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The current state of theory-building in the field of operations and supply chain management (OSCM) is in a strong need of rigorous, empirically based theories that enhance understanding of the causal relationships between the structural elements and properties of the business processes. In this research note the authors propose the critical realism (CR) philosophy of science as a particularly suitable philosophical position (not to the exclusion of others) to review the mechanisms of OSCM knowledge generation and to provide philosophical grounding and methodological guidance for both OSCM theory building and testing.

To demonstrate potential benefits of CR-based structured approach to knowledge generation in OSCM research, this conceptual paper uses a case study that illustrates the adoption of one of the OSCM theories – i.e. the theory of swift, even flow.

CR interprets the accumulated empirical information about OSCM phenomena as observable manifestations of the underlying causal mechanisms that cannot be perceived otherwise. CR can provide epistemological support to the choice of performance measures that manifest the underlying causal mechanisms of interest. Extensive accumulation of empirical data from multiple innovative sources will not dramatically add to understanding of the system under investigation, unless and until the underlying causal mechanisms that trigger the observed behaviour are identified and tested. The CR abductive mode of reasoning emphasises the role of uncertainty in complex process behaviours and can facilitate enrichment and refutation of OSCM theories.

CR has a clear potential to contribute to OSCM research by enabling better understanding of causal relationships underlying complex behaviours of different elements of business process by providing robust and relevant mechanisms of generating knowledge about business processes that explicitly link empirical and causal aspects of theory building and testing.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the perception of luxuriousness as a novel underlying mechanism of the shelf-based scarcity effect by using both psychophysiological measures (Study 1) and self-reported measures (Study 2).

Two within-subject experimental designs were conducted to examine the effects of low, medium and high stock depletion levels (i.e. shelf-based scarcity) on consumer responses. In Study 1, facial expression analysis was used to examine consumers’ liking, and left frontal asymmetry brainwaves were used to examine consumers’ approach motivation as a proxy for purchase intention. Study 2 extended the findings with self-reported measures.

In Study 1, perceived product luxuriousness was found to underlie the shelf-based scarcity effect on facial expressions and left frontal asymmetry brainwaves after controlling for other previously proposed mediators (i.e. product popularity and quality). The shelf-based scarcity effect is only observed between low vs high stock levels, whereas moderate stock level depletion does not evoke the shelf-based scarcity effect. Study 2 used self-reported measures to replicate the effect of shelf-based scarcity on product luxuriousness. However, the findings demonstrated the limitation of self-reported measures to identify a significant spill-over effect of perceived luxuriousness to attitude.

Extending previous literature that relied heavily on self-reported measures, the current research used psychophysiological methods to uncover perceived luxuriousness as a novel underlying mechanism for the shelf-based scarcity effect. Thus, the findings are not only the first to provide psychophysiological evidence of the shelf-based scarcity effect but also to validate perceived luxuriousness as an underlying mechanism of the shelf-based scarcity effect.

The current findings suggest that the shelf-based scarcity effect is only evoked by high (instead of moderate) levels of stock depletion. The study also shows that shelf-based scarcity does not necessarily signal product popularity, but instead it may serve as a cue of product luxuriousness. Adding to other manipulations of retail spaces that elicit luxury perception (e.g. artwork, sensory delight and themed store atmospherics), this implies that businesses are able to use shelf-based scarcity as a cue to enhance or complement the luxury image or the perception of the brand or product.

The current research is the first study to use psychophysiological techniques to examine perceived luxuriousness as an underlying mechanism of shelf-based scarcity. It also demonstrates that self-report measures are not sensitive to such an effect in comparison to psychophysiological techniques, explaining why perceived luxuriousness has not been previously found to be an underlying mechanism of shelf-based scarcity.

In this chapter, we reexamine the notion that socially responsible behavior by firms will lead to increased financial performance. By identifying the underlying processes, institutional settings, and actors involved, we present a framework that is more attentive to the multiplicity and conditionality of the mechanisms operating in the often tenuous connection between firms’ social behavior and financial performance. Building and expanding upon existing analyses of the CSP–CFP linkage, our model helps to explain the mixed results from a wide range of empirical studies which examine this link. It also provides a novel theoretical account to help guide future researches that are more attentive to conditionalities and contextual contingencies.

The lack of systematic methods for reducing the complex reality has hampered many of the contributions that processual research might have produced. This paper presents a methodology for processual strategy research that offers a systematic approach for causal explanation across complex sequences of events and enables theorization about underlying causal mechanisms driving the processes. In addition, a comparative analysis of two organizational decline and turnaround processes is presented in order to illuminate how the methodology is able to generate a substantial advancement in knowledge by indicating the causal mechanisms underlying the decline and turnaround processes. The findings show that the turnaround is produced by four causal mechanisms that cumulatively and interdependently work against the mechanism of decline.

Good research goes beyond testing the aggregate predictions of a theory to test the theory's underlying mechanism. A mechanism is a plausible account of the process that causes a systematic relationship between variables. Strategy researchers particularly need to understand the mechanisms that drive firm behavior and outcomes because we seek both to explain and offer prescriptions. We recommend that theories clearly specify their mechanisms and that empirical research test such mechanisms. Such tests will help differentiate among theories with similar aggregate predictions.

Advances in material agency driven by artificial intelligence (AI) have facilitated breakthroughs in material adaptivity enabling smart objects to autonomously provide individualized smart services, which makes smart objects act as social actors embedded in the real world. However, little is known about how material adaptivity fosters the infusion use of smart objects to maximize the value of smart services in customers' lives. This study examines the underlying mechanism of material adaptivity (task and social adaptivity) on AI infusion use, drawing on the theoretical lens of social embeddedness.

This study adopted partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), mediating tests, path comparison tests and polynomial modeling to analyze the proposed research model and hypotheses.

The results supported the proposed research model and hypotheses, except for the hypothesis of the comparative effects on infusion use. Besides, the results of mediating tests suggested the different roles of social embeddedness in the impacts of task and social adaptivity on infusion use. The post hoc analysis based on polynomial modeling provided a possible explanation for the unsupported hypothesis, suggesting the nonlinear differences in the underlying influencing mechanisms of instrumental and relational embeddedness on infusion use.

The formation mechanisms of AI infusion use based on material adaptivity and social embeddedness help to develop the business strategies that enable smart objects as social actors to exert a key role in users' daily lives, in turn realizing the social and economic value of AI.

This study advances the theoretical research on material adaptivity, updates the information system (IS) research on infusion use and identifies the bridging role of social embeddedness of smart objects as agentic social actors in the AI context.

The first decades of the 21st century have witnessed unprecedented global political cooperation directed toward school teachers and the importance of quality education. This chapter discusses the current developments in the global educational policy field with a particular focus on teacher policy and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD) program Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS). In adopting a critical realist approach and based on a literature review, this chapter provides a synthesis of the governance mechanisms, contexts, and outcomes of TALIS. TALIS is treated as an observable outcome resulting from the actions of an underlying mechanism – information-processing policy instruments – and two contextual conditions. The first contextual condition suggests that there is a predominance of the knowledge-based economy paradigm in the political discourse, linking school teachers to economic growth and competitiveness. The second condition is provided by the consensus that education, notwithstanding technological developments, in the foreseeable future will remain a labor-intensive sector requiring a teacher workforce, as reflected in the representation of diverse interests in the TALIS programme and their commitment to find compromises on teacher policy. We will be able to assess in future decades the extent to which the mechanism will be triggered with regard to TALIS. However, in giving voice to teachers working in different settings, TALIS findings are not easy to reconcile with human capital theory or translate into “best practice” recommendations for teacher policies that can help drive knowledge-based economies.

Firms across many industries use acquisitions as a vehicle for renewing their capabilities. Many such acquisitions fail to achieve their goals, mainly because of the trade-offs involved in managing the post-acquisition integration process. The acquisition integration process not only is an important phenomenon by itself but also offers a unique opportunity to gain insight into how firms transform their capabilities more generally. Recent strategic management literature has begun to recognize the importance of incorporating individual-level cognitive, motivational and behavioral mechanisms into firm-level explanations, although empirical studies within this vein have been scarce.

This longitudinal inductive study traces the process of capability transformation in an acquisition of a medium-size entrepreneurial firm by a larger corporation.

The authors found that capability transformation involved a continuous interplay of knowledge leveraging and interest alignment mechanisms, converging around a set of practices that were considered critical for the capability. Only after firms achieved an agreement about this set of practices that knowledge leveraging efforts translated into actual performance.

The study contributes to the literature on competitive advantage by developing a better link between the potential advantage derived from the availability of knowledge-based resources and the translation of this availability into actual firm performance. This study also advances knowledge on managing post-acquisition integration process by demonstrating which managerial skills and actions contribute to the integration capability.

Purpose – Due to an absence of dialogue between sociology and the neurosciences, the scientific study of morality largely ignores cultural and structural influences. This chapter offers a synthetic approach integrating these separate disciplines to aid a more complete understanding of morality.

Design/methodology/approach – This chapter reviews morality's bonding (a sense of groupness and belonging) and bounding (reproducing and reinforcing group boundaries) qualities across disciplines, and proposes three provisional principles to systematize an interdisciplinary model of morality. We then offer a preliminary illustration of how this model might be operationalized with functional MRI data.

Findings – Our proposed principles (as exemplified by our illustrative example) suggest that the sociology-neurology gap in understanding the domain of morality might shrink through an engagement with the underlying neural mechanisms that encompass issues of empathy, racial attitudes, and identity as potential platforms opening up a more “social” neuroscience.

Research limitations/implications – This chapter provides a starting-point for further research incorporating biological mechanisms into sociological theories in the area of morality. The illustrative case study should be replicated in a larger sample and/or in additional studies with different social groups.

Practical implications – This chapter is a useful source of information for sociologists seeking to find out more about the intersection of neuroscience and sociology as well as the neural dynamics of morality.

Originality/value – This chapter presents an introduction to an integrative approach recognizing our biological capacities for a socially constructed morality and the interaction between society and the mind. It includes one of the first sociologically oriented fMRI studies, offering avenues for new ways to bridge research disciplines.

The purpose of this paper is to examine: the content of radical change by mapping differences between two templates for organizing delivery of healthcare; the enabling and constraining mechanisms underlying major change from one template to another; and the processes implicated in change implementation.

Longitudinal, qualitative case study design allowed the tracking, over a four‐year period, of the transformation of healthcare service in a community from provider‐centered, fragmented delivery to patient‐centered, integrated delivery. The authors conducted 90 interviews at three intervals, observed meetings, and analyzed internal and external documents. Concepts on content, process and mechanisms were used to analyze the data.

Transition from one template to another involves radical change in structures/systems and underlying values. Mechanisms precipitating and enabling change include: powerful stakeholders' dissatisfaction with current template and commitment to a new one, willingness to resource the change, provision of credible leadership, and manipulation of incentive programs. Radical change is underlain by a series of micro change processes that involve emergent, non‐linear dynamics, and that follow their own track with enabling and constraining mechanisms.

The paper describes a case of positive, successful change. Implications include importance of: attention to power dynamics, persistent leadership, elimination of boundaries between collaborating groups, and aligning incentives with desired practice changes; and attending to both variance and process in understanding healthcare change.