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1 – 10 of 11Rein Juriado and Niklas Gustafsson
The paper aims to discuss the emergence of communities of practice in a temporary event organisation involving public and private partners.
Abstract
Purpose
The paper aims to discuss the emergence of communities of practice in a temporary event organisation involving public and private partners.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employs qualitative methods in the form of 31 semi‐structured interviews, a five‐week period of participant observations and archive research in a Swedish public‐private partnership, focused on large‐scale media and entertainment event.
Findings
In the temporary event‐driven project‐based organisational structure studied, communities of practice emerged by themselves because of the complexity of the task at hand. These are called “emergent communities of practice”. Four built‐in organisational mechanisms that cultivated the emergent communities of practice were identified: trust building stability; competence contributors; competence shadows; and social glue of informal events. Surprisingly, the public/private dimension was found not to affect the emergence of the community negatively.
Research limitations/implications
Given that conclusions are based on the Swedish data, the paper recommends that similar studies be carried out in other countries.
Originality/value
The paper extends the framework of communities of practice beyond the boundaries of a single or few stable organisations by analysing communities of practice within a temporary project organisation; it introduces the concept emergent communities of practice; and it proposes four ways to cultivate communities of practice.
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Isak Hammar and Hampus Östh Gustafsson
The purpose of this article is to investigate attempts to safeguard classical humanism in secondary schools by appealing to a cultural-historical link with Antiquity, voiced in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to investigate attempts to safeguard classical humanism in secondary schools by appealing to a cultural-historical link with Antiquity, voiced in the face of educational reforms in Sweden between 1865 and 1971.
Design/methodology/approach
By focusing on the content of the pedagogical journal Pedagogisk Tidskrift, the article highlights a number of examples of how an ancient historical lineage was evoked and how historical knowledge was mobilized and contested in various ways.
Findings
The article argues that the enduring negotiation over the educational need to maintain a strong link with the ancient past was strained due to increasing scholarly specialization and thus entangled in competing views on reform and what was deemed “traditional” or “modern”.
Originality/value
From a larger perspective, the conflict over the role of Antiquity in Swedish secondary schools reveals a trajectory for the history of education as part of and later apart from a general history of the humanities. Classical history originally served as a common past from which Swedish culture and education developed, but later lost this integrating function within the burgeoning discipline of Pedagogy. The findings demonstrate the value of bringing the newly (re)formed history of humanities and history of education closer together.
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Lucas Baier, Niklas Kühl, Ronny Schüritz and Gerhard Satzger
While the understanding of customer satisfaction is a key success factor for service enterprises, existing elicitation approaches suffer from several drawbacks such as high manual…
Abstract
Purpose
While the understanding of customer satisfaction is a key success factor for service enterprises, existing elicitation approaches suffer from several drawbacks such as high manual effort or delayed availability. However, the rise of analytical methods allows for the automatic and instant analysis of encounter data captured during service delivery in order to identify unsatisfied customers.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on encounter data of 1,584 IT incidents in a real-world service use case, supervised machine learning models to predict unsatisfied customers are trained and evaluated.
Findings
We show that the identification of unsatisfied customers from encounter data is well feasible: via a logistic regression approach, we predict dissatisfied customers already with decent accuracy—a substantial improvement to the current situation of “flying blind”. In addition, we are able to quantify the impacts of key service elements on customer satisfaction.
Research limitations/implications
The possibility to understand the relationship between encounter data and customer satisfaction will offer ample opportunities to evaluate and expand existing service management theories.
Practical implications
Identifying dissatisfied customers from encounter data adds a valuable methodology to customer service management. Detecting unsatisfied customers already during the service encounter enables service providers to immediately address service failures, start recovery actions early and, thus, reduce customer attrition. In addition, providers will gain a deeper understanding of the relevant drivers of customer satisfaction informing future new service development.
Originality/value
This article proposes an extendable data-based approach to predict customer satisfaction in an automated, timely and cost-effective way. With increasing data availability, such AI-based approaches will spread quickly and unlock potential to gain important insights for service management.
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In the present discourse of university politics, collegiality has come to be viewed as a slow force – seemingly inefficient and conservative compared to popular management models…
Abstract
In the present discourse of university politics, collegiality has come to be viewed as a slow force – seemingly inefficient and conservative compared to popular management models. Concerns have thus been raised regarding the future prospects of such a form of governance in a society marked by haste and acceleration. One way to bring perspectives on this contentious issue is to perceive it in the light of the long history of the university. In this article, I derive insights about the shifting state of collegial governance through a survey of an intense period of reforms in Sweden c. 1850–1920 when higher education was allegedly engaged in a process of modernization and professionalization. Drawing on recent work in historical theory and science and technology studies (STS), I revisit contests and debates on collegiality in connection to a number of governmental commissions. Focusing on the co-existence – and collisions – of multiple temporalities reveals that overcoming potential problems associated with heterogeneous rhythms required an active work of synchronization by universities in order to make them appear timely, as higher education expanded along with the mounting ambitions of national politics, focused on centralization, efficiency, and rationalization. The analysis is structured around three focal issues for which collegial ideals and practices, including their temporal characteristics, were particularly questioned: (a) the composition of the university board, (b) the employment status of professors, and (c) hiring or promotion practices. Pointing at more structural challenges, this study highlights how collegiality requires a constant maintenance paired with an awareness of its longer and complex history.
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Shenja van der Graaf, Le Anh Nguyen Long and Carina Veeckman
Per Kristensson, Jonas Matthing and Niklas Johansson
The aim is to propose a conceptual framework consisting of research propositions concerning the key strategies required for the successful involvement of customers in the…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim is to propose a conceptual framework consisting of research propositions concerning the key strategies required for the successful involvement of customers in the co‐creation of new technology‐based services.
Design/methodology/approach
The methodology involves a single case study from which data are derived and analyzed using the grounded theory methodology of “constant comparative analysis.” User‐generated ideas for future mobile phone services are collected from four user involvement projects and analyzed at several workshops attended by senior managers from telecommunications firms.
Findings
Seven key strategies are identified as being essential for successful user involvement in new product development. Each strategy is described and illustrated in relation to existing theory and presented as a research proposition.
Research limitations/implications
The exploratory nature of the research means that the findings are tentative and need to be confirmed in other settings by other researchers, including quantitative large‐scale studies.
Practical implications
The results of the study provide management with guidelines for organizing successful user involvement projects with a market‐oriented approach.
Originality/value
Despite the increasing popularity of user involvement, little research has examined the conditions required for successful user involvement in new product development. This study makes an original contribution by proposing strategies critical for a successful outcome.
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Jan Niklas Rotzek, Christoph Scope and Edeltraud Günther
This investigation aims to reframe the sizeable literature on barriers and drivers for energy efficiency measures (EEMs) and the phenomenon of the energy efficiency gap. The…
Abstract
Purpose
This investigation aims to reframe the sizeable literature on barriers and drivers for energy efficiency measures (EEMs) and the phenomenon of the energy efficiency gap. The authors identify a gap between academic methods and industrial needs, as well as a neglect of the cultural dimension, despite its considerable impact. On the basis of this insight, the purpose of this paper is to integrate all of the various influences on industrial energy behavior previously identified in the literature in a refined energy cultures framework.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper includes a systematic literature review of research in the field of energy management, energy efficiency and cultural aspects within barriers and drivers of energy behavior. The authors select and refine an existing energy cultures framework for the industrial context. To meet industrial needs, the authors applied an ontology mapping of its core elements onto an international standard common for industrial energy management practice.
Findings
First, the authors present a refined framework for industrial energy cultures incorporating past barriers and drivers as factors. The framework enables an evaluation of attitude and behavioral aspects, underlying technologies, organizational culture and actions related to energy as a system of interdependencies. Second, the factors are ranked on the basis of the number of appearances and empirical metadata. Economic aspects such as “purchase, installment and hidden costs”, “general investment and risk behavior” and “regulatory conditions” are the highest ranked factors, but “existing knowledge about EEM”, “hierarchy approach: top down” and “environmental concerns” follow closely and represent cultural aspects, which are still underrated. Third, while illustrating a successful mapping onto a standardized process of continuous improvement, the authors also argue for heightened academia–practice efforts.
Practical implications
Reframing the energy efficiency gap as a problem of what aspirations play a role, what technology is chosen and how technologies are used should increase the level of implementation of EEMs in the real business world. Introducing the refined energy cultures framework serves as a starting point for future transdisciplinary collaboration between academia and practice.
Social implications
Targeting the energy efficiency gap is an essential part of the sustainable development goals. The refined energy cultures framework allows for a better understanding of the industrial energy behaviors that are responsible for a significant share of a company’s success. The introduction of energy cultures serves as a starting point for future scholarly research within sustainability management accounting.
Originality/value
The investigation combines existing research streams, their concepts and their results about cultural aspects related to energy efficiency for both academics and practitioners. This review is the first to capture all of the various factors analyzed in academic literature using the energy cultures framework as a basis. The authors add to the theoretical development of that framework with its application to the industrial context. This is identified as a gap. Its refinement helps to holistically understand barriers and drivers of industrial EEMs to support its practical implementation.
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Frank Fischer, Elisabeth Bauer, Tina Seidel, Ralf Schmidmaier, Anika Radkowitsch, Birgit J. Neuhaus, Sarah I. Hofer, Daniel Sommerhoff, Stefan Ufer, Jochen Kuhn, Stefan Küchemann, Michael Sailer, Jenna Koenen, Martin Gartmeier, Pascal Berberat, Anne Frenzel, Nicole Heitzmann, Doris Holzberger, Jürgen Pfeffer, Doris Lewalter, Frank Niklas, Bernhard Schmidt-Hertha, Mario Gollwitzer, Andreas Vorholzer, Olga Chernikova, Christian Schons, Amadeus J. Pickal, Maria Bannert, Tilman Michaeli, Matthias Stadler and Martin R. Fischer
To advance the learning of professional practices in teacher education and medical education, this conceptual paper aims to introduce the idea of representational scaffolding for…
Abstract
Purpose
To advance the learning of professional practices in teacher education and medical education, this conceptual paper aims to introduce the idea of representational scaffolding for digital simulations in higher education.
Design/methodology/approach
This study outlines the ideas of core practices in two important fields of higher education, namely, teacher and medical education. To facilitate future professionals’ learning of relevant practices, using digital simulations for the approximation of practice offers multiple options for selecting and adjusting representations of practice situations. Adjusting the demands of the learning task in simulations by selecting and modifying representations of practice to match relevant learner characteristics can be characterized as representational scaffolding. Building on research on problem-solving and scientific reasoning, this article identifies leverage points for employing representational scaffolding.
Findings
The four suggested sets of representational scaffolds that target relevant features of practice situations in simulations are: informational complexity, typicality, required agency and situation dynamics. Representational scaffolds might be implemented in a strategy for approximating practice that involves the media design, sequencing and adaptation of representational scaffolding.
Originality/value
The outlined conceptualization of representational scaffolding can systematize the design and adaptation of digital simulations in higher education and might contribute to the advancement of future professionals’ learning to further engage in professional practices. This conceptual paper offers a necessary foundation and terminology for approaching related future research.
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Kingsley Obi Omeihe, Amon Simba, David Rae, Veronika Gustafsson and Mohammad Saud Khan
The purpose of this article is to develop new insights into the interplay between trust, indigenous institutions and weak/dysfunctional formal institutions using the Nigerian…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to develop new insights into the interplay between trust, indigenous institutions and weak/dysfunctional formal institutions using the Nigerian context – a developing country in Western Africa. It advances new understanding on how Nigerian entrepreneurs trust in their indigenous institutions such as family ties, kinship, chieftaincy, religion, cooperatives and trade associations to resolve disputes arising from their exporting activities as opposed to dormant formal institutions in their country.
Design/methodology/approach
This exploratory study adopts an interpretive research paradigm, and it utilises a case study strategy. Data collected through observations, archival records and qualitative conversations with 36 exporting Nigerian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is analysed by utilising a combination of within and cross-case analysis techniques. Doing so enabled an in-depth study of the methods their owner-managers use in order to take advantage of the relationships they established through their long-standing cultural institutions in the place of weak formal institutions in their country.
Findings
Indigenous institutions have evolved to replace formalised institutions within the business environment in Nigeria. They have developed to become an alternative and trusted arbiter for solving SMEs' export issues because of weak/dysfunctional formal institutions in the Western African country. The owner-managers of exporting SMEs perceive formal institutions as representing a fragmented system that does not benefit their export businesses.
Practical implications
The findings demonstrate that there is need for policymakers to consider the role of informal institutions in the Nigerian context. Such an approach is essential given the economic importance and increasing number of SMEs that trade and export their goods through informal structures in Nigeria.
Originality/value
The study indicates that it is not just the void or absence of institutions that exist in a developing country such as Nigeria, but weak/dysfunctional formal institutions have been replaced by culturally embedded informal institutions. Thus, the study provides a new theoretical avenue depicting the concept of trusting in indigenous institutions.
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