Search results

The purpose of this article is to describe the similarities between abductive reasoning and entrepreneurial learning processes in order to contribute to the conceptual understanding of learning as an entrepreneurial process in itself.

The research is theoretically rooted in a conceptual development of the understanding of entrepreneurial learning processes as abductive reasoning inspired by the philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce. The theoretical explication of the connection between entrepreneurial learning processes and abductive reasoning is additionally illustrated by a hypotheses-based didactic model, developed by the authors to scaffold abducting reasoning into learning processes.

The authors found in the theoretical investigation of abductive reasoning a conceptualisation of entrepreneurial learning processes that connects entrepreneurial learning processes to basic cognitive human competences, and the authors found that key concepts in entrepreneurship, such as hunches and experiments, can be understood in a broader philosophical framework as basic cognitive competences.

The authors exemplify how abductive reasoning can be used in practice through a hypothesis-based didactic approach designed as a loop model.

The authors have discovered that abduction is closely related to entrepreneurship and can be a central conceptual link in understanding the relationship between entrepreneurship and learning. The athors also believe that Peirce's concept of abduction can contribute to the philosophical understanding of entrepreneurship as another name for a constant rethinking of the world.

The aim of the paper is to address the widening theory-praxis gap in marketing. The authors propose that one viable solution to this challenge is involving practitioners in research processes as active, reflective and empowered participants. Most extant discussions addressing the inclusion of managers as partners in theorizing restrain themselves to an “if” question, arguing whether or not it is possible to create sufficiently rigorous knowledge in collaboration with practitioners. This leaves the “how” question unanswered, i.e. how should such gap-bridging research be conducted in practice.

Based on a literature review of collaborative theorizing processes, the authors develop a conceptual framework highlighting the main research design decisions when theorizing with managers. The use of the framework is illustrated with four research program examples.

Most accounts of theorizing with managers use – explicitly or implicitly – abduction as the main mode of inference. In addition to this philosophical commonality, our literature review identified 12 themes that should be considered when designing collaborative research processes. The four illustrative examples indicate that theorizing with managers is an effective way of producing and socializing both academically sound and managerially relevant knowledge. On the other hand, collaborative theorizing processes are time-consuming and studies using abductive reasoning may be more challenging to publish in top-tier journals.

This paper makes two contributions. First, the authors go beyond the extensive academic literature which provides a plethora of explanations and ideas for potential remedies for bridging the theory-praxis gap by offering a detailed description how one particular solution, theorizing with managers, unfolds in practice. Second, the authors ground collaborative theorizing processes in the philosophy of science and put abduction forward as a common nominator for such studies.

The purpose of this paper is to show that Hoshin Kanri has the potential to integrate the operations strategy literature into a coherent structure. Hoshin Kanri’s planning process is typically described as a top-down cascading of goals, starting with the senior management’s goals and moving to the lowest organizational level. The authors argue that this misrepresents a firm’s actual cognitive processes in practice because it implies reasoning from the effects to the cause, and assumes a direct causal relationship between what the customer wants and what is realizable by the system.

This study is conceptual, based on abductive reasoning and the literature.

The actual strategic thought process executed in an organization consists of three iterative processes: (i) a translation process that derives the desired customer attributes from customer/stakeholder data, (ii) a process of causal inference that predicts realizable customer attributes from a possible system design and (iii) an integrative process of strategic choices whereby (i) and (ii) are aligned. Each element relies on different cognitive processes (logical relation, causal relation and choice).

By aligning the thought and planning processes, the competing concepts of manufacturing strategy are integrated into a coherent structure.

Different techniques have to be applied for each of the three elements. As each element relies on different cognitive processes (logical relation, causal relation and choice), the use of unifying tools (e.g. in the form of matrices, as often presented in the literature) is inappropriate.

This is the first study to focus on the thought processes underpinning manufacturing strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to build on Dumay and Cai’s (2014) prior research to provide a deeper analysis of the problems associated with using content analysis (CA) as a research methodology for investigating intellectual capital disclosure (ICD).

Totally, 110 articles utilising CA as a research methodology for inquiring into ICD are analysed based on Krippendorff’s (2013) conceptual CA research framework and design logic, and tied into issues relating to CA as a research methodology for investigating ICD.

The authors advocate that ICD CA researchers need to go back to the drawing board and ensure that future studies rigorously apply the basic logic of CA design. In its current state, ICD CA research needs to take a few steps back, before it can move forward. If ICD CA researchers can accomplish this, then there is an opportunity to undertake rigorous research to develop reliable and valid outputs that add to new knowledge about IC.

The main limitations of the research are the chosen sample of CA-based ICD articles and the adoption of the Krippendorff’s framework. However, the authors have identified the main corpus of CA-based ICD studies and since Krippendorff is the only recognised comprehensive text on CA as a methodology, the authors use the most appropriate data and framework possible for the analysis.

Prior CA studies have laid the foundation for what is a popular research methodology. However, the authors argue that the popularity of CA as a research method for investigating ICD has become so great that at times the research methodology “drives the research questions” as opposed to the “research questions driving the methodology” Hence, this research examines reasons for CA limited contemporary contribution and recommends how this may be overcome rather than prescribing how to conduct ICD CA research.

Literature review articles have become a frequently applied research approach in operations and supply chain management (SCM). The purpose of this paper aims to elaborate on four approaches for developing or employing theory in systematic literature reviews (SLRs).

The paper uses conceptual arguments and illustrates them by pointing to recent examples. In SLRs, the material collection is usually based on keywords and searching databases, which is comparatively well documented. Data analysis, however, often falls short in documentation and, consequently, is neither well explained nor replicable. Therefore, the focus of this paper is the elaboration of the data analysis and sense-making stage in the research process of SLRs.

The paper presents four different approaches, which are characterized as theory (1) building, (2) modification, (3) refinement and (4) extension, based on whether new concepts are formed or extant concepts within SCM or other fields of management theory are adopted.

The limitation of this research is that literature reviews could be conducted and presented in many ways. Since the focus of this research is on systematic literature reviews, only a limited number of approaches can be discussed and presented here.

The paper contributes to explaining the process and expected outcomes of a literature review and, therefore, aids in further developing the related methodological approaches. This is relevant as literature review publications now often replace conceptual or theoretical pieces but still have to deliver concerning demands of theory building.

The purpose of this paper is to explain how, in the future, the most successful business innovation efforts will balance analytical mastery and intuitive originality in a dynamic interplay that the author calls “design thinking.””

As a useful way to think about how to do this the paper takes the reader step‐by‐step through the “knowledge funnel” concept.

Design thinking empowers the design of business, the directed movement of a business through the knowledge funnel – from mystery to heuristic to algorithm – and then the utilization of the resulting efficiency to tackle the next mystery and the next and the next.

The apaper suggests that the velocity of movement through the knowledge funnel, powered by design thinking, is the most powerful formula for competitive advantage in the twenty‐first century.

The paper has a radical thesis: to advance knowledge, we must turn away from our standard definitions of proof – and from the false certainty of the past – and instead stare into the mystery of what could be.

Stakeholders affiliated with healthcare services should understand patient attitudes and criteria that are involved in selecting a personal physician. The purpose of this paper is to identify the factors that are significant to patients in selecting or deselecting physicians as providers of healthcare services.

The research structure was set to theorize the physician selection criteria (PSC) model into two phases. The first phase developed a conceptual model as revealed from healthcare consumer perceptions. The second phase was designed to test and validate the model through cause–effect statistical analysis underpinned by theoretical explanations through an empirical study.

Through an empirical study of benchmarking perceptions of people from 15 different countries, qualitative PSC were gathered and used to formulate an initial PSC model. Based on the proposed model, a validity test was conducted, and finally, the PSC model was developed, resulting in several interesting and self-explanatory outcomes.

The model was tested in only one (relatively cosmopolitan) city. For proper generalization, it should be tested in countries with differing healthcare service systems.

The results of this study are interesting, important and have potential values to academics and medical professionals. The study provides strong evidence that a physician’s external approach to patients is the most significant issue for patients seeking medical services. This does not refer to basic medical services, but rather the treatment process, where the physician’s behavior and positive attitude has the strongest effect on the patient’s decision to choose one physician over others.

Final PSC model has identified some significant theoretical explanations for academics and professional justifications for practitioners.

The purpose of this paper is to create ways of improving the alignment of strategy formulation and implementation in Brazil’s higher education institutions (HEIs).

Evolution of scenarios and models through a 12-step process to assist strategy formulation and implementation for managerial/social activity in Brazil’s HEIs. Simple set theory was used as a backbone to assist scenario building. Two models were created. First, focused on an autopoietic model relating to Brazil’s HEIs. The second embedded the autopoietic model in a limited number of forces in Brazil that influence the HEIs but lie beyond their control. The process was corroborated by survey methods using respondents from Brazil and elsewhere.

In total, 22 respondents from within and outside Brazil confirmed the content of the scenarios while a small sample from within Brazil’s HEIs confirmed their usefulness in assisting strategy formulation and implementation.

Further experience in using the autopoietic model is needed to widen its corroboration beyond experience in this study.

Confirmation of a 12-step scenario-based process for strategy formulation and implementation and corroboration of its usefulness through a limited sample of respondents.

The paper aims to investigate how far the pragmatist concept of inquiry (Dewey, 1916, 1938) makes it possible to develop a processual and relational approach to accountability, moving the focus away from a representational conception of truth and subjectivist/individualist views on meaning-making, toward collective exploration and understanding of an issue by stakeholders with the aim of transforming social practices. The paper studies an accountability process in action, namely nuclear incident reporting, and its role in the construction of a community of inquiry investigating nuclear safety.

This research opts for a case study methodology including 36 in-depth interviews, field observation and document analyses. The data are drawn from a three-year field study of a “Local Information Commission”, a body set up to represent the public living near a nuclear site.

The object of accountability needs to be constructed through a joint exploratory inquiry by accountors and accountees into reports of incidents as originally presented, to advance their understanding and capacity for action.

It will be important to test this processual and relational approach to accountability in other types of situation, involving different governance issues than nuclear safety.

To turn theoretical stakeholders such as the public into real stakeholders (e.g. in the studied case, active participants in safety inquiries), specific social and managerial conditions must be fulfilled (concerning time, resources, commitment to open, taboo-free dialogue and legitimacy).

The paper argues that Dewey's concept of inquiry makes a valuable contribution to the processual and dialogical view of accountability.

The purpose of this paper is to explore organizational induction as socially situated learning processes. It presents an empirical study of inductees going through an induction program in a medium sized bank and discusses their induction as a dual process of becoming a practitioner and constructing practice.

The research performed is qualitative: ethnographic methods including participant observation and interviews are used, and analysed through an interpretative methodology.

The paper suggests that the divide between the teaching curricula in the induction course and the learning curricula in real life banking contribute to the inductees' ability and desire to engage in the construction of customer service officer practice; the divide itself legitimizes differences in particularities of the practice, and enhances the inductees' ability to enact, accomplish, and construct practice actively.

The paper suggests induction should be viewed as opportunities for organizational learning as much as the training of newcomers to adhere to organizational standards.

The paper presents a novel empirical case exploring socially situated learning. Looking at the confluence of authoring and performative acts allows us to expose the agentic dimension of practices; thus emphasising the construction involved in any practising.