Search results

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.

Development of theory remains an essential step in the evolution of supply chain management as an integrative business discipline. Supply chain research often involves phenomena possessing complex behavioral dimensions at both the individual and organizational levels. Such complexity can require the utilization of holistic and inductive approaches in order to more fully understand the behaviors associated with the phenomena. This paper aims to provide a step‐by‐step guide intended to increase researchers' understanding of the use of grounded theory (GT) methodology in supply chain contexts.

The paper argues for GT as an appropriate method for studying emerging supply chain phenomena using an inductive, holistic approach.

GT is positioned in a holistic framework of research methodologies. Next a step‐by‐step explanation of the grounded theory process is offered, illustrated by examples from the authors' own research.

This paper links the complex “system of systems” nature characteristic of supply chains to the need for a holistic research approach such as grounded theory. It also provides a guide for researchers, reviewers, and editors to judge sound GT. Moreover, from a practical perspective, the in‐vivo nature of GT provides recognizable solutions to managerial problems.

Engaging with customers and addressing unmet value have become increasingly challenging within multi-stakeholder environments of service innovation. Therefore, this paper aims to address this challenge by studying how strategic design abilities address unmet value in service engagement strategies.

The authors conducted a qualitative inductive study at a multinational corporation and interviewed marketing and design professionals on their innovation practices in service engagement strategies.

From the inductive analysis, this study identified three strategic design abilities that effectively contribute to addressing unmet value throughout the co-evolving process of service engagement: envisioning value, modelling value and engaging value. Based on this, this study proposes the emerging co-evolving loop framework of service engagement strategies.

The limitation of this emerging theory is a lack of broad generalizability with mutual exclusivity or collective exhaustiveness across industries. A theoretical implication of the framework is the integration of strategic design and services marketing towards co-created engagement strategies.

The service engagement loop framework can be of great value to service innovation processes, for which an integrated, cross-functional approach is often missing.

The findings further suggest that next to a methodological skillset, strategic design abilities consist of a distinct mindset.

This paper introduces strategic design abilities to address unmet value and proposes a novel co-evolving loop framework of service engagement strategies.

Number 3 in a series of articles looking at methods and techniques used in technical teaching, in an attempt to define ‘progressive’ teaching in this sphere.

Even with the recognized impact organizational leaders have on the outcome of digital transformation (DT), a comprehensive scholarly understanding of the competencies that leaders must possess to lead a DT to success is lacking.

To derive and list the competencies considered by experts as necessary for managing DT, the authors recruited 18 international senior managers with relevant experience and applied the Delphi method to survey the managers. Upon the completion of three survey rounds and the authors modifying the response list until consensus was reached, 39 items were shortlisted as constituting key competencies for managing DT. Furthermore, the authors engaged in inductive theorizing to derive propositional statements using these findings.

The practitioners agreed on visionary thinking, agility, understanding the value of data, data-driven decision-making, knowledge of strategy and accepting change as the most important requirements for managing DT. Through inductive theorizing, the authors further derived that the seven discovered clusters fell into two broader competencies – behavioral and strategic – and that each behavioral competency would have varying importance depending on the country and industry that the organization operates in.

As is typical for Delphi studies that involve multiple survey rounds, the study participant response rate was moderate. The implications of this study, in finding that a variety of leadership competencies are needed to ensure successful DT, validate prior research that people, not technology, drive DT.

This study helps mitigate assumptions that successful DT processes are only possible by hiring technological experts, as doing so highlights the importance of behavioral leadership competencies.

The study is one of the first to interlink digital leadership with DT by inductively theorizing behavioral and strategic competencies. The authors also establish that contexts are vital in determining which aspects of leadership competencies are deemed most important in driving DT.

Employee stress and job satisfaction are significant issues in the hospitality industry. Moreover, employee stress has cost implications on the stakeholders, i.e. employers and employees alike. There is inadequate empirical evidence that could shed light on job stress and burnout issues of hotel employees with reference to India. Also, the nature and level of hospitality employee stress is not fully understood. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of job satisfaction and job stress on the life of employees in the hospitality sector in Mumbai.

Data were collected from a total of 510 respondents (23 for inductive and 487 for the deductive study) from six five-star category hotels in Mumbai. It utilizes a sequential mixed-method approach to measures the study variables through phenomenography and then validates their causal relationship through partial least squares structural equation modeling using Smart PLS-SEM.

In the inductive analysis it was found that “work related” factors such as unsafe working conditions, work load, relationship on the job were the most prominent sources of stress for the respondents. In the deductive analysis the causal relationship between job satisfaction, job stress and stress impact verified through Smart PLS-SEM turned out to be significant. It could be inferred from the results that job satisfaction negatively influences job stress and job impact. Similarly, job stress positively influenced stress impact among the hotel employees.

The results of the current study should be interpreted with caution. First, the current study only includes self-reporting stress levels. Direct observation was not feasible, since it is subjected to the researchers’ bias. The sample in this study did not include employees of limited-service hotels. As limited-service hotels may have different requirements, challenges and culture for employees than full-service or five stared hotels, thus the findings of the study may not be generalized to limited service hotels.

The study has dual implications. First, similar research interventions through the mixed-method approach must study the causal relationship between job satisfaction, job stress and stress impact by effectively exploring the participants “lived experience.” Second, employers must validate customer feedback to evaluate employee job performance.

This is the first study to explore interrelationships between the three important variables, namely, employees’ job satisfaction, job stress and its impact on the life of employees in the hospitality industry using the sequential mixed-method approach. The study findings open new avenues for future research using structural equation modeling, thus representing an important contribution of the present study.

This article investigates whether accounting, a tool that affects the actions of both organisations and society, can contribute to further developing the concept of sustainability. Exploiting real-time accounts of management speeches, termed “managerial talk” in the context of this paper, the study is among the first to include technology within a sustainability framework.

A data structure with first-order and second-order categories was created using a methodology elaborated by Van Maanen (1979) and Gioia et al. (2012). The empirical data was collected during 20 presentations delivered by senior managers from companies, the financial industry, the Swedish government and non-profit organisations to the Swedish Society of Financial Analysts between November 2016 and February 2020.

The study develops an inductive model that emerges as a result of the data analysis process. It emphasises that technology can be both an enabler for, and an interference with, sustainability according to the application of steering mechanisms. The latter include governance and regulations, analysis and evaluation tools, and disclosure practice.

Acknowledging the role of technology in sustainable development can potentially assist in the implementation of sustainability and, arguably, in fostering an alignment between the three pillars of sustainability.

Interrelationships between sustainability, technology and accounting comprise a relatively unexplored research setting that has seldom been at the centre of academic studies.

The purpose of this paper is to present an inductive methodology, which supports ranking of entities. Methodology is based on Bayesian latent variable measurement modeling and makes use of assessment across composite indicators to assess internal and external model validity (uncertainty is used in lieu of validity). Proposed methodology is generic and it is demonstrated on a well‐known data set, related to the relative position of a country in a “doing business.”

The methodology is demonstrated using data from the World Banks' “Doing Business 2008” project. A Bayesian latent variable measurement model is developed and both internal and external model uncertainties are considered.

The methodology enables the quantification of model structure uncertainty through comparisons among competing models, nested or non‐nested using both an information theoretic approach and a Bayesian approach. Furthermore, it estimates the degree of uncertainty in the rankings of alternatives.

Analyses are restricted to first‐order Bayesian measurement models.

Overall, the presented methodology contributes to a better understanding of ranking efforts providing a useful tool for those who publish rankings to gain greater insights into the nature of the distinctions they disseminate.

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.