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1 – 10 of over 6000David Rae and Per Blenker
This paper aims to introduce the concept of Entrepreneurial Collective Intelligence (ECI) as a means of understanding how communities of entrepreneurial actors learn to act both…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to introduce the concept of Entrepreneurial Collective Intelligence (ECI) as a means of understanding how communities of entrepreneurial actors learn to act both collectively and knowingly. It explores how connections between processes of CI, agency and action can explain and enable the development entrepreneurial community organisations.
Design/methodology/approach
There is a selective literature review of prior works on the related fields of community and collective entrepreneurship; collectives and intelligence; agency and action. The review is used to propose a framework of collective entrepreneurial intelligence, agency and action. An interpretive approach is used to research four case studies of community organisations which use CI to generate entrepreneurial outcomes.
Findings
The cases are compared with themes from prior literature to develop a conceptual model of four ECI processes which enable intelligence, agency and action: collaborative processes; distributed working; intelligence representations and organisation of infrastructures. These are theorised to discuss ideas, challenges, methods and questions to enhance entrepreneurial actions, based on sharing knowledge and learning, in the context of collective agency, action and intelligence.
Research limitations/implications
The four processes, both together and separately, represent a coherent framework useful for further studies on the role of collectives in enterprising communities.
Practical implications
The four processes each represent a central area of attention, not only for development, learning, decision-making and leadership within enterprising communities but also for entrepreneurship education in terms of alternative didactics, pedagogies and learning forms.
Social implications
The improved knowledge on the role of collective agency and CI within entrepreneurial processes is useful for strengthening civil activism and other fruitful forms of entrepreneurial collective processes. This may help solve complicated societal problems where traditional conceptions of entrepreneurship fail.
Originality/value
The conceptual contribution is to explain the dynamic relationships between ECI and action, mediated by collective agency. The role of CI in informing entrepreneurial communities is explored and four enabling processes are proposed. This coherent framework is useful for further studies on the role of collectives in enterprising communities, whilst informing their learning, decision-making and leadership.
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Hajira Liaqat, Ishfaq Ahmed and Sheikh Usman Yousaf
This study aims to explore the phenomenon of Islamic religious communication and how Islamic banks in Pakistan use religion-based communication, along with its expected outcomes.
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the phenomenon of Islamic religious communication and how Islamic banks in Pakistan use religion-based communication, along with its expected outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
Transcendental phenomenology approach is opted using a multi-stage data collection strategy consisting of observations, documentary reviews and semi-structural interviews to get deep into the phenomenon in a particular context.
Findings
Findings highlight Islamic religious communication as workplace Islamic da’wah that is majorly categorized into compulsive da’wah, objectics da’wah and impulsive da’wah, serving its role in bringing spirituality to work through work-faith integration.
Research limitations/implications
The finding of the study can be used in planning, formulating and implementing Islamic da’wah-based model to induce spirituality at work.
Originality/value
This study is the first of its type exploring Islamic da’wah in an organizational context as a mean to bring spirituality at work.
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Mimi Li, Wenqing Xu, Weiwei Liu and Huiyi Cao
This study aims to explore the patterns and transformational dynamics of the executive–interpreter network in the innovation processes of small- and medium-sized enterprises in…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the patterns and transformational dynamics of the executive–interpreter network in the innovation processes of small- and medium-sized enterprises in hospitality.
Design/methodology/approach
Grounded in social network theory and adopting a case-based approach, this study features a multi-case design focusing on three Chinese boutique hotels. Data were collected through Web page and document reviews, participant observations and semistructured interviews.
Findings
Results capture how executive–interpreter network dynamics contribute to innovation in small- and medium-sized hotels. Key factors in social networks (e.g. size, scope and strength) shift throughout innovation. This study presents a design-driven approach as a means of innovation. Findings also delineate the network development conditions under which innovation dynamically occurs in boutique hotels.
Practical implications
Practical implications center on how network dynamics help small- and medium-sized hotels innovate more effectively. These insights can assist hotel operators and prospective market entrants in improving their hotels’ performance and competitiveness.
Originality/value
This study blends social network theory with a design-driven approach to explore innovation mechanisms in small- and medium-sized hotels. It offers empirical evidence for practitioners regarding design-driven innovation. Findings enrich the body of knowledge on both design-driven innovation theory and hospitality innovation.
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Marco Contri, Silvia Fissi and Elena Gori
This exploratory study aims to investigate the use of Facebook as a dialogic accounting tool for promoting citizen engagement in Italian regions.
Abstract
Purpose
This exploratory study aims to investigate the use of Facebook as a dialogic accounting tool for promoting citizen engagement in Italian regions.
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopts a mixed methodology. Indeed, it first collects some quantitative data to construct an engagement index for the Facebook pages of the Italian regions, and then it performs a content analysis of some posts while also examining the tenor of the related comments and the level of interaction between regions and citizens.
Findings
The Italian regions have mainly used their Facebook pages for public communication purposes rather than for public participation. Therefore, they have conceived social pages more as an instrument of self-legitimisation and thus monologic accounting and have rarely considered them as a tool for engaging citizens who, in turn, showed low interest in participating in online debates. Nature and environment, tourism promotion and sport were the most engaging content types. Findings also confirm that posting many messages does not automatically increase engagement.
Originality/value
This study is one of the first to investigate the potential of social media from a dialogic accounting perspective, especially in the public sector. Additionally, it focuses on regions which are understudied in the literature, although they are critical actors in implementing public policies. Last but not least, this study offers a framework that integrates the literature on the use of social media for citizen engagement and research on such platforms as dialogic accounting tools.
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Ercan Sirakaya Turk, Omid Oshriyeh, Ali Iskender, Haywantee Ramkissoon and Haylee Uecker Mercado
This paper reports the results of research that examines the interrelationships between efficacy of sustainability values (SV) and pro-sustainable behaviors of potential tourists…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper reports the results of research that examines the interrelationships between efficacy of sustainability values (SV) and pro-sustainable behaviors of potential tourists. A partially mediated model is postulated and tested to help explain additional error variance in predicting consumers’ destination choice decisions in tourism, hence voiding a critical research gap. Coined as the “environmentally intellectualist behavior,” a new mediator variable is tested to explain additional error variance in human-value models.
Design/methodology/approach
The study is based on data collected from two representative samples of potential tourists from the USA and Canada. Data analyses include exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses that were used to examine the underlying domain structures of SV, followed by a predictive model using structural equation modeling.
Findings
The study findings suggest that values are salient factors that underlie pro-sustainable tourism and travel behavior. Moreover, the results confirm the existence of a higher-order sustainability construct. The study contributes original insights to the field by demonstrating that there are direct and indirect positive relationships between SV, environmental behaviors and decisions of consumers who take a pro-sustainable stance when traveling.
Originality/value
By modeling values as antecedents to attitudes and testing interrelationships between SV and the mediator variables coined as the environmentally intellectual behavior, the authors developed and tested a predictive model to explain destination- and product choice decisions. The model tested herein advances the value theory in two fundamental ways: first, this study demonstrates that SV can be modeled as higher-order factors. Second, values are antecedents to attitude and other variables, therefore must be included in consumer behavior models. Finally, the culture or origin of tourists matters when examining the impact of values on tourists’ choice decisions. Political actions and environmental attitudes can be modeled as mediators to explain additional error variance.
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Maxwell Poole, Ethan Pancer, Matthew Philp and Theodore J. Noseworthy
The COVID-19 pandemic triggered an increase in online traffic, with many assuming that this technology would facilitate coping through active social connections. This study aims…
Abstract
Purpose
The COVID-19 pandemic triggered an increase in online traffic, with many assuming that this technology would facilitate coping through active social connections. This study aims to interrogate the nature of this traffic-engagement relationship by distinguishing between passive (e.g. browsing) and active (e.g. reacting, commenting and sharing) engagement, and examining behavioral shifts across platforms.
Design/methodology/approach
Three field studies assessed changes in social media engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic. These studies included social media engagement with the most followed accounts (Twitter), discussion board commenting (Reddit) and news content sharing (Facebook).
Findings
Even though people spent more time online during the pandemic, the current research finds people were actively engaging less. Users were reacting less to popular social media accounts, commenting less on discussion boards and even sharing less news content.
Research limitations/implications
While the current work provides a systematic observation of engagement during a global crisis, it does not claim causality based on its correlational nature. Future research should test potential mechanisms (e.g. anxiety, threat and privacy) to draw causal inference and identify possible interventions.
Practical implications
The pandemic shed light on a complex systemic issue: the misunderstanding and oversimplification of how online platforms facilitate social cohesion. It encourages thoughtful consideration of online social dynamics, emphasizing that not all engagement is equal and that the benefits of connection may not always be realized as expected.
Originality/value
This research provides a postmortem on the traffic-engagement relationship, highlighting that increased online presence does not necessarily translate to active social connection, which might help explain the rise in mental health issues that emerged from the pandemic.
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Angeliki Nikolinakou and Joe Phua
Social media has the potential to enable exchange of diverse opinions, foster dialogue on important social issues and exert positive influence on stakeholders and society…
Abstract
Purpose
Social media has the potential to enable exchange of diverse opinions, foster dialogue on important social issues and exert positive influence on stakeholders and society. However, evidence is contradictory as to whether this is the case; it is possible that millennials' behaviors on social media are mainly driven by conservation (conformity and safety) or self-enhancement (power and achievement). In this research, the authors examine the extent to which different human values (self-transcendence, conservation, self-enhancement and openness to change) influence millennials' activities and behaviors on social media.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conduct three separate surveys on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with 491 millennials (18–34 years of age) in the USA, examining the influence of four higher-order values of the Schwartz human values model (open self-transcendence, conservation, self-enhancement and openness to change) on specific social media activities (consumption, self-focused and sharing nonpersonal content activities).
Findings
First, the authors find that for millennial users, human values significantly influence social media activities. Second, conservation values, followed by self-enhancement values, overshadow the expression of open self-transcendence values on social media. Thus, social media platforms may function more as agents of conservation and self-enhancement than agents of personal growth.
Originality/value
This is among the first studies to examine the influence of human values on social media and to find that human values such as conservation and self-enhancement have a strong influence on users' social media activities, while open self-transcendence values, which lead to expansion and growth, do not find genuine expression on social media.
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Robert Randolph, Eric Kushins and Prachi Gala
Despite similarities, research across family business and business advising forwards contradictory conclusions when considering family business advising. The authors seek to…
Abstract
Purpose
Despite similarities, research across family business and business advising forwards contradictory conclusions when considering family business advising. The authors seek to integrate these literature and in doing so uncover both the hurdles facing family business advisors attempting to adapt tools developed in corporate advising to the family business context as well as the potential for greater integration of these streams in ways that contribute to both family business and advising research and practice.
Design/methodology/approach
Primary data were collected both in the form of a survey questionnaire and website marketing content. In the survey, 47 family business advisors evaluated the distinctiveness of their family business clients across structural, cognitive and relational social capital dimensions. Motivated by unexpected findings, a content analysis of advisor websites uncovered specific marketing themes that illustrate the divides between family business advising and scholarship.
Findings
Family business advisors reliably acknowledge structural and cognitive social capital as preeminently characterizing the distinctiveness of their family business clients. Expanding on this, the authors’ findings suggest that the urgency signaled in advisor marketing via their websites may inspire tactics misaligned with the long-term time horizon typically characterizing family businesses strategy.
Originality/value
The few family business advising studies that exist predominantly consider post-hoc evaluation of advising by family business clients. The primary data the authors collect are unique in the literature in that the data detail how family business advisors perceive and engage with potential clients.
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Hiral Patel and Gabriela Zapata-Lancaster
This paper aims to highlight a broader definition of good building performance that goes beyond the traditional emphasis on technical aspects, only adopting the lens of the social…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to highlight a broader definition of good building performance that goes beyond the traditional emphasis on technical aspects, only adopting the lens of the social construction of technology (SCOT) in the empirical space of the workplace sector. Several building performance evaluation (BPE) methods focus on technical aspects such as energy consumption, indoor environmental conditions and compliance with building regulations and standards. Technical aspects, albeit important goals, only embed a partial component of what buildings are expected to deliver. There is growing interest in considering the organisational and experiential expectations of building performance, particularly integrating various views of performance as expected by different user groups.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper adopts an archival research method to analyse the archive of the workplace consultants DEGW, particularly focusing on their work on London’s Broadgate development in the 1980s and the 1990s.
Findings
The findings reveal how voices from a pluralistic client organisation can be addressed to articulate a broad definition of building performance that integrates different viewpoints encompassing technical, organisational and experiential expectations. In DEGW’s work, the views on building performance of various stakeholders involved in the everyday use and management of buildings are identified without imposing predetermined agendas or research notions of performance. Particular emphasis is given to understanding clients as not a homogenous entity but consisting of different interest groups, which implies multiple conceptualisations of building performance and the building itself.
Research limitations/implications
The performance expectations of a building vary between organisations and even within any organisation. Moreover, the needs of an organisation will change over time, and the BPE criteria need to be changed to ensure better alignment between organisations and the physical spaces they occupy. A critical reflection on the conceptualisation of “users” and “building” in BPE methods is required to create an integrated approach towards building performance.
Originality/value
The paper offers insights by adopting the theoretical lens of SCOT to explore an integrated approach to building performance that captures the varied needs of building users through the example of London’s Broadgate development.
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