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The purpose of this paper is to analyze the processes of identification, emergence and filling of organizational knowledge gaps over an extended period of time, using the strategy in action perspective. Specifically, it aims to explore the nature and types of knowledge gaps, to capture their changes and to shed some light on the processes of filling knowledge gaps.

The study is based on two case studies and adopts a processual approach. It analyses 40 years of data collected using secondary sources and semi-structured interviews over a period of two years and identifies critical organizational events both in retrospect and real time.

The findings show that the two case study companies have identified a number of knowledge gaps over the 40 years period. Changes in the nature and type of knowledge gaps are identified and discussed in detail leading to a new taxonomy of organisational knowledge gaps. The findings report that knowledge gaps emerge due to changes in both exogenous and endogenous conditions over time. The filling of those gaps depends on a number of factors. Among these, the ability to make a distinction between “strategic” and “imposed” knowledge gaps and the ability to build absorptive capacity within a stipulated time frame have a predominant role.

The respondents were asked to look back into the history of their company using their memory of events to provide explanations surrounding critical organizational events. Since some of the respondents had not witnessed all of the events in question, their responses were at times based on hearsay. However, every effort was made to check the authenticity of the respondents ' explanations, such as using a range of sources and discussing the events with respondents at different hierarchical levels of the company.

This study provides examples of knowledge in practice and puts forward a new taxonomy of knowledge gaps which can help managers to deal with imposed and strategic knowledge requirements. Specifically, this study equips managers with tools on how to devise their knowledge strategy, how to identify their knowledge requirements and what are different sources (internal and external) which they can explore to fill those knowledge gaps.

The paper builds on the strategy in practice perspective, which stresses the need for further studies to link theoretical frameworks with practical solutions. In this respect, this paper attempts to make sense of organizational knowledge theory by applying it in real life business situations and by unearthing the concept and usage of knowledge gaps. The use of a retrospective processual approach to study changes in organizational knowledge requirements over time is another interesting aspect of this research. Finally, the paper provides a new taxonomy of organizational knowledge gaps.

The purpose of this paper is to examine strategic decisions surrounding critical events to show how the decision-making processes evolve and how the dominant logic changes vis-à-vis those decisions. Further, this study explores the processes of managerial decision making focusing on spatial and temporal cognition dimensions.

The methodology adopted in this study is a case study using the retrospective processual analysis approach. Data were collected using both primary and secondary sources. In all, 40 years of secondary data on key critical events and decision making were collected using a range of secondary sources. Those events were further examined using 49 in-depth semi structured interviews.

The findings of this study explain the relationship between operant conditions, strategic actions and outcomes of strategic decisions by highlighting the significance of knowledge strategy, strategic agility and intentionality in shaping and reshaping managers’ dominant logic. Further, the authors show that the dominant coalition, among other factors, plays an important role in building decision-making capacity and in the formation and transformation of an existing dominant logic.

The study identified a number of limitations. First, the issue of generalization as the data were collected from only two case study companies. Second, in some cases respondents were asked to respond to research questions using “memory of the events” which took place a long time ago, hence the issue of credibility. Further, sometimes respondents reported information collected through hearsay. To overcome the limitations of this research, the authors made all efforts to ensure that the data collected were reliable and credible such as by using diverse data sources, confirmation of events at multiple level and personal observations.

The study identifies and explains a number of factors which influence decision making. The authors also present the revised dominant logic model which can act as a tool in managerial decision making.

The paper shows how managerial decision making changes knowledge strategy, which in turn leads to changes in existing dominant logic or the creation of a new dominant logic, hence looking at the issues of decision making using an evolutionary perspective. Second, the paper empirically tests and explains the relationship between intentionality, actions and organizational outcomes using spatial and temporal learning. Finally, the use of the longitudinal retrospective processual analysis and events analysis, is a novel way of understanding a particular phenomenon.

Processual approaches to entrepreneurship have increasingly captured researchers’ interest. One such approach that tries to understand entrepreneurs in real time by looking with them, not at them, has been termed withness (Shotter, 2006). But how does one design a study that captures this experience of living in the flow? In this methodological reflection, we propose using the metaphor of warp and weft to think of grounded theory research designs that seek to approximate withness. To this end, we also reflect on our experience studying the unfolding processes in international new ventures and highlight the usefulness of multiple data collection instruments, notably diaries and interviews.

As the consumer experience literature broadens in scope – specifically, from dyads to ecosystems and from provider-centric to consumer-centric perspective – traditional data collection methods are no longer adequate. In that context, the paper aims to discuss three little-used data collection methods that can contribute to this broader view of consumer experience.

The paper identifies methodological requirements for exploring the broadened view of consumer experience and reviews data collection methods currently in use.

The paper elaborates tailored guidelines for the study of consumer experience through first-hand, systemic and processual perspectives for three promising and currently underused data collection methods: phenomenological interviews, event-based approaches and diary methods.

Although the list of identified methods is not exhaustive, the methods and guidelines discussed here can be used to advance empirical investigation of consumer experience as more broadly understood.

Practitioners can apply these methods to gain a more complete view of consumers’ experiences and so offer value propositions compatible with those consumers’ lifeworlds.

The paper principally contributes to the literature in two ways: by defining the methodological requirements for investigating consumer experience from consumer-centric, systemic and processual perspectives, and by specifying a set of data collection methods that meet these requirements, along with tailored guidelines for their use.

A recurring problem for research into services is the question of validity – i.e. knowing which quality factors really are relevant for measurement and analysis. Retrospective data collection of customer perceptions has shortcomings in “fuzzy” and dynamic service processes. This paper focuses on the customer experience as an active resource for developing service systems.

Using a video‐based methodology for collecting naturally occurring data and a “think‐aloud” methodology for collecting real‐time user perceptions, the study reveals concrete cues in the service environment that determine quality from a customer perspective. The study then presents an empirical case to test and develop this methodology.

The study involves able‐bodied and disabled passengers using public transport and identifies environmental and processual factors that are critical for the customer base.

The study demonstrates the potential for more advanced observational methods in exploring service phenomena. The methodology used here has a higher face validity than traditional retrospective methods.

Using the sort of naturally occurring data presented in the present study, marketers and environmental designers could have a tool for obtaining more detailed, authentic and dynamic information on the actual purchase and consumption of service processes.

The described video‐based methodology gives rise to new ideas on how to develop research into services. In particular, it provides a tool for getting close to the essence of the service phenomenon. Such advanced observational methods are especially promising for investigating the contextual and processual aspects of service provision.

This chapter examines existing approaches to conducting qualitative process research (i.e., studies that view phenomena as becoming or evolving over time) by analyzing published process research in six premier organizational journals from 2010 to 2017. We identify four modes of performing process research that we label evolutionary process stories, performative process stories, narrative process stories and toolkit-driven process stories, and explore the particular ways in which they formulate and link empirical and theoretical elements. We also identify some of their specific challenges and suggest directions for the future.

The purpose of this paper is twofold: to understand how and why employee attitudes to change might change over time; and to demonstrate what type of research might best capture this change.

The paper brings together three studies of the same organization, conducted at different times by the same researchers.

Employee attitudes to change in the three episodes are portrayed in terms of the assumptions that seem to underpin them. The first episode is characterized by a challenge to the basic assumptions employees have about their work; the second, by a fragmentation of assumptions according to sub-group; and the third, by the confirmation of a new set of assumptions about what work involves.

The paper concludes that fieldwork of a longitudinal nature is something quite rare, and its incorporation into research design needs to move beyond dealing with it through an uneasy combination of retrospection and extended organizational exposure.

The paper provides a rare and valuable account of how employee attitudes to change might change over time. The research design on which it is based, though fortuitous in nature, overcomes a number of the weaknesses of more conventional studies in this area.

The purpose of this paper is to explore time dilemmas in ethnographic research and develops a facilitating frame for thinking about temporality. Core concepts developed include: temporal awareness that refers to widening of the understanding and sensitivity to time issues; temporal practices which relate to how the researcher learns to deal with, for example, contradictory conceptions of time in the pragmatics of conducting fieldwork and in the analysis of competing data; and temporal merging which is used to refer to the interweaving of objective and subjective concepts of time, and to the way that the past and prospective futures shape human experience of the present.

An extended case study on workplace change is selectively drawn upon in discussing time and ethnographic research. Two closely related stories are used to illustrate aspects of temporality. These include a discussion of the way that stories in organizing, representing, simplifying and imposing structure (become theory-laden) often compressing the subjective experiences of lived time into a more formalized linear presentation that may inadvertently petrify temporal sensemaking; and an examination of how the polyphony of storying during times of change highlights temporal sensemaking and sensegiving through asynchronous features that emphasize volatility and non-linearity in explaining the way that people experience change.

The conundrum that competing concepts of time often present for the researcher is in the juxtapositions that generate loose ends that appear to require resolution. Temporal merging in being able to accommodate the intertwining of objective and subjective time, temporal practices in being able to use different concepts of time without trying to resolve them during the collection and analyses of data, and temporal awareness in being able to accept the paradox of time in the use of a relational-temporal perspective, all open up opportunities for greater insight and understanding in engaging in ethnographic studies on changing organizations.

There are a number of practical implications that arise from the paper in doing longitudinal research on workplace change. Four summarized here comprise: the significance of sustained fieldwork and not trying to shortcut time dimension to ethnographic research; the importance of developing temporal practices for dealing with objective and subjective time as well as the interweaving of temporal modes in data collection, analysis and write-up; the value of engaging with rather than resolving contradictions; chronological objective time is good for planning the research whilst subjective time is able to capture the non-linearity of lived time and the importance of context.

A new facilitating frame is developed for dealing with time tensions that are often downplayed in research through the concepts of temporal awareness, practices and merging. The frame provides temporal insight and promotes the use of a relational processual perspective. It is also shown how stories present in the data, in the writing up of material for different audiences, in chronologies and events, and in the sensemaking and sensegiving of individuals and groups as they describe and shape their lived experiences of change – are useful devices for dealing with the conundrum of time in ethnographic research.

The study aims to explain the process of management accounting practices and organizational change aspects in the public sector’s response to environmental pressures. Specifically, it discusses the interaction process between management accounting practices from one side and culture, leadership and decentralization from the other side.

This study adopts qualitative research approach and an interpretive case study. The study uses the triangulation method of data collection, including interviews, annual reports, documents and archival records. A theoretical lens informs it of the contextual/processual approach for interpreting interaction processes between management accounting and organizational change aspects, including culture, leadership and decentralization.

The findings confirm that a change in organizational culture has an important impact on accounting change, which has played a central role in the desire to initiate and accept such changes by the organizational members. Similarly, the new leadership style created a unique culture that was considered a solid platform to introduce new accounting systems by enhancing the trust between IT staff and management accountants and their trust in themselves to accept the change. The paper concludes that the relationships between the change aspects at the organizational level, and accounting practices at the inherent organizational and accounting levels are both recursive and two way, with the two concepts inextricably interwoven.

The study has some limitations as the data is limited to only a single country – more explanation for Jordanian Customs Organization quantitative understandings of governance improvement. The study has important implications for practitioners and customs officials by showing that different government regulations and customs reforms have varied influences on the public sector. These reforms have included most modifications to the accounting and organizational configurations. This study contributes to institutional theory development and refinement by exploring the interface between external influences and internal origins in the accounting change process.

This study uses a categorical association between organizational changes and accounting in the public sector as most prior studies have been conducted on the private sector due to competitive and technical pressures. It also contributes to organizational change and accounting literature by discussing the relationship between accounting from one side and culture and leadership from another side.

This study aims to identify intra-organisational drivers that enhance the implementation of a purchasing social responsibility (PSR) approach and drivers that influence PSR throughout the phases of the process.

The conceptual framework presents PSR as a process, rather than merely a decision. It focuses on three dimensions (centralisation, specialisation and formalisation) to highlight the role and evolution of key drivers through a three-phase process (set-up, operating and sustaining). The empirical analysis is based on a single qualitative case study of Société Nationale des Chemins de Fer Français (SNCF), France’s state-owned railway company, which is particularly advanced in its PSR-related practices.

The intra-organisational drivers differ according to the phase of the PSR process. Transitions across the three phases entail organisational adaptation, which require the company to transform from a mechanistic to an organic structure.

This research contributes to a better understanding of the PSR implementation process through an in-depth study focused on intra-organisational drivers. Although relatively understudied, these drivers play important roles.

This study identifies operational, intra-organisational leverage actions that can benefit firms that aim to adopt or maintain a PSR approach. It also provides comprehensive guidance for activating these leverages throughout the PSR implementation process, and it helps firms identify their level of PSR.

This study proposes the first processual, organisational interpretation of PSR approaches.