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The purpose of this paper is twofold: first, to investigate the learning of individual teachers participating in lesson study collaboration by adapting a participatory framework about teacher learning; and second, to investigate the potential of this framework compared with other approaches used in lesson study research.

The authors use collective case studies. By being participant observers the authors provide detailed descriptions of two selected teachers’ lived experiences of lesson study collaboration. In addition to gain first-hand insights, the authors conducted interviews before, between and after two rounds of lesson studies, and recorded the various lesson study activities.

This paper provides empirical insights into the complexity of teacher learning. By using the participatory framework, the authors identify significant shifts in the participation of each of the two teachers during a two-year lesson study project. By comparing these shifts the authors identify significant conditions for their individual learning.

Although the study is small scale, both the insights into the different ways in which teachers participated and the theoretical insights might be valuable for other lesson study research approaches.

This paper provides valuable insights into conditions that might influence teachers’ participation in lesson study activities, especially in cultures with little experience of lesson study.

This paper fulfils a need to investigate individual teachers’ learning in lesson study collaborations. It also contributes to deeper theoretical understandings of teacher learning which have been called for in recent lesson study research.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the practice paradigm of pragmatic constructivism.

Pragmatic constructivism emphasizes the role of the actors in the construction of organized reality. For such construct to function successfully, four dimensions of reality must be integrated in the actor-world relations.

This includes an examination of pragmatic constructivist theory as an alternative to traditional realism and critical theories of organizational reality. The papers of the special issue include methodological, conceptual and empirical studies to expand the understanding of management accounting in relation to the actors’ construction of functioning organizational practices.

As pragmatic constructivism is a relatively new paradigm, there is a need for further methodological and conceptual development and empirical studies of functioning practices.

In a discipline such as management accounting that can be theoretically polarized between the “realist” scientific mainstream and social constructivist criticism, pragmatic constructivism offers a mediating model in which realism is retained as the pragmatic criteria of success of the organizational actors’ construction.

The purpose of this paper is to introduce the papers in the current issue and invite comments from the readers of the journal.

This editorial review is intended to stimulate a discussion about the effect of iterative models of professional development, the meaning of student-centred learning, valid evidence of teachers’ learning through collaborative professional development, teachers’ responses to top-down innovation and the cultural script of teaching, all of which are focal in the texts published in Issue 6.3 of the journal.

The boundaries between lesson and learning studies, top-down and bottom-up innovations, teacher learning and teacher participation and cultural scripts are far from distinct and for good reasons.

This editorial review provides an overview of the insights and issues identified by the authors in this issue of the journal.

This study investigates labour market fluctuations and gender issues in the health and care sector. A large data set from public registers has allowed us to compile a comprehensive picture of the job categories that particularly attract men. We find a polarisation of men in the upper and lower positions in the job hierarchy. In the metropolitan area, men tend to be discouraged from taking jobs in the health and care sector, as opposed to the peripheral region, where alternative job offers may be more scarce. A logistic regression analysis shows that (young) age is the major explanatory factor for leaving the health and care sector to find occupation elsewhere. However, gender (male), wage levels (low), marital status (single) and education (none) are also significant. The study discusses seven theoretical perspectives for male and female careers in the health and care sector: The need for flexibility. Destandardising of jobs. Devaluation of feminised work areas. Human capital as a stabiliser. Feminisation. The prospects of boundaryless careers. The spatial dimension.

The purpose of this paper is to enhance the relationship between research and practice. It addresses the question: How can practitioners’ use of generalisations be understood, with a view towards producing research-based generalisations that facilitate use in practice?

Language games are used to explore generalisation in practice, and the framework of pragmatic constructivism is adopted to characterise the generation of practice generalisation.

Practice is conceptualised as a complex set of clusters of organised actions run by a set of applied generalisations and driven by human intentions. Practice also encompasses reflective activities that aim to create the generalisations and reflect them into the specific circumstances to create functioning practice. Generalisations depend on underlying concepts. The formation and structure of concepts is explored and used to create the construction and use of different types of generalisation. Generalisations function as cognitive building blocks in constructing strings of interconnected functioning activities. Managers make their own functioning generalisations that, however, do not satisfy the research criteria for acceptable generalisations. The research/practice gap is shaped by the very different language games played.

If research is to be useful to practice, the generalisations produced must methodologically articulate the types of generalisation that pervade the methods with which practitioners construct functioning activities. Further research has to give more insight into such processes.

The paper contributes insight into both the generalisation debate and the research/practice gap debate.

Discusses the appropriateness of using national image for international marketing purposes, based on an empirical survey carried out among 100 Danish export firms, from which the marketing strategies underlying the use of nationality in the promotion of Danish products abroad have been identified. Presents some general guidelines for the building of international brands and product images based on national image, and submits suggestions for further research. Finally, suggests that while a symbolic linkage between product and country of origin can be a useful positioning strategy in the beginning of a product’s life cycle, brand building through more abstract and emotional imagery becomes increasingly important in the later stages of the product life cycle.

To be utilized effectively in decision-making processes, management accounting (MA) information should fit the business context and at the same time reflect the roles, responsibilities and values of the actors taking part in the decision-making. This study aims to investigate the limitations for MA information utilization in decision-making. In particular, this study explores limitations stemming from the decision-making process structure and the involvement of several managerial actors.

An exploratory case study of an energy company and its customer company illustrates the current challenges in providing and integrating MA information into decision-making. The analysis is focused on the analytical and actor-based features of the decision-making and thus the limitations for MA information utilization. As a part of the broader research process, the researchers facilitated a meeting in the customer company, where the actors relevant to investment decisions discussed the current limitations in utilizing MA information.

Analytical and actor-based features may take different forms in the decision-making. Some relevant MA information may not be included in an organization’s decision-making process structure that allows merely conventional, yet analytical, decision alternatives. At the same time, certain actors’ viewpoints (such as sustainability metrics) can be excluded from the process without considering the logic behind the exclusion. This case study identifies the following limitations, largely related to insufficient actor-based features in the decision-making: managers may lack expertise in the use of MA tools, managerial interaction may lack reflection on taken-for-granted assumptions, different managers may appreciate different scope, content and timing of MA information and the process structure can ignore the required managerial viewpoints.

This study demonstrates that both the decision-making process structure and the needs of the several actors involved may lead to limitations for MA information utilization. Although many limitations stemmed from the insufficient actor-based orientation in the case study, introducing new MA analyses and extending the validity of analytical approaches may also help overcome some of the limitations. Further research should address possibilities to integrate different actors’ viewpoints with MA information already in the decision-making process structure, find ways to introduce MA information on unconventional decision alternatives and enable reflection among and about relevant actors with respect to decision-making. These means could lead to more effective utilization of MA information for decision-making and, consequently, economically viable decisions.

This study addresses the limitations in MA information utilization by combining the viewpoints of analytical decision-making processes and reflective actors, and thus unveils possibilities for enhancing MA practice.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate performance measurement practices in venture capital firms. Specifically, the author examines how two organizations make complexity and uncertainty manageable by mobilizing performance measurement. This study draws on the framework of pragmatic constructivism (PC) (Nørreklit et al., 2016; Nørreklit et al., 2006, 2010), focusing on the integration between the four dimensions of PC, namely, facts, values, possibilities and communication.

The paper adopts a comparative case study methodology.

The findings show that performance measurement practices are strongly influenced by values playing out via integration in actor-world relations, whereas Venture A mobilizes an actor-centric approach, leading to an open, holistic performance measurement system (PMS) which is based on non-financials, a close involvement in operational matters and actors’ judgement using accounting as “learning machines” (Burchell et al., 1980); and Venture B draws on an analytical approach emphasizing on the role of financial indicators and control enacting accounting as “answer machines” and as “tool for computation” (Burchell et al., 1980). These different approaches to PMS, actor-centric vs analytical, are guided by different values about actor-world relation(s).

The paper provides a context-sensitive account on the relationship between uncertainty and performance measurement practices. First, this paper contributes by providing evidence on how actors use accounting to manage uncertainty and complexity by differently integrating actor-world relation(s) (Nørreklit, et al., 2016; Nørreklit et al., 2006). Second, this study resonates with recent calls for more industry-specific and context-sensitive investigations (Messner, 2016). Finally, the author contributes to the literature asking for more research on the role accounting plays in managing uncertain conditions (Chenhall and Moers, 2015).