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1 – 3 of 3Olivier Fuchs and Craig Robinson
Critical realism is an increasingly popular “lens” through which complex events, entities and phenomena can be studied. Yet detailed operationalisations of critical realism are at…
Abstract
Purpose
Critical realism is an increasingly popular “lens” through which complex events, entities and phenomena can be studied. Yet detailed operationalisations of critical realism are at present relatively scarce. This study's objective here is built on existing debates by developing an open systems model of reality, a basis for designing appropriate, internally consistent methodologies.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors use a qualitative case study examining changing practices for client contact management in professional services firms during restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 crisis to show how the model can be operationalised across all stages of a research study.
Findings
This study contributes to the literature on qualitative applications of critical realism by providing a detailed example of how the research paradigm influenced choices at every stage of the case study process.
Originality/value
More importantly, this model of reality as an open system provides a tool for other researchers to use in their own operationalisation of critical realism in a variety of different settings.
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Darcy Fudge Kamal, Cristina Nistor and Charu Sinha
In many industries, firms collaborate as business partners, which helps them achieve superior outcomes and ensure survival in a crisis. Business relationships help companies…
Abstract
Purpose
In many industries, firms collaborate as business partners, which helps them achieve superior outcomes and ensure survival in a crisis. Business relationships help companies access limited resources, share information and build trust within the community. This paper aims to highlight the strategies that firms can use to adapt to the loss of a business partner.
Design/methodology/approach
This study considers qualitative examples from what happens when a business partner disappears in the Thoroughbred horse industry. The authors draw attention to several types of partner loss due to firm bankruptcy, owner death and strategic restructuring.
Findings
This paper proposes a framework of strategies for surviving the loss of business partners. Specifically, surviving partners may respond by strategic distancing, relationship self-repair or reconfiguration through asset purchases or mimicry by minimizing exit risks.
Practical implications
The proposed framework can be used by strategists and managers to determine a course of action when faced with the loss of a business partner. Managers can quickly respond to a partner’s exit with the appropriate action to distance their business or stabilize alternate relationships.
Originality/value
The novel framework, informed by examples from the Thoroughbred horse industry, conceptualizes an important theoretical and practical problem. This paper proposes strategies for how businesses react and adapt to survive after losing a business partner.
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This paper proposes a way of reflexing on how we think within critical disaster studies. It focuses on the biases and unthought dimensions of two concepts – resilience and…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper proposes a way of reflexing on how we think within critical disaster studies. It focuses on the biases and unthought dimensions of two concepts – resilience and development – and reflects on the relationship between theory and practice in critical disaster studies.
Design/methodology/approach
Premised on the idea of epistemic reflexivity developed by Pierre Bourdieu, and drawing on previous research, this theoretical article analyses two conceptual biases and shortcomings of disaster studies: how resilience builds on certain agency; and how development assumes certain political imagination.
Findings
The article argues that critical disaster scholars must reflect on their own intellectual practice, including the origin of concepts and what they do. This is exemplified by a description of how the idea of resistance is intimately connected to that of resilience, and by showing that we must go beyond the capitalist realism that typically underlies development and risk creation. The theoretical advancement of our field can provide ways of thinking about the premises of many of our concepts.
Originality/value
The paper offers an invitation for disaster researchers to engage with critical thought and meta-theoretical reflexions. To think profoundly about our concepts is a necessary first step to developing critical scholarship. Epistemic reflexivity in critical disaster studies therefore provides an interesting avenue by which to liberate the field from overly technocratic approaches and develop its own criticality.
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