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The purpose of this paper is to examine open access practices using an anthropological view of emics and etics.

An emic‐etic distinction has been theorized in anthropological research for decades. Its insider and outsider views are adopted here to provide greater understanding of open access development. The visions of various groups of academics, particularly faculty scholars and librarians, are explored to identify their different positions on open access involvement as well as the impact of those positions on open access practices.

This analysis reveals that new models of scholarly communication need to cope with existing systems and become sustainable only when the thoughts and behaviors of insiders have been fully understood by outsiders and appropriate strategies have been taken on in practice.

A theoretical framework was introduced to understand the practices of open access repositories and journal publishing.

In this paper, we provide a practical example of how ethnographic insight is obtained in the field. In so doing, we demonstrate multiple ways in which ethnographic approaches can be adapted during on-going research processes to develop rich and multiple emic/etic perspectives.

This paper is based upon the first author’s reflective experience of undertaking ethnographic field work. The discussion draws from a multi-method, longitudinal and adaptive ethnographic research design, which aimed to capture the process of new family identity formation in Sri Lanka.

Existing research gives us excellent insight into various methods used in contemporary ethnographic research and the kinds of insight generated by these methods. With few exceptions, these studies do not give significant insight into the specifics of the ethnographic research process and the adaption practice. Thus, we provide a practical example of how ethnographic insight is obtained in the research field.

Our discussion elaborates the ways in which we integrated multiple research methods such as participant observations, semi-structured in-depth interviews, informal sessions, Facebook interactions, adaptations of performative exercises and elicitation methods to overcome complexities in cultural, mundane and personal consumption meanings. We also discuss how closer friendships with informants emerged as a consequence of the ethnographic research adaption practice and how this influenced trust and confidence in researcher-informant relationship, presenting us with a privileged access to their everyday and personal lives.

The purpose of this study was to explore an innovative strategy for studying the Brazilian negotiator’s unique and paradoxical characteristics from a cultural point of view to acquire a better understanding of the nature of international business negotiations in Brazil.

The study is of a qualitative nature, using a multiple-case study design at three levels (small-, medium- and large-scale negotiations). Interviews were conducted with Brazilian and German managers to capture the emic–etic view of the Brazilian negotiator. The Strategic Trinity Model was developed to assess the behavior of the Brazilian negotiator in agreement with three metaphors: “African Capoeirista”, “Portuguese Bureaucrat” and “Indigenous Warrior”.

The three roles “African Capoeirista”, “Portuguese Bureaucrat” and “Indigenous Warrior” comprised similar as well as contradicting characteristics. The Brazilian negotiator chose naturally and even paradoxically from these role features, effectively negotiating any given situation, context and time. During the pre- and post-negotiation phases, traits of the “African Capoeirista” and “Indigenous Warrior” were the most salient. During the formal negotiation phase, however, the characteristics of the “African Capoeirista” and “Portuguese Bureaucrat” dominated.

International business negotiations in Brazil call for an in-depth comprehension of the paradoxical roles that local negotiators take on to achieve better negotiation outcomes.

The present study unveiled the contradicting Brazilian negotiating style in international business negotiations, thus acquiring a better understanding of the negotiation process in the Brazilian market.

To connect students with the real world of management practice, the purpose of this paper is to extend and operationalize the situated cultural learning approach (SiCuLA) through five learning processes occurring within communities of practice. These include integration of cultural contexts, authentic activities, reflections, facilitation, and the construction of a collaborative learning community.

To investigate the complex processes and principles of cultural learning, a multi-method approach is applied to an extensive comparative study of default and intervened cases within three management classes. Evidence is drawn from multiple sources of qualitative data including class observations, meeting minutes, focus groups, and group interviews with students and instructors.

Results indicated that in default cases, little explicit attention was given to a situated perspective of culture, or to the rich sources of cultural knowledge available among members of the classroom community. In contrast, following the intervention cases where SiCuLA was applied, there was strong evidence that much more attention was given to enhancing student contextual knowledge. Nonetheless, there were some challenges in applying these processes within the classroom context.

This is the first study to extend and operationalize SiCuLA in a classroom setting. More importantly, the evidence forms the empirical basis for deriving theoretical principles for cross-cultural management (CCM) education and training. It contributes to studying cultural contexts as sources of knowledge for learning through active co-participation. It also contributes to positive CCM learning with an emphasis on human agency that encourages students to take more responsibility and ownership of their cultural learning.

Current paper is an overview of qualitative research. It starts with discussing meaning of research and links it with a framework of experiential learning. Complexity of socio-political environment can be captured with methodologies appropriate to capture dynamism and intricacy of human life. Qualitative research is a process of capturing lived-in experiences of individuals, groups, and society. It is an umbrella concept which involves variety of methods of data collection such as interviews, observations, focused group discussions, projective tools, drawings, narratives, biographies, videos, and anything which helps to understand world of participants. Researcher is an instrument of data collection and plays a crucial role in collecting data. Main steps and key characteristics of qualitative research are covered in this paper. Reader would develop appreciation for methodiness in qualitative research. Quality of qualitative research is explained referring to aspects related to rigor, worthiness of topic in interpretivist research. This paper presents challenges of qualitative research in terms of thinking of qualitative research, doing of qualitative research, and trustworthiness.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse everyday interactions in a workplace from the point of view of organisational learning, informal learning and peer learning, as well as the possible relationships that can be established between all three.

Insights from nine months of ethnographic study provided an operational definition of equality in an organisation, a better understanding of interactions and informal learning between peers, and about psycho-social determining factors or contexts that favour the exchange of knowledge in an organisation.

The findings demonstrate the importance of articulating the three elements (organisational learning, informal learning and peer learning) in a joint interpretative framework. With the results generated, it is proposed to move away from the traditional organisational learning based on knowledge and know-how, to a new perspective focused on sharing and participatory opportunities. In other words, without opportunities to participate, without the support and equal access, the fostering of informal learning can be debatable in terms of democracy.

The results bring the authors closer to being able to design workplace learning strategies that carefully includes the value of participation opportunities and the influence of a dynamic concept of equality. The ethnography in a hospital setting has allowed the authors to gain a better understanding of the contribution of informal learning to the organisation. The focus on the social context and the roles of relationships in informal learning offers new insights into a complex phenomenon.

Salespeople are at the forefront of the external environment where they act as the first responders to critical events and their resulting business turbulence. How the salesforce responds to turbulence is, therefore, of great interest both theoretically and in practice. The paper aims to rekindle interest in agility selling, which is the most adequate behavioral sales model to exploit environmental uncertainty.

An organizational autoethnography complemented with data from in-depth interviews with key salespeople involved in turbulence resulted in the development of eight case studies.

Salespeople use agility selling through four possible responsive roles. They amplify, innovate, cooperate or mitigate turbulence to exploit its ensuing opportunity or minimize its negative effect for both the supplier and the customer. The article enhances the agility selling model by putting three core abilities in the forefront: (1) forecasting turbulence from critical events, (2) responding to changes quickly and adequately and (3) exploiting changes as opportunities.

The article argues that critical events are the cause of the turbulence that the salesforce must deal with before it hits the dyad. Agility selling represents an untapped research opportunity in business-to-business sales, and sales management, as well as within the overall agile organization.

Sales organizations would greatly benefit in implementing training of agility selling’s core abilities because responsiveness is a valuable tool for salespeople in times of turbulence.

The study is the first to empirically demonstrate the existence of agility selling.

The purpose of this study is to critically analyze the resources and determinants of capabilities and attributes which enable Indian and Chinese firms to develop competitive advantages. The leading research question asks whether the traditional concept of competitiveness can capture Indian and Chinese firms’ competitiveness.

A systematic and comprehensive literature review of 62 studies published between 1994 and 2016 with focus on Indian and Chinese firms is conducted to examine the nature and contextual conditions of their competitiveness, as well as the research methods and underlying theories.

Turning disadvantages into advantages and shifting the points of take-off are the most outstanding findings. Moreover, the majority of 88 per cent of the examined studies concludes that Indian and Chinese firms built nontraditional competitive strengths.

Because of the unconventional competitiveness of Indian and Chinese firms, existing theoretical perspectives and research settings need revisions and extensions.

Unlike most extant research on India and China, which studies country- or industry-level variables using aggregate data, this paper reveals distinct patterns and similarities and differences of firm-level characteristics. In addition, by exclusively focusing on Indian and Chinese firms’ competitiveness, conclusions about their uniqueness and generalizability can be drawn.

This paper aims to understand how social finance and impact measurement experts include stakeholders' voices in valuations of social and environmental impact.

The paper used the content analysis of an online discussion forum where experts discussed impact valuation approaches.

Many experts seek impact valuations that take into account the experiences of those whose lives are most affected. Ideally, these accounts need to be emic to (in the language of) those stakeholders, and polyvocal (representing many different stakeholders' voices). However, these experts also seek to effect systemic change by encouraging mainstream financial markets to use social and environmental valuations in their decision-making. These experts consider full plurality too complex to be useable by financial markets, so the experts argue in favor of etic valuations (stated in the language of investors), to appeal to mainstream finance, while endeavoring nonetheless to represent multiple stakeholders' voices. The authors identify two discursive strategies used to resolve this tension: effacing of differences between diverse stakeholders, and overstating the universality of money as a common language.

The terms emic and polyvocal provide experts with nuanced ways to understand “stakeholder voice.” The authors hope these nuances inspire new insights and strategies and help the community with their goal of bridging to mainstream finance.

The paper presents a theoretical framework for describing plurality in impact valuations and examines the challenges of bridging from social finance, which seeks to give voice and representation to those whose lives are most affected, to mainstream finance.