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1 – 10 of over 48000Sam Prince, Stephen Chapman and Peter Cassey
The paper introduces a new conceptualisation of entrepreneurship that promotes a broader perspective of the phenomenon. The purpose of the paper is to re-conceptualise the act of…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper introduces a new conceptualisation of entrepreneurship that promotes a broader perspective of the phenomenon. The purpose of the paper is to re-conceptualise the act of entrepreneurship so as to reduce it to the fundamental behaviours and processes.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper sets out the motivations for and challenges in establishing a broader definition of entrepreneurship. Following this, current approaches to defining entrepreneurship are reviewed. In light of these, a definition of entrepreneurship is offered that captures a new perspective in understanding entrepreneurship. A critique of the offered definition is offered with regards to promoting theory development, empirical research, quality predictions and a distinctive research domain.
Findings
The authors argue that a definition of entrepreneurship that is focussed on the development and validation of ideas provides a thought-provoking re-conceptualisation of entrepreneurship. Extant perspectives on entrepreneurship as business/organisation creation, uncertainty, innovation, value creation and opportunity recognition/creation are drawn on to demonstrate the applicability of the definition.
Originality/value
The pursuit for an encompassing definition of entrepreneurship has been both extensive and earnest, which has inadvertently resulted in a sizable pool of definitions. The authors offer a re-conceptualisation of entrepreneurship with the intent to provide a broad yet coherent definition that encompasses all acts of entrepreneurship. A benefit of this conceptualisation is the establishment of the endpoint of the entrepreneurship process that delineates it from the domain of management.
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Bo Edvardsson and Bård Tronvoll
The aim of this paper is to conceptualize service innovation through a service‐dominant logic (S‐D logic) lens and a service system foundation.
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to conceptualize service innovation through a service‐dominant logic (S‐D logic) lens and a service system foundation.
Design/methodology/approach
This conceptual paper offers a service‐dominant logic lens and a structuration theory approach emphasizing an actor perspective on service innovation. Since the value of innovation unfolds in practice, this paper will use customer to denote the key actor in co‐creating value in context.
Findings
The paper shows how a resource constellation in a service system is reconfigured and thus explains service innovation from the lens of S‐D logic, emphasizing customers' value co‐creation of value in practices. The focus is on the interdependencies between the configuration of resources in a service system and schemas that shape customers and other actors when integrating resources and co‐creating value.
Research limitations/implications
There is a need to discuss service innovation in a social constructivist view to better understand the guiding principles or schemas that enable actors to co‐create value.
Originality/value
Service innovation is understood as sourced by changes in either resources or schemas (norms and rules) or a combination, resulting in structural changes in a service system. The conceptualization provides: a new definition of service innovation; a new framework describing the interdependency between changes in resources and schemas as a basis for an innovative configuration or reconfiguration of a service system; and three propositions illustrating the relevance of this new framework.
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Maria Joelle and Arnaldo Coelho
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding and measure of the concept of spirituality at work (SW) by adding a new dimension to traditional…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding and measure of the concept of spirituality at work (SW) by adding a new dimension to traditional conceptualizations labeled emotional balance and inner peace (EBIP). While the traditional literature refers to the fulfillment of workers’ spiritual needs, the authors propose a new approach based on Maslow’s ideas that consider the impact of individual spirituality on the attitudes/feelings of workers in the workplace.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodological design is quantitative and includes item generation. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to assess construct validity and 273 valid questionnaires were collected. The authors developed the EBIP dimension with six items based on previous studies, and the new second-order variable was compared with the traditional measurement using confirmatory factor analysis, based on AMOS 21.
Findings
The hypothesis test supports the positive impact of SW on individual productivity, valid for both models, but with an additional explanation capacity when the authors add the EBIP.
Originality/value
This paper offers a new conceptualization for SW, based on Maslow’s ideas, who played a key role in the humanistic resource movement. This new dimension may be an important finding for scholars and practitioners since organizations have to take care of both the mind and spirit of their employees to establish a genuine balance between the meaning of their lives and their work.
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Veronica Hoi In Fong, Xueying (Linda) Lin, IpKin Anthony Wong and Matthew Tingchi Liu
This study aims to use organizational fashion to underscore a novel phenomenon in which products, services and practices fade in and out of the tourism/hospitality setting within…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to use organizational fashion to underscore a novel phenomenon in which products, services and practices fade in and out of the tourism/hospitality setting within a specific time frame. Drawing from the fashion theoretical strands in organization research, this paper studies how fashion has been conceptualized, operationalized and then diffused among tourism/hospitality enterprises.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative case design was used. A total of 37 semistructured in-depth interviews with executives of innovative tourism/hospitality companies (e.g. restaurants, hotels, theme parks and travel agencies) were conducted. This paper focuses on the organizational fashion phenomenon in which organizational trendsetters with creative, “hot” products/services have emerged prominently in the marketplace.
Findings
This inquiry illustrates a social phenomenon concerning the organizational fashion setting process by integrating existing production practices among different organizational suppliers in the hospitality sector. Different cases in the study show that fashion consists of a series of hybrid, paradoxical processes. These include conceptualization (conventionalization vs novelty, and personalization vs conformity), operationalization (bundling vs unbundling, and learning vs relearning) and diffusion (framing vs co-framing, and adaptation vs alteration).
Research limitations/implications
Throughout the three continuous processes, service design and identity development for consumption, as well as value creation and knowledge transformation for production, are carried out according to the decision of what is “hot” and what is “out” at a particular time. In essence, fashion helps to explain why hospitality institutions imitate specific innovations to take advantage of popular trends in the consumer market, as well as how such trends vanish eventually.
Originality/value
This research contributes the insight that organizations use fashion as a managerial initiative to translate their organizational goals and improvise nascent products and services. The fashion processes can be triggered by microlevel individual organizations and are spread through a series of social interactions to become macrolevel phenomena in a recurring manner.
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Sonal Daulatkar and Purnima S. Sangle
Financial measures, available aplenty, of returns on investments in information technology (IT) are deemed insufficient in terms of inclusion of intangible benefits. The purpose…
Abstract
Purpose
Financial measures, available aplenty, of returns on investments in information technology (IT) are deemed insufficient in terms of inclusion of intangible benefits. The purpose of this paper is to re-conceptualize the IT business value (ITBV) benefits by Gregor et al. (2006) after a contemporary evaluation.
Design/methodology/approach
IT experts have been administered the instrument to provide insight into the contemporary cogitation of ITBV benefits and factor analyses are employed to re-conceptualize the ITBV benefits.
Findings
Of the four ITBV benefits, the statistical analysis suggests that Informational and Transactional benefits need to be re-conceptualized. It is affected through a systematic linking of parameters – business strategy, objectives, information systems (IS) strategy, IS role and IS-business alignment profiles in that order.
Research limitations/implications
Operational definitions of re-conceptualized ITBV benefits have been presented which may be operationalized into components.
Practical implications
The re-conceptualization provides managers with an enhanced understanding of ITBV in line with the alignment of IS with business objectives and strategy and guides managers to develop customized ITBV measures.
Originality/value
The study employs factor analyses to analyse the ITBV benefits. It proves that the changing face of IT, wherein it is looked at as a value creator, needs an all-encompassing and contemporary envisioning of ITBV benefits. It also suggests an advanced typology based on further insightful IS literature.
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Steven J. Kahl, Gregory J. Liegel and JoAnne Yates
Purpose – The broader aim of this research is twofold. First, we aim to better understand how the business computer was conceptualized and used within U.S. industry. Second, this…
Abstract
Purpose – The broader aim of this research is twofold. First, we aim to better understand how the business computer was conceptualized and used within U.S. industry. Second, this research investigates the role of social factors such as relational structure, institutional entrepreneurs, and position in the formation of conceptualizations of new technologies.
Design/methodological/approach – This paper is theoretically motivated in the sense that it responds to the lack of attention to the failure of institutional entrepreneurs to change belief systems. Through detailed archival, network, and descriptive statistical analysis, the paper shows how the failed institutional entrepreneur fits conventional explanations for success. The paper then analyzes two matched cases, comparing the insurance industry's rejection of the institutional entrepreneur with manufacturing's acceptance, in order to identify what is missing in current explanations of institutional entrepreneurs.
Findings – Our analysis reveals that the role of the audience structure in interpreting the institutional entrepreneur's message influences the change outcome. In our case, the institutional entrepreneur's view of the computer as a brain that supported decision-oriented applications did not fit with views of the insurance groups who had centralized authority over interpreting the computer. Because manufacturing had less centralized control in its discourse around the computer, there were fewer constraints on assimilation, allowing the entrepreneur's views to resonate with some of the occupational groups.
Research limitations/implications – This paper develops a theoretical approach to institutional entrepreneurship that situates the entrepreneurial efforts of individual actors within a system characterized by the structure of its audience and subject to distinct historical macro-structural processes that present significant obstacles to the realization of their entrepreneurial projects.
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Orlando Troisi, Anna Visvizi and Mara Grimaldi
Industry 4.0 defines the application of digital technologies on business infrastructure and processes. With the increasing need to take into account the social and environmental…
Abstract
Purpose
Industry 4.0 defines the application of digital technologies on business infrastructure and processes. With the increasing need to take into account the social and environmental impact of technologies, the concept of Society 5.0 has been proposed to restore the centrality of humans in the proper utilization of technology for the exploitation of innovation opportunities. Despite the identification of humans, resilience and sustainability as the key dimensions of Society 5.0, the definition of the key factors that can enable Innovation in the light of 5.0 principles has not been yet assessed.
Design/methodology/approach
An SLR, followed by a content analysis of results and a clustering of the main topics, is performed to (1) identify the key domains and dimensions of the Industry 5.0 paradigm; (2) understand their impact on Innovation 5.0; (3) discuss and reflect on the resulting implications for research, managerial practices and the policy-making process.
Findings
The findings allow the elaboration of a multileveled framework to redefine Innovation through the 5.0 paradigm by advancing the need to integrate ICT and technology (Industry 5.0) with the human-centric, social and knowledge-based dimensions (Society 5.0).
Originality/value
The study detects guidelines for managers, entrepreneurs and policy-makers in the adoption of effective strategies to promote human resources and knowledge management for the attainment of multiple innovation outcomes (from technological to data-driven and societal innovation).
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Christopher Simms and Paul Trott
The purpose of this study is to: contribute to existing models of new product development (NPD) and provide new understanding of how a new product’s packaging is managed and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to: contribute to existing models of new product development (NPD) and provide new understanding of how a new product’s packaging is managed and integrated into the NPD process of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) firms and build on prior research, suggesting that firms lack a pipeline of new packaging innovations by uncovering the factors that influence this pipeline issue.
Design/methodology/approach
A grounded theory methodology was adopted. Research was conducted through a total of 37 interviews with key informants in the UK FMCG industry, packaging industry and associated firms.
Findings
Three distinct levels of packaging development were revealed: skin deep, body modification and format change. The emphasis within many firms is primarily on changes to packaging at the level of the label (skin deep) or aesthetic design (body modification), whilst technological and format changes are overlooked. The factors that contribute to the level at which development is undertaken are identified.
Research limitations/implications
Existing literature has largely examined packaging at the level of skin-deep and body modification. The development of new packaging technology has been overlooked. This study’s propositions guide the way forward for further research.
Practical implications
For firms, the development of new formats and genuine packaging innovation may be being overlooked. There is a need for them to re-examine their activities to ensure that they are addressing all three levels.
Originality/value
This theory-building study has generated a new typology which, alongside the unique framework, reveals the factors influencing the level of emphasis within firms.
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The paper aims to explore the issues surrounding the user conceptualisation of academic libraries. The paper will solidify the role of academic libraries as learning spaces and…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to explore the issues surrounding the user conceptualisation of academic libraries. The paper will solidify the role of academic libraries as learning spaces and problematise how libraries are conceptualised by users.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is a literature-based conceptual paper and draws on a wide range of literature to challenge the concept of academic libraries and presents how they are becoming reframed as different spaces.
Findings
The paper argues that the concept of a library is at risk. While libraries have undergone substantial changes, the concept of a library has lingered. This paper demonstrated that libraries need to proactively engage users in this debate.
Originality/value
The spatial approach taken by this paper demonstrates the complicity behind the user conceptualisation of libraries. Developing an understanding of this process is an important foundation for libraries to develop their user engagement.
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The effectiveness of interorganizational governance is one of the most significant concerns of firms involved in supply chain management. Previous studies have extensively…
Abstract
Purpose
The effectiveness of interorganizational governance is one of the most significant concerns of firms involved in supply chain management. Previous studies have extensively examined various interorganizational governance strategies. However, the dynamic and implementation details of interorganizational governance receive little attention, which leads to the defects of interorganizational governance literature. This study tries to explore this issue.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on the process and cybernetic view, this study conceptualized four interorganizational governance processes and their respective critical activities to capture the dynamic and implementation details of interorganizational governance. Furthermore, this study investigated the mapping of governance strategies into different critical activities, which unveil the various manifestations of governance strategies across these critical activities.
Findings
Four interorganizational governance processes and their respective critical activities would overarch the dynamic and implementation details of governance strategies. Furthermore, various governance strategies also would have different manifestations across the critical activities of the four processes.
Originality/value
This paper fills the gaps in interorganizational governance literature in which the dynamic details of governance strategies are unclear. The new conceptualization provides a new paradigm for researchers to zoom in on the subtle dynamics of interorganizational governance. The new conceptualization indicates a few promising future research directions.
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