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Article
Publication date: 1 March 1993

Robert W. Kolb

Philosophers and historians of science, along with scientists themselves, have long been interested in the problem of theory succession: “How does one theory supersede another?”…

Abstract

Philosophers and historians of science, along with scientists themselves, have long been interested in the problem of theory succession: “How does one theory supersede another?” Concern with this general topic has led to the development of two major recent theories regarding the issue. These theories of theory succession have emerged principally from reflection on physics. In the eyes of most scientists, this is probably appropriate, since physics seems to offer (at least to most observers) science in its purest form.

Details

Managerial Finance, vol. 19 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0307-4358

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 20 September 2022

Shoaib Abdul Basit, Thomas Kuhn and Uwe Cantner

Knowledge competencies and (R&D) activities are one of the most important sources of innovation and have been widely discussed in the literature. In comparison, the role of the…

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Abstract

Purpose

Knowledge competencies and (R&D) activities are one of the most important sources of innovation and have been widely discussed in the literature. In comparison, the role of the competitive environment for the innovation activities of firms is still open to debate and has not been fully understood yet. Therefore, this paper intends to provide new evidence on the interaction between knowledge competencies and R&D activities of firms on the one side and their competitiveness in the market environment on the other. In particular, the moderating function of market competition is explored. In this respect, the analysis covers the main innovation types as well as both sectors, manufacturing and services.

Design/methodology/approach

The empirical analysis is based on a three years panel dataset of German manufacturing and service firms obtained from Mannheim Innovation Panel (MIP) and Community Innovation Surveys (CISs: 2011, 2013 and 2015). For the estimation, a binary instrumental variable treatment model with Heckman selection method is used. Also, it provides a suitable approach to estimating the binary variables in order to cope with endogeneity concerns.

Findings

The estimation results show that R&D activities and knowledge competencies are positively related to innovation activities of different types conditioned on firms' specific perception of their competitive environment, in terms of outdated products/services as well as strong competition from abroad. Most importantly, the results from the moderation estimation reveal that there is a significant difference between the manufacturing and service sector. Service firms engage more in internal R&D activities on generating product innovations while the manufacturing firms conduct more external R&D on specific types of innovation. Further, the authors find that strong competition from abroad positively and significantly reinforces the effect of knowledge competencies on innovation activities for more types in services than in manufacturing. In contrast, outdated products and services tend to decline the effect of knowledge competencies for some innovation types in both sectors. The authors also observe a positive and significant reinforcement effect on knowledge competencies. However, it is found more beneficial for service firms since they can employ more innovation strategies.

Originality/value

The focus of the study is mainly on the impact of firms' competitive environment on innovation activities in various types through its interaction with knowledge competencies and R&D activities, across manufacturing and service firms.

Details

European Journal of Management Studies, vol. 27 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2183-4172

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1995

Richard Laughlin

Empirical research in accounting is of considerable importance tothe academic community yet it is surprising to note that it is onlysince the early 1970s that this concern has…

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Abstract

Empirical research in accounting is of considerable importance to the academic community yet it is surprising to note that it is only since the early 1970s that this concern has gained centre stage. Since this time multiple studies have been undertaken from a variety of different theoretical and methodological perspectives. The literature is now replete with empirical studies from perspectives as far apart as the “positivism” of the Rochester School to the expanding Foucauldian studies of accounting practice. While this eclecticism is commendable at one level it is also confusing at another. Reduces some of this confusion by bringing an overview and much needed order into this variety highlighting the underlying features of these multiple approaches to accounting research. Points out the need for choices to be made on the perspective to be adopted along three continuums concerning “theory”, “methodology” and “change”. Presents a case for “middle‐range” thinking for empirical research in accounting. While the reader may not necessarily agree with the logic that leads to this perspective it is hoped that the article will demonstrate that no one perspective can provide a complete picture of accounting reality, that choices on perspective have to be, and can be, made and that these choices are, and should be, contestable.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 8 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 1997

Joseph A. Scares

This paper addresses the status of the concept of tradition in social theory. Tradition, precisely defined, should be one of the ways sociologists understand the logic of social…

Abstract

This paper addresses the status of the concept of tradition in social theory. Tradition, precisely defined, should be one of the ways sociologists understand the logic of social action, group identity, and collective memory (Coser 1992; Connerton 1989). To date, however, most social scientists are either dismissive or indiscriminate in their use of the notion. Those who disapprove of the concept tend to “treat tradition as a residual category”’ (Shils 1981 p. 8) or they see it as a type of false consciousness susceptible to manipulation by dominant elites (Hobsbawm 1983). Scholars who embrace tradition, such as Edward Shils, often do so by broadening the concept into something indistinguishable from any cultural inheritance. A nuanced ideal‐type theory is put forth here to enable us to identify and research the particular logic of a social tradition. This theory is extracted from a critical, and highly selective, reconstruction of the history of the concept of tradition.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 17 no. 6
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1989

Stuart Hannabuss

It is possible to say that an expert in any field of knowledge can be expected to know particular things and techniques. This can be said of a stone mason, a physicist or a…

Abstract

It is possible to say that an expert in any field of knowledge can be expected to know particular things and techniques. This can be said of a stone mason, a physicist or a midwife. The expertise consists of a notional core of knowledge and skills (i.e. applied knowledge). Such expertise arguably can be found in other experts in the same field, although there will be idiosyncrasies of approach and valuation and quite probably divergencies in what is considered “right” and “wrong”.

Details

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy, vol. 9 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-333X

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1992

Since its origins during the Second World War, the computer industry has grown more rapidly than any other technology in history, and this growth has spawned a wealth of new terms…

Abstract

Since its origins during the Second World War, the computer industry has grown more rapidly than any other technology in history, and this growth has spawned a wealth of new terms and manners‐of‐speaking to describe computers and the uses to which they can be put. Such terms are often referred to collectively as computerese. The thesis of Barry's entertaining book is that the use of computerese is increasingly being extended to a wealth of other subjects that are often totally unrelated to computing. Barry refers to this use (or abuse) of language as technobabble: the subject matter and the pleasingly tongue‐in‐cheek style can be judged from the introduction, which starts as follows: ‘This paper‐based, productized bookware module is designed to support the robust implementation of a friendly, context‐driven interface between the developer and the end‐user. Did you understand this sentence? If so, you are fluent in technobabble’.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 48 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Article
Publication date: 21 September 2012

Philip Thomas, Pat Bracken and Sami Timimi

Evidence‐based medicine (EBM) is a technical and scientific paradigm in clinical practice that has delivered major improvements in the outcome of care in medicine and surgery…

442

Abstract

Purpose

Evidence‐based medicine (EBM) is a technical and scientific paradigm in clinical practice that has delivered major improvements in the outcome of care in medicine and surgery. However, its value in psychiatry is much less clear. The purpose of the paper is thus to examine its value by subjecting empirical evidence from EBM to a conceptual analysis using the philosophy of Thomas Kuhn.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors examine evidence drawn from meta‐analyses of RCTs investigating the efficacy of specific treatments for depression in the form of antidepressant drugs and CBT. This shows that the non‐specific aspects of treatment, the placebo effect and the quality of the therapeutic alliance as seen by the patient, are more important in determining outcome than the specific elements (active drug, specific therapeutic elements of CBT).

Findings

Using the philosophy of Thomas Kuhn, it is shown that these non‐specific and non‐technical elements are anomalies that indicate that the technological paradigm in the treatment of depression is fundamentally flawed.

Practical implications

Non‐specific elements of mental health care are essential in fostering hope, trust and meaning. They constitute non‐technical factors that are central to the concept of caring, and vital for recovery, and which resonate strongly with the growth of survivor and user‐led systems of support for people who experience distress and madness. As such they pose a major challenge to scientific psychiatry and mental health services based in this. The analysis has major implications for the primacy of the natural sciences in the education and training of those involved in mental health work, and demonstrates the importance of an open debate about the value of the scientific imagination in mental health work.

Social implications

This paper is important because it supports user‐led self‐defined notions and understandings of recovery, and does so using a philosophical conceptual analysis.

Originality/value

This conceptual analysis is highly original. To the authors' knowledge no one has subjected EBM to a detailed conceptual analysis using the ideas of Thomas Kuhn.

Details

Mental Health Review Journal, vol. 17 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1361-9322

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 16 October 2017

Axel Kaehne

Integration is policy, practice as well as object of systematic investigation. What we do not know is whether or not integration can be understood as a science. In his book The

Abstract

Purpose

Integration is policy, practice as well as object of systematic investigation. What we do not know is whether or not integration can be understood as a science. In his book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Thomas Kuhn formulated a notion of (natural) sciences based on the emergence of commitments amongst a community of scientists to a set of logics, model and exemplars. He called this a paradigm. The purpose of this paper is to assess the scientific nature of integration by perceiving it as a paradigm in Kuhn’s sense.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper proceeds by conceptual reflection through matching existing components, theories and exemplifications of integration to Kuhn’s model of a scientific paradigm. Integration is understood broadly, either vertical or horizontal, and located within the practical domains of policy formulation, policy implementation and evaluation research. The nature, scope and depth of group commitments amongst students and practitioners of integration receive particular attention in line with Kuhn’s social interactionist approach.

Findings

Employing Kuhn’s notion of paradigm in the context of integration highlights the fundamental tension between integration efforts and integration outcomes. Whilst integration defines itself in contradistinction to professional boundaries and fragmentation, the paper argues that it fails to develop a strong theoretical and empirical foundation for a robust and stable group commitment. The reason is that the key motivational force that may create a stable group commitment amongst those engaged in integration, the patient perspective, remains outside the integration paradigm. This leaves integration as a practice and policy model underdeveloped, mainly paradigmatically illustrated by singular exemplars and rooted in aspirational policy vocabulary, while clustered around a near dogmatic belief that working together between services must lead to improved quality of care. To become a scientific paradigm the group commitment in integration would have to coalesce around a clear ontology (symbolic generalisations), epistemology (models of knowledge) and manifestations in practice (exemplars).

Research limitations/implications

At present both the ontology and epistemological foundations of integration practice and research are insufficiently clear. This hampers the development of integration practice as well as a better understanding of how to evaluate integration outcomes. Future studies should focus on the depth, nature and subject of group commitments to assess whether integration is a viable candidate for scientific paradigm or an assorted construct of policy aspirations.

Originality/value

The paper questions the rigour and trajectory of integration practice, policy and research. It identifies a tension at the centre of the field between group commitments to scientific exemplars (case studies) and symbolic generalisations, encapsulated in the desire to improve patient care. The notion of a scientific paradigm thus helps to re-frame the discussion about research and practice in integration.

Details

Journal of Integrated Care, vol. 25 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1476-9018

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1987

Elias Khalil

This article attempts to tackle a fundamental methodological question in economics. The task is to investigate whether competing traditions in the history of economics are…

Abstract

This article attempts to tackle a fundamental methodological question in economics. The task is to investigate whether competing traditions in the history of economics are commensurable or not, that is, whether there is a firm ground on which a researcher could adjudicate the truth content of a theory. Thomas Kuhn in philosophy and Donald McClosky in economics among others are understood to advance the thesis that theories are incommensurable since there is no empirical ground to resort to in order to resolve disputes among traditions in economics. Karl Popper in philosophy and Mark Blaug in economics among others argue that theories are commensurable since there is a sharp and distinct criterion which could determine the scientific content of a theory. A more sophisticated version of Popper's falsificationism has been advanced in philosophy by Imre Lakatos and has been correspondingly followed in economics by Spiro Latsis, E. Roy Weintraub and others.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 14 no. 3/4/5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1987

Thomas E. Holland

A point of view (or standpoint) on neo‐classical economic theory may be based on the seminal works in the history of science of Thomas S. Kuhn and Jacob Bronowski. To be specific…

Abstract

A point of view (or standpoint) on neo‐classical economic theory may be based on the seminal works in the history of science of Thomas S. Kuhn and Jacob Bronowski. To be specific, one of Kuhn's conceptions of a paradigm may be interpreted to mean that an exemplar that is articulated is a paradigm. And Bronowski's conception of induction may be interpreted to mean that, when an exemplar of a theory is articulated, the parallelism of the concepts of the theory may be revealed, and gaps in a matrix may be closed.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 14 no. 3/4/5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

1 – 10 of 861