problems for methodologists, and generates intriguing questions for scholars. Sample studies of loose coupling are suggested and research priorities are posed to foster cumulative work with this concept.
This paper attempts to address the question of whether organizational explanations produced through idiographic studies can be regarded as externally valid. It is argued that explanatory idiographic studies that are informed by a realist epistemology are, indeed, in a position to make general claims about the world. For realists, generality is distinguished from recurrent regularities; instead, it is ascribed to the operation of causal tendencies (or powers). The latter act in their normal way even when expected regularities do not occur. This is possible because the realization of causal tendencies is contingent upon specific circumstances, which may or may not favor the generation of certain patterns of events. Idiographic research conceptualizes the causal capability of structures, while at the same time it sheds light on the contingent manner through which a set of postulated causal powers interact and gives rise to the flux of the phenomena under study.