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Article
Publication date: 6 April 2010

Christian Nielsen and Henrik Dane‐Nielsen

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how the emergent properties perspective from the field of biology can be applied to the field of intellectual capital. Much attention…

2119

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to illustrate how the emergent properties perspective from the field of biology can be applied to the field of intellectual capital. Much attention has in recent years been directed towards problems of accounting for intellectual capital and how the value of intellectual capital at one level of an organization influences the value of intellectual capital at higher or lower levels of the organization.

Design/methodology/approach

Through a literature review an emergent properties framework was developed. This framework was applied to an intellectual capital perspective with empirical illustrations.

Findings

In this paper, it is argued that the inherent difficulties of understanding the interdependencies of intellectual capital across different levels of an organization can be traced to a lack of understanding of the differences between synergetic effects, causal relationships and emergent properties. The paper illustrates through examples how an emergent properties perspective can be mobilized in relation to the field of intellectual capital.

Research limitations/implications

The paper is conceptual in nature and reports the theoretical propositions from an ongoing empirical project. The lack of empirical content limits the strength of the conclusions.

Originality/value

The paper is a step in the direction of enhancing the understanding of the different levels of intellectual capital by applying the biological perspective of emergent properties. Although this perspective in itself may not constitute a general testable theory of intellectual capital, it is the hope, at least, that it may provoke thought, development and further research in this field.

Details

Journal of Human Resource Costing & Accounting, vol. 14 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1401-338X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 13 March 2009

Anna Essén

The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework for studying the process of technology‐based service system innovation from a broad perspective using an approach that…

2088

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to propose a framework for studying the process of technology‐based service system innovation from a broad perspective using an approach that elucidates the non‐linear facets of this process. The framework draws on Lévy‐Strauss's concept of bricolage, which implies that individuals' “making do with resources at hand,” as opposed to managerial visions, can trigger innovation. This concept is combined with the notion of technological drift and with a model of emergentism.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper uses case study data from the Swedish elderly homecare setting.

Findings

The findings illustrate how the emergence of technology‐based care services can be triggered by an injection of energy in terms of a new technological resource being made available in an organization, proceeding as a continuous interaction between personnel repurposing and recombining resources at hand, positive and negative feedback dynamics, institutional regulations and culture‐related stabilizing mechanisms.

Research limitations/implications

New services can arise as a result of a number of efforts and events that, in isolation, might appear insignificant. Taken together, and interacting with enabling and constraining forces that promote the emergence of certain new services and prevent others, such acts and events generate unpredictable outcomes. The result may be incremental but by no means trivial innovations.

Originality/value

The paper suggests an approach to innovation that complements conventional thinking in the new service development literature. The proposed framework can help to explain how and why certain new services emerge and why others do not in unexpected and unpredictable ways.

Details

Journal of Service Management, vol. 20 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1757-5818

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 12 September 2022

Richard P. Bagozzi

Concepts equip the mind with thought, provide our theories with ideas, and assign variables for testing our hypotheses. Much of contemporary research deals with narrowly…

Abstract

Concepts equip the mind with thought, provide our theories with ideas, and assign variables for testing our hypotheses. Much of contemporary research deals with narrowly circumscribed concepts, termed simple concepts herein, which are the grist for much empirical inquiry in the field. In contrast to simple concepts, which exhibit a kind of unity, complex concepts are structures of simple concepts, and in certain instances unveil meaning going beyond simple concepts or their aggregation. When expressed in hylomorphic structures, complex concepts achieve unique ontological status and serve particular explanatory capabilities. We develop the philosophical foundation for hylomorphic structures and show how they are rooted in dispositions, dispositional causality, and various mind–body trade-offs. Examples are provided for this emerging perspective on “Big concepts” or “Big Ideas.”

Article
Publication date: 3 July 2017

Ewa Stańczyk-Hugiet, Katarzyna Piórkowska and Sylwia Stańczyk

The purpose of this paper is to discourse the essence and utility of (re)emergence theory as the starting point of understanding and interpreting organizational routines dynamics…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to discourse the essence and utility of (re)emergence theory as the starting point of understanding and interpreting organizational routines dynamics as well as to propose a conceptual framework reflecting both epistemological and methodological value as the keystone of analysing the rationale of organizational routines and the process of their emergence.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is based on extensive literature studies.

Findings

Referring to the research problem concerning the reconciliation organizational routines and the emergence phenomenon, the findings complement the insights of the dominant theoretical perspectives in organizational routine theory, providing a more comprehensive understanding of organizational dynamics by directly addressing the heretofore intractable phenomenon of emergence. In addition, it is going to be a well-justified epistemological base to operationalize routines – not only per se, but also with regard to the mechanisms enacted.

Originality/value

Routines change over time and the current studies results are not sufficient to understand these changes yet. Interpreting organizational routines from the emergence theory perspective reveals their soft, indeterministic, and unpredictable nature and ought to render the scholars dealing with that phenomenon interpretatively and methodologically cautious. Emergence is a priori embedded in organizational routines’ context. The considerations included in the paper are salient regarding ontological and epistemological issues as they emphasize specific thought and research directions in the field of organization study eventually. Emergence ideas may play a part in discussions of spontaneous order, particularly by implementing it to routines construct. A major issue is the role of these ideas and processes within organizational evolution.

Details

Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 30 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0953-4814

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 17 October 2014

Giandomenica Becchio

My contribution deals with the link between Wagner’s entangled political economy and Carl Menger’s economic thought. It is mainly based on what Wagner himself has called…

Abstract

My contribution deals with the link between Wagner’s entangled political economy and Carl Menger’s economic thought. It is mainly based on what Wagner himself has called “neo-Mengerianism”: a new approach that considers economics as a discipline focused on the network-based interrelations among phenomena (based on human decisions) and political economy as embedded in a social framework no longer neutral from a political point of view.

Details

Entangled Political Economy
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78441-102-2

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 6 June 2018

Christophe Schinckus and Cinla Akdere

How a micro-founded discipline such as economics could deal with the increasing global economic reality? This question has been asked frequently since the last economic crisis…

3292

Abstract

Purpose

How a micro-founded discipline such as economics could deal with the increasing global economic reality? This question has been asked frequently since the last economic crisis that appeared in 2008. In this challenging context, some commentators have turned their attention to a new area of knowledge coming from physics: econophysics which mainly focuses on a macro-analysis of economic systems. By showing that concepts used by econophysicists are consistent with an existing economic knowledge (developed by J.S. Mill), the purpose of this paper is to claim that an interdisciplinary perspective is possible between these two communities.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors propose a historical and conceptual analysis of the key concept of emergence to emphasize the potential bridge between econophysics and economics.

Findings

Six methodological arguments will be developed in order to show the existence of conceptual bridges as a necessary condition for the elaboration of a common language between economists and econophysics which would not be superfluous, in this challenging context, to clarify the growing complexity of economic phenomena.

Originality/value

Although the economics and econophysics study same the complex economic phenomena, very few collaborations exist between them. This paper paves a conceptual/methodological path for more collaboration between the two fields.

Details

Journal of Asian Business and Economic Studies, vol. 25 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2515-964X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 October 2001

Cristina Ghiselli and Marco Padula

This paper proposes the integration of tools to provide unified access to remote and heterogeneous archives, the contents of which can be grouped under the same subject, and which…

Abstract

This paper proposes the integration of tools to provide unified access to remote and heterogeneous archives, the contents of which can be grouped under the same subject, and which have been integrated to allow the user to navigate and conduct thematic searches. The information sources are locally frequently modified, added to, and removed, therefore attention has been paid to the permanence of their references. Source interoperability is supported at language, protocol and schema levels. The architecture is based on a new common schema of the archives which is defined in new representation and query languages on the basis of an ontology to avoid misunderstanding and ambiguity.

Details

Online Information Review, vol. 25 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1468-4527

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 28 August 2009

Mark W. Neal

The purpose of this paper is to clarify issues concerning the implications and usefulness of the concept of supervenience in social analysis and research.

168

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to clarify issues concerning the implications and usefulness of the concept of supervenience in social analysis and research.

Design/methodology/approach

Supervenience refers to the notion that interaction in complex systems gives rise to superordinate phenomena, possessing qualities that differ from those of the interacting entities “below”. In order to discuss the application of the concept in sociology, the article draws upon the distinction between “weak” and “strong” supervenience. “Weak” supervenience characterizes the superordinate as being independent of any particular patterning at subordinate levels, while “strong” supervenience refers to the existence of tighter, more knowable, relationships between the super‐ and sub‐ordinate.

Findings

The paper finds that analyses of the social have long been preoccupied with supervenient properties. Indeed, sociological disciplines can be usefully characterized and distinguished in terms of whether they assume “weak” or “strong” supervenience in their analysis of human affairs.

Research limitations/implications

The research needs further critical investigation of the use of supervenience in current sociological discourse and analysis.

Practical implications

Through discussing its already important place in social analysis, the article argues for the refinement and critical application of supervenience in future social studies.

Originality/value

The paper reviews and refines issues concerning the importance and implications of supervenience for sociological analysis and social research.

Details

Humanomics, vol. 25 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0828-8666

Keywords

Content available
Book part
Publication date: 12 September 2022

Abstract

Details

Measurement in Marketing
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80043-631-2

Book part
Publication date: 14 October 2010

Christian Fuchs and Wolfgang Hofkirchner

Maturana and Varela (1980, p. 78f) provided the following definition of autopoiesis: “An autopoietic machine is a machine organized (defined as a unity) as a network of processes…

Abstract

Maturana and Varela (1980, p. 78f) provided the following definition of autopoiesis: “An autopoietic machine is a machine organized (defined as a unity) as a network of processes of production (transformation and destruction) of components that produces the components which: (i) through their interactions and transformations continuously regenerate and realize the network of processes (relations) that produced them and (ii) constitute it (the machine) as a concrete unity in the space in which they (the components) exist by specifying the topological domain of its realization as such a network.” This definition shows that for Maturana and Varela, autopoietic systems are systems that define, maintain, and reproduce themselves. The notion of machine that they employ in the definition might seem a bit misleading because we tend to think of machines as mechanistic and nonliving, but Maturana and Varela (e.g., 1987) in later publications have preferred to speak of autopoietic organizations.

Details

Advanced Series in Management
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-84855-833-5

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