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1 – 10 of 205
Article
Publication date: 9 January 2017

Eldrede T. Kahiya

This study aims to use analogical reasoning to draw a conceptual link between liabilities in International Business (IB) and export barriers.

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Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to use analogical reasoning to draw a conceptual link between liabilities in International Business (IB) and export barriers.

Design/methodology/approach

Following a review of 130 articles on export barriers, the study develops and applies a “liabilities” metonymy to connect the source construct (liabilities in the IB) and target subject (export barriers).

Findings

Liabilities in the IB map to export barriers, and the concepts of liability of foreignness, liability of outsidership, liability of newness and liability of smallness can substitute export barriers.

Practical implications

Adoption of metonymy creates new opportunities for enhancing theory development while offering alternative perspectives regarding coping mechanisms for overcoming export barriers.

Originality/value

This, to the author’s best knowledge, is the first study in the IB to theorize based on metonymy.

Article
Publication date: 2 February 2018

Stephen Brown and Roel Wijland

Much has been written about metaphor in marketing. Much less has been written about simile and metonymy. It is widely assumed that they are types of metaphor. Some literary…

1177

Abstract

Purpose

Much has been written about metaphor in marketing. Much less has been written about simile and metonymy. It is widely assumed that they are types of metaphor. Some literary theorists see them as significantly different things. If this is the case, then there are implications for marketing theory and thought.

Design/methodology/approach

In keeping with literary tradition, this paper comprises a wide-ranging reflective essay, not a tightly focussed empirical investigation. A combination of literature review and conceptual contemplation, it challenges convention by “reading against the grain”.

Findings

The essay reveals that, far from being part of metaphor’s supporting cast, simile and metonymy are stars in themselves. With the aid of three concise cases-in-point – relationship marketing (RM), the consumer odyssey (CO) and Kotler’s generic concept (GC) – the authors present an alternative interpretation of their conceptual contribution and continuing importance.

Practical implications

Marketing management is replete with metaphorical speculation (positioning, warfare, myopia and more). The shortcomings of such figures of speech are rarely spelled out, much less foregrounded. By raising figurative consciousness, marketing practice is furthered.

Originality/value

As similes and metonymies are rarely spoken about in marketing scholarship, the study starts a much-needed conversation. It raises the issue of marketing’s figurative foundations and, in so doing, offers further scope for future debate.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 52 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 September 2015

Michael O'Mara-Shimek

– The purpose of this paper is to propose a model to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of metaphor when used in financial news media reporting.

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to propose a model to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of metaphor when used in financial news media reporting.

Design/methodology/approach

Theory in Cognitive Linguistics, Conceptual Metaphor Theory and Frame Semantics are used to demonstrate metaphor’s central role shaping human thought and understanding, producing conceptual frameworks used to understand abstract concepts in not only financial news media but also all human discourse. The deontological principles of the major financial news sources are presented which demonstrate a commitment to common core principles, such as “balance” and “accuracy”, yet few consider the potential role of metaphor toward achieving them. This research presents a minimum source domain model for describing stock market phenomenon to increase “interpretation reliability” based on the concepts of communicative efficiency and effectiveness.

Findings

This research presents a model for communicative efficiency and effectiveness of metaphor and metonymy (CEEMM) in financial reporting by presenting a minimum source domain model for describing stock market phenomenon to increase “interpretation reliability” when metaphor is used in financial news media sources.

Research limitations/implications

While evidence for the role of metaphor and metonymy on behavior has been provided and in economic contexts, more research into the role that it plays in financial news media and the dynamics of how it influences consumer decisions is necessary.

Practical implications

CEEMM provides news media sources with a tool for standardizing the modes they use to semantically create and communicate knowledge of the stock market and stock market phenomenon. Reporting on stock market phenomenon will have, for the first time, objective parameters for using metaphor toward the fulfillment of journalism deontological principles.

Social implications

CEEMM has the potential to increase clarity in the metaphors used, as they require less creative exploration on the part of readers. This results in greater levels of trust in news media sources and permits news consumers to make more well-informed financial decisions, as their perceptions of events will be less subjective to creative interpretation. This research should urge news media companies to publicly declare principles for metaphor and metonymic practice in their communication of financial data.

Originality/value

The paper presents the first model for increasing the communicative efficiency and effectiveness in the use of metaphor in financial news media.

Article
Publication date: 13 March 2017

Silvia Gherardi, Karen Jensen and Monika Nerland

The purpose of this paper is to conceive “organizing” as an indeterminate process taking place in the interstices of intra-acting elements, beyond visible/rational/intentional…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to conceive “organizing” as an indeterminate process taking place in the interstices of intra-acting elements, beyond visible/rational/intentional organizing. The term intra-activity refers to relationships between multiple elements (human and more-than-human) that are understood not to have clear or distinct boundaries. The paper aims at reframing organizing, as the effect of multiple intra-acting elements, by introducing the metaphor of shadow organizing. It offers examples as diverse as knowledge spillover, evidence-based medicine and improvisation, and the mafia’s organizational rules.

Design/methodology/approach

The frame of reference is metaphorical theorization, based on the metaphor of shadow organizing, and is explored through three metonymies: the forest and its sheltered spaces in penumbra; the shadow as a grey zone between canonical and non-canonical practices; and secret societies, hidden in the shadow. The shadow is the symbol of what is “betwixt and between.”

Findings

Shadow organizing focuses on the way that situated elements (people, technologies, knowledge, infrastructures, society) intra-relate and acquire agency. Whilst organizing as the effect of intentional coordination, planning, and strategizing represents a well-established theorization, shadow organizing sheds light on what happen in the interstices of intentional and structured processes. The paper identifies the dimensions of shadow organizing as performativity, liminality, and secrecy.

Originality/value

The passage from elements in interaction to intra-acting relations that form elements is a challenge both for theory and methodology. To face this challenge, metaphorical thinking proves useful since it enhances scholars’ imaginations and emotional participation.

Details

Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal, vol. 12 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5648

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 July 2012

Kaushik Sridhar

The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical analysis that examines the semiotics of triple bottom line (TBL) and how it has been developed since its inception in the early…

2350

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical analysis that examines the semiotics of triple bottom line (TBL) and how it has been developed since its inception in the early 1990s.

Design/methodology/approach

This study was conducted over a period of nine months, during which semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 40 organizations around the world that were considered to be organizations having best practices in non‐financial reporting. The key interviewees were managers and heads of the sustainability departments within the organization.

Findings

This study has attempted using semiotics and coding to show parallel themes within how organizations perceive TBL. The codes of language, compliance, integration and limitations provide symbolic attempts by which sustainability managers create and communicate the perception of “corporate sustainability” through TBL reporting in order to satisfy external pressures and stakeholders. A semiotic analysis of TBL has shown that these four codes or concepts do in fact have a common interpretive scheme.

Research limitations/implications

The non‐financial reporting process or TBL reporting process tend to be conducted and developed by a sustainability team within an organization, rather than just by an individual. The interviews conducted in this research paper are with the head of the sustainability departments at each organization and hence this is a potential limitation in terms of understanding the semiotic powers of TBL.

Originality/value

While the codes explained in this paper do not show the entire culture and views on non‐financial reporting, they do capture a major aspect of it through the eyes of TBL and provide examples of how semiotics can be used to study and map the systems of meaning employed by members of a certain occupational setting. Having a semiotic view provides many conclusions about the study of an organizational culture or framework.

Details

Social Responsibility Journal, vol. 8 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1747-1117

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 March 2007

Walter Masocha and Pauline Weetman

This paper seeks to explore in depth the ways in which the rhetoric of the standard setter responds to comments received during development of a standard.

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper seeks to explore in depth the ways in which the rhetoric of the standard setter responds to comments received during development of a standard.

Design/methodology/approach

Previous research has explored the use of rhetorical strategies in accounting standards to construct and persuade as to what is “good” and to silence potential criticisms and alternative proposals. The exploration is extended to the development of an auditing standard and is strengthened by relating the opinions of lobbyists to the rhetoric used in the response.

Findings

The analysis shows that, in a situation where the standard setter's position changed significantly during the exposure of proposals to comment, rhetorical strategies in the exposure draft or standard were adapted to match the changing direction of persuasion, with silencing of potential counter‐argument evidenced in the surrounding explanatory material.

Research implications/limitations

The research demonstrates that those using standards should be aware of the normative nature of these documents and the subjectivity inherent in the nature of the text.

Originality/value

The paper builds on Young's 2003 paper by exploring the dynamics of the ways in which the rhetoric of the standard setter responds to comment during the consultation process.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 20 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 October 2007

Jung‐ran Park

The purpose of this paper is to present descriptive characteristics of the historical development of concept networks. The linguistic principles, mechanisms and motivations behind…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to present descriptive characteristics of the historical development of concept networks. The linguistic principles, mechanisms and motivations behind the evolution of concept networks are discussed. Implications emanating from the idea of the historical development of concept networks are discussed in relation to knowledge representation and organization schemes.

Design/methodology/approach

Natural language data including both speech and text are analyzed by examining discourse contexts in which a linguistic element such as a polysemy or homonym occurs. Linguistic literature on the historical development of concept networks is reviewed and analyzed.

Findings

Semantic sense relations in concept networks can be captured in a systematic and regular manner. The mechanism and impetus behind the process of concept network development suggest that semantic senses in concept networks are closely intertwined with pragmatic contexts and discourse structure. The interrelation and permeability of the semantic senses of concept networks are captured on a continuum scale based on three linguistic parameters: concrete shared semantic sense; discourse and text structure; and contextualized pragmatic information.

Research limitations/implications

Research findings signify the critical need for linking discourse structure and contextualized pragmatic information to knowledge representation and organization schemes.

Originality/value

The idea of linguistic characteristics, principles, motivation and mechanisms underlying the evolution of concept networks provides theoretical ground for developing a model for integrating knowledge representation and organization schemes with discourse structure and contextualized pragmatic information.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 63 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 July 2023

Athena Michalakea

This paper aims to shed light on the spatial constraints of sex work in Greece. The objective is twofold: to illustrate the intertemporal stance of the Greek state to push sex…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to shed light on the spatial constraints of sex work in Greece. The objective is twofold: to illustrate the intertemporal stance of the Greek state to push sex work at the edge of both the city and the law produces sex workers as always already marginal subjects and to identify how a spatial-based understanding of sex work could help in acknowledging sex workers’ full community citizenship.

Design/methodology/approach

This article examines the legal geographies of sex work in modern and contemporary Greece. The author is a doctoral student in critical jurisprudence with a professional background in urban planning law, who also works voluntarily with Athens-based sex worker’s organizations. Law’s materialization within space (Bennet and Layard, 2015, p. 406), namely, the implication of law in the discursive and material production of place, is examined through archival research with primary and secondary sources, including legislations and LGBT publications such as Amfi and Kráximo from the 1980s and 1990s found in the Archives of Contemporary Social History (ASKI) in Athens. Additionally, as the author is currently conducting fieldwork with people who are working or have worked in the past in sex in Greece as a part of her PhD dissertation, the paper contains data provided by ten interlocutors to highlight their own personal experience. The researcher has used the critical oral history method, as it is committed to recording first-hand knowledge of experiences of marginalized community members who are often unheard or untold, with the additional goals of contextualizing these stories to reveal power differences and inequities (Lemley, 2017, Rickard, 2003).

Findings

The paper provides insight into how regulationism establishes the brothel – a metonymy of prostitution – as a heterotopia within the urban space. Contemporary approaches, such as LULUs and broken window policies, are used to indicate the historically marginal placement of sex work.

Research limitations/implications

The interviews presented here were conducted in the summer of 2022, in the context of the author’s PhD research. Despite her six years of activist-level involvement with sex workers’ rights organizations, due to ethical constraints, only the findings of interviews conducted up to the writing of this paper are presented here, while details of private discussions with members of these organizations are omitted.

Originality/value

The paper examines a significant and timely matter of place making and spatial justice. Unlike earlier research on prostitution in Greece that focused on the brothel either as a heterotopia or as an undesirable land use, the novelty of this paper is that it highlights the intersections between policing, planning, public hygiene, anti-immigration policies around the regulation of the sex market. By critically discussing the implications of the de facto illegality of sex work in Greece, the study highlights the importance of including the voices of sex workers in decision-making and contributes to the debate around the decriminalization of sex work in Greece.

Details

Journal of Place Management and Development, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-8335

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 September 2017

Mia Kalish

Educational mathematics game models tend to be simplistic because they are target-oriented. This paper aims to show how game models that facilitate discovery and analysis can be…

Abstract

Purpose

Educational mathematics game models tend to be simplistic because they are target-oriented. This paper aims to show how game models that facilitate discovery and analysis can be derived from successful implementations already existing in the popular culture.

Design/methodology/approach

Based loosely on Rivera’s Toward a visually-oriented school mathematics curriculum, the analysis combines perspectives from psychology, the graphic arts and object-oriented technology to illustrate the depth and breadth of mathematics in a popular commercial.

Findings

This paper offers an cross-disciplinary justification for expanding curricular resources beyond traditional alphanumeric metonymies. Illustrations show the mathematical concepts underlying the commercial structure as well as the multimodal, sensuous, semiotic aspects.

Research limitations/implications

This analytical approach is intended to precede development of game mechanics. It is focused on expanding the psychology of mathematics beyond the metonymic, canned problem approach and toward more dynamic examples.

Practical implications

Games based on real examples from popular culture can provide learners with an answer to the following question: When will I ever use this in real life?

Social implications

The philosophy here is that learners will be excited and challenged by engaging real-life mathematics. The issue has always been that people cannot imagine what they have never seen, and this approach gives them a way to see the math in action, answering Rivera’s question, “Can we make a game based on visualizing the mathematics” with a resounding “Yes!”

Originality/value

This paper offers a fresh approach to designing games for learning mathematics.

Article
Publication date: 1 October 2001

Hülya Öztel and Ole Hinz

Draws on a consultancy project designed to reduce accident rates in four Danish sugar factories. Presents examples of metaphor use in the project and documents a steady decline in…

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Abstract

Draws on a consultancy project designed to reduce accident rates in four Danish sugar factories. Presents examples of metaphor use in the project and documents a steady decline in numbers and severity of accidents over time. Hypothesises that the use of metaphors is part of the explanation. Following a multi‐disciplinary review of the literature on metaphors, suggests that they can be harnessed in three ways: as tools for conscious, creative analysis; as ways of creating emotions; and as ways of fostering unconscious learning processes. Suggests that the effect in the sugar project is due to unconscious learning. Explains how this can happen and stresses the most important. Proposes that consultants use images, stories, narratives, and fairy tales to a larger degree and put less weight on formal conceptual learning when change is the issue.

Details

The Learning Organization, vol. 8 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-6474

Keywords

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