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Aims to address some of the ethnic considerations, regarding ex‐offenders’ rehabilitation, which are current in present social policy. Elaborates on media attention to deviant behaviour among ethnic minorities and how crime by black offenders (when compared with levels of similar committed by white offenders), has been highlighted but that numbers of Asian offenders are lower than blacks or whites. Commends the Apex Community Entrepreneurs Scheme (ACES) project that aims to help ex‐offenders to continue their lives as law‐abiding members of society, by assisting them to find employment. Sums up that numerous amendments are needed to assist the rehabilitation of ethnic minority ex‐offenders into the mainstream.

The paper revisits the intellectual roots of grounded theory and aims to analyze the consistency of the method used in grounded theory research in accounting. About 23 papers are identified and analysed.

The paper is an analytical review of the research literature. It uses four fundamental canons of grounded theory to analyze accounting research.

Some accounting researchers who have used the label “grounded theory” for their research have misunderstood or not applied the core canons of grounded theory established by Glaser and Strauss and developed with diversity in other disciplines. Most claim to follow the specific approach of Strauss and Corbin, but the published research shows limited explication of method.

Since Parker and Roffey in 1997, there has been no analysis and re‐evaluation of the burgeoning academic accounting literature using grounded theory. While celebrating the growth of this research, the paper does raise concerns about the lack of consistency of grounded theory research in accounting with the central canons of grounded theory, and it provides some directions for future grounded theory research by encouraging accounting researchers who wish to use grounded theory to engage more strongly in understanding the method and providing transparent explanations of their data collection and analysis methods.

Grounded theory (GT) is a very crucial qualitative tool in research inquiry. It embraces systematic, inductive, and comparative inquiry method to construct a theory. GT is mostly appropriate to investigate organizational phenomena, which involves a change process. In this chapter, the authors focus on the emergence of GT as a research inquiry tool with the focus how GT evolves from classis grounded theory to constructivist ground theory. In the detailed method of GT, a focus is given on coding method along with theoretical sampling and theoretical saturation points. Despite being a powerful technique, GT has drawn a number of criticisms. Majority GT researchers consider the technique as an inductive method with a few exceptions, where it has been deliberated as a deductive method. However, in the line of Corley (2015), it can be argued that GT should be considered as a methodological approach to study inductive phenomena having less understanding of theoretical perspective. Chapter concludes with identifying future scope of study in the field of GT.

This paper aims to examine the development of expertise in an applied discipline by addressing the research question: How is professional expertise developed in an applied profession?

Using a grounded theory methodology (GTM), nine technical-tax experts, and three experienced, non-expert tax professionals were interviewed regarding their experience in developing technical-tax expertise. Using GTM procedures, a core concept and variables (categories and properties of categories) were identified. A theory is advanced which explains the interaction of the core concept and the variables.

This theory proposes that expertise in applied disciplines occurs through years of engaging in the high-value, non-routine work. Professionals with an intelligence matched to the discipline and willingness to work hard are more likely to be successful in this non-routine work. Professionals who find the discipline fascinating and who revel in ambiguity are likely to repeatedly seek this non-routine work. Finally, professionals in organizations with complex client issues are more likely to have opportunities to engage in non-routine work.

This study proposed a theory related to a very specific profession – tax accounting. Future research would be appropriate to determine whether other applied disciplines have a similar dynamic in developing expertise.

Based on existing theories of expertise, this study developed a new theory of how professional expertise is developed in an applied discipline.

The purpose of the paper is to contribute to an understanding of the relational work carried out in mentoring programmes and the implications for learning capabilities in future practices.

This study is based on field research of a mentoring programme bringing together senior and newly graduated workers in a large Swedish health care organisation. In total, 54 qualitative interviews with mentors, mentees, HR, managers and union representatives are included.

The findings point to the role of trust and a psychological sense of community in the socialisation work that goes on in relationships between the mentor and the mentee. This in turn leads to increased social capital in the form of learning and retaining workers. The conditions for being vulnerable and asking questions, as well as daring to be independent, are an essential and decisive part of constructing bonding within the professional group and bridging out to other professions and parts of the organisation.

The practical contribution from this study is the workplace conditions that are central to organising mentoring programmes, with implications for learning capabilities in future practices.

With its theoretical focus on social capital, the study shows the importance of relationships for learning and retaining both newly graduated and experienced employees in a context of high employee turnover. It is central to achieving strong and mutually beneficial relationships through continual and trustful interaction between actors. By using the concepts of social capital, socialisation agents and psychological sense of community, this study contributes to an understanding of mentoring and workplace learning.

Infrastructure adds pace and efficiency into India’s progress. It is a country which has embraced the notion of a knowledge economy of late, and thus raised the importance of infrastructure consulting per se. The study aims to cover the consequent but underexplored role of organizational structure (OS) vis-à-vis knowledge retention (KR) in this sector.

For conducting the research, the sampling organization that has been chosen is an infrastructure consulting organization. The researchers had undertaken an exploratory study to find out the dynamics between OS and KR. A qualitative approach has thus been adopted and the application of thematic analysis found place in conducting the research. The themes and sub-themes generated from the research, aligned with the theoretical backdrop, gave rise to a schematic model explaining the relationship between OS and KR.

From the above themes and sub-themes along with possible relationships which emerged from the study, the researchers observed that the theme “organizational structure” had a significant relationship with the sub-theme “knowledge retention”. In the order, what was the most noteworthy was that designing of an OS had a refined and somewhat directed influence on KR in the organization.

This paper tries to uncover the relationship between an organization’s structure formation and the key aspect of knowledge management cycle, which is KR. This shall be helpful for both academics (who can make advancements by testing the relationship in other contexts) and practitioners (who can look forward to minimizing business losses through the concept of KR).

In this paper, grounded theory as an inductive method of theory generation in business research is presented and critically evaluated. The historical and epistemological backgrounds of the method are discussed, its research procedures are briefly outlined, and its suitability for sales research assessed. To illustrate the principles of the method, a study of the nature of business‐to‐business sales relationships is introduced. The results of this study show clearly that grounded theory can yield highly significant findings in areas that deal with phenomena as complex as human relationships, where the construction of theoretical frameworks cannot be achieved at the cost of conceptual density.

Today’s measurement systems fail to adequately account for intellectual capital (IC) in a transparent yet comprehensive manner. In spite of many recent attempts to qualify and sometimes quantify intangibles, there exists as yet not one standardized system that is sufficiently developed and globally accepted. The aim of the present paper is to contribute towards the creation of such a system. The financial method of intangible assets measurement (FiMIAM) presented in this paper aims to overcome some of the weaknesses of recent methods of IC valuation, and contribute to the creation of complete balance‐sheets, reflecting both the tangible and intangible assets of a company.

This paper draws on a recently completed professional doctorate thesis. The purpose of this paper is to explore how the research process mirrors the area being researched, and underscores the importance of the ability to tolerate ambiguity, in both the research process and in working to protect children.

The doctorate used a constructivist grounded theory approach, and drew on 22 in-depth interviews with social workers and a sample of 20 serious case reviews. Central to the research process were issues of reflexivity and positionality, which were both crucial to the area under exploration.

Central to the thesis on which this paper draws, and the professional doctorate is the notion of balance. Social workers and researchers have to negotiate both getting close to and achieving distance from, the subject of enquiry. Seeking and maintaining balance requires managing a number of dimensions, and the negotiation of ambiguity.

This paper explores the complexity of “working the hyphen” of insider-outsider research, and argues that, as in child protection practice, insider-outsider research requires the adoption of strategies to both get close to, and achieve distance from, the subject of enquiry.