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This chapter argues for the unrealised potential value of methodologies derived from a critical realist research philosophy in the field of entrepreneurship studies. Critical realism offers methodological alternatives that, through the generation of new insights into social relations, social structures and key generative mechanisms, can offer significant value for entrepreneurship researchers. Reflecting on their personal experiences researching from a critical realist perspective in entrepreneurship studies, the authors explore how this research philosophy can extend the field of inquiry and promote new perspectives. The chapter explores this in relation to the specific topic of enterprise policy and demystifies some aspects of critical realism by setting out some of its basic principles to demonstrate their potential to develop new insights. Further, this approach can create significant impact, for example, through the development of effective interventions. The chapter concludes by identifying implications for enterprise policy development, implementation and evaluation.

Organ donation and transplantation services represent a microcosm of modern healthcare organisations. They are complex adaptive systems. They face perpetual problems of matching supply and demand. They operate under fierce time and resource constraints. And yet they have received relatively little attention from a systems perspective. The purpose of this paper is to consider some of the fundamental issues in evaluating, improving and policy reform in such complex systems.

The paper advocates an approach based on programme theory evaluation.

The paper explains how the death to donation to transplantation process depends on the accumulation of series of embedded, institutional sub-processes. Evaluators need to be concerned with this whole system rather than with its discrete parts or sectors. Policy makers may expect disappointment if they seek to improve donation rates by applying nudges or administrative reforms at a single point in the implementation chain.

These services represent concentrated, perfect storms of complexity and the paper offers guidance to practitioners with bio-medical backgrounds on how such services might be evaluated and improved. For the methodological audience the paper caters for the burgeoning interest in programme theory evaluation while illustrating the design phase of this research strategy.

There are five factors acting as a barrier to the effective evaluation of educational technology (edtech), which are as follows: premature timing, inappropriate techniques, rapid change, complexity of context and inconsistent terminology. The purpose of this paper is to identify new evaluation approaches that will address these and reflect on the evaluation imperative for complex technology initiatives.

An initial investigation of traditional evaluative approaches used within the technology domain was broadened to investigate the evaluation practices within social and public policy domains. Realist evaluation, a branch of theory-based evaluation, was identified and reviewed in detail. The realist approach was then refined, proposing two additional necessary steps to support mapping the technical complexity of initiatives.

A refined illustrative example of a realist evaluation framework is presented, including two novel architectural edtech domain reference models to support mapping.

Recommendations include building individual evaluator capacity; adopting the realist framework; the use of architectural edtech domain reference models; phased evaluation to first build theories in technology “context” and then iteratively during complex implementation chains; and community contribution to a shared map of technical and organisational complexity.

This paper makes a novel contribution by arguing the imperative for a theory-based realist approach to help redefine evaluative thinking within the IT and complex system domain. It becomes an innovative proposal with the addition of two domain reference models that tailor the approach for edtech. Its widespread adoption will help build a shared evidence base that synthesizes and surfaces “what works, for whom, in which contexts and why”, benefiting educators, IT managers, funders, policymakers and future learners.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the methodological challenges to evaluating one of the 50 vanguard sites of the new care model (NCM) programme for integrated care in England, and make the case for a modified realist approach to this kind of evaluation.

The paper considers three challenges to evaluating the NCM in this particular vanguard: complexity, strategy and rhetoric. It reflects on how the realist approach negotiates these philosophical challenges to delivering integrated care, in order to provide contextualised accounts of who a programme works for, in what context, and why.

The paper argues that, in the case of this particular vanguard site, the tangible benefit of the realist approach was not in providing a firm epistemological basis for evaluation, but rather in drawing out and articulating the ontological rhetoric of such large-scale transformation programmes. By understanding the work of the NCM less as an objective “system”, and more as a dynamic form of persuasion, aimed at securing the “adherence of minds” (Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca, 2008, p. 8) in multiple audiences, the paper suggests that realist evaluation can be used to address both the systematic issues and localised successes the NCMs encountered.

The paper identifies a number of aspects of new models of integrated care for evaluators to consider. It offers ways of negotiating the challenges to conventional outcome-focused evaluation, by drawing attention to the need for contextualised, time-situated and audience-sensitive value of NCMs.

Classification is a useful tool for understanding, organising and accessing knowledge. It can form a valuable part of the infrastructure of evidence based policy and practice by clarifying the full range of knowledge that might be relevant to a practitioner or policy maker's information need. This paper explores two possible classifications for social care, one based on the purposes of knowledge, and the other on the institutional sources of knowledge. Following application to a sample of social care documents, the sources‐based approach is identified as the most ‘fit for purpose’ for the social care community.

This paper seeks to describe the exploration of human resource issues in one large‐scale program of innovation in healthcare. It is informed by established theories of management in the workplace and a multi‐level model of diffusion of innovations.

A realist approach was used based on interviews, ethnographic observation and documentary analysis.

Five main approaches (“theories of change”) were adopted to develop and support the workforce: recruiting staff with skills in service transformation; redesigning roles and creating new roles; enhancing workforce planning; linking staff development to service needs; creating opportunities for shared learning and knowledge exchange. Each had differing levels of success.

The paper includes HR implications for the modernisation of a complex service organisation.

This is the first time a realist evaluation of a complex health modernisation initiative has been undertaken.

Two rival approaches to email have emerged from information governance thought: the defensible deletion approach, in which emails are routinely deleted from email accounts after a set period of time; and the Capstone approach, in which the email accounts of important government officials are selected for permanent preservation. This paper aims to assess the extent to which the defensible deletion approach, when used in conjunction with efforts to move important emails into corporate records systems, will meet the needs of originating government departments and of wider society.

The paper forms the first stage of a realist evaluation of policy towards UK government email.

The explanation advanced in this paper predicts that the routine deletion of email from email accounts will work for government departments even where business email is inconsistently or haphazardly captured into records systems, provided officials have access to their own emails for a long enough period to satisfy their individual operational requirements. However the routine deletion of email from email accounts will work for wider society only if and when business email is consistently captured into other systems.

The paper looks at the policy of The National Archives (TNA) towards UK government email and maps it against the approaches present in records management and information governance thought. It argues that TNA’s policy is best characterised as a defensible deletion approach. The paper proposes a realist explanation as to how defensible deletion policies towards email work in a government context.

The outsourcing of maintenance and other technical services is a growing trend and phenomenon in both military and civil aviation. The purpose of this paper is to characterize and analyze this trend by summarizing the existing research concerning outsourcing and the related service provider selection processes in this industry.

The concepts are identified and synthesized using a framework that articulates contexts, observed outcomes and generation mechanisms.

The expected growth trend of outsourcing was confirmed by the literature, and cost was also observed as a driver for the decision to outsource. However, one conclusion is that outsourcing of technical services is not solely cost-driven in aviation as clarity and partnership-type relations (working together for a common goal) appear to be the key success factors in the eventual working relationship.

The focus of the published scientific material may be different compared to that of the actual industry. Empiric research is recommended to complement this literature survey.

Improving the understanding of outsourcing activities may enable better efficiencies and even improve safety in aviation.

The concepts developed in this paper provide a suitable platform for further studies. In addition, the concepts serve as a concise introduction to the subject.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the extent to which a systematic review approach is transferable from medicine to multi-disciplinary studies in the built environment research.

Primarily a review paper, it focuses on specific steps in the systematic review to clarify and elaborate the elements for adapting an evidence base in the built environment studies particular to the impact of green building on employees’ health, well-being and productivity.

While research represents a potentially powerful means of reducing the gap between research and practice by applying tried and tested methods, the methodological rigour is debatable when a traditional systematic review approach is applied in the built environment studies involving multi-disciplinary research.

The foundational contribution of this paper lies in providing methodological guidance and an alternative framework to advance the longstanding efforts in the built environment to bridge the practitioner and academic divide.

A systematic review approach in the built environment is rare. The method is unique in multi-disciplinary studies especially in green building studies. This paper adopts the systematic review protocols in this cross-disciplinary study involving health, management and built environment expertise.