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Article
Publication date: 14 February 2020

Ingo Husmann, Michael Kleinaltenkamp and Stuart Hanmer-Lloyd

Multi-supplier project networks represent a large part of the business-to-business (B2B) sector as the scope of many projects requires that different providers participate in…

Abstract

Purpose

Multi-supplier project networks represent a large part of the business-to-business (B2B) sector as the scope of many projects requires that different providers participate in their development and delivery. This raises the question of how the integration of the resources of the various partners can be shaped successfully. Specifically, the different organizational identities provide institutional frames of reference to the resource-integrating firms. As the organizational identities are typically not harmonious with each other, at least partial misalignments of the institutional setting that shapes the resource integration processes may emerge. The purpose of this paper is to empirically investigate the impact of various organizational identities on the course and outcome of resource integration in project networks.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper makes use of interpretive phenomenology in conjunction with a qualitative case study approach to access the lived experience of actors of different professional service firms having experienced changes in resource integration in a B2B project network.

Findings

A conceptualization of organizational identity as an institutional context for resource integration is developed and empirically investigated. The findings show a strong impact on the firms’ organizational identities and the actors’ resource integration experience and evaluation. Moreover, the findings provide evidence that, if unmanaged, at least partial misalignment of the institutional arrangements of multi-organizational B2B project network represents a normal and also a stable condition.

Originality/value

As a first conceptualization and empirical analysis of the interplay between organizational identity and resource integration, this paper advances the current understanding of the institutional context for resource integration. It argues for the wider relevance of organizational identity constructs and paves the way for future development.

Details

Journal of Business & Industrial Marketing, vol. 35 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0885-8624

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 24 June 2020

Paolo Di Toma and Stefano Ghinoi

Business model innovation is a key element for firms' competitiveness. Its development can be supported by the establishment of an actor-oriented scheme to overcome hierarchical…

6764

Abstract

Purpose

Business model innovation is a key element for firms' competitiveness. Its development can be supported by the establishment of an actor-oriented scheme to overcome hierarchical structures. The actor-oriented scheme is characterized by intra-organizational networks of relationships that can be established and dissolved between individuals. However, we lack an empirical perspective about its establishment; therefore, the purpose of this research is to advance our understanding of intra-organizational networks for supporting business model innovation.

Design/methodology/approach

Individuals create and manage knowledge aimed to innovate the business model through cognitive search and experiential learning mechanisms. Knowledge is spread within organizations by using intra-organizational advice networks, whose patterns reflect the presence of an actor-oriented scheme. This work applies social network analysis to network data from a multi-unit organization specializing in personal care services. We use a Logistic Regression-Quadratic Assignment Procedure to analyze intra-organizational network data on managers' advice exchange related to the learning modes of cognitive search and experiential learning.

Findings

Our research empirically identifies the main elements of an actor-oriented scheme in a business model innovation process. We find that managers are able to self-organize, because they are not influenced by their organizational roles, and that commons for sharing resources and protocols, processes and infrastructures enable advice exchange, thus showing the presence of an actor-oriented scheme in business model innovation process.

Research limitations/implications

This research is based on a cross-sectional database. A longitudinal study would provide a better understanding of the network evolution characterizing the innovation process.

Practical implications

The results of our study support organizational decision-making for business model innovation.

Originality/value

This study provides empirical evidence of how an actor-oriented scheme emerges in a business model innovation process.

Details

European Journal of Innovation Management, vol. 24 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1460-1060

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 5 April 2019

Tim Seidenschnur and Georg Krücken

This chapter focuses on the circumstances under which active clients in universities construct external management consultants as actors. Much research focuses on how consultants…

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the circumstances under which active clients in universities construct external management consultants as actors. Much research focuses on how consultants legitimize decisions and trends in business organizations, but we know little about how consultants become legitimized as actors in other organizational fields. In the academic field, clients are embedded in a variety of organizational settings embedded in different institutional logics, which determine their sense making. By analyzing how consultants are legitimized, the authors contribute to a better understanding of the organizational preconditions that support the construction of an external expert as an actor. By focusing on IT and strategy consulting in academia, further, the authors discuss the role of competing institutional logics in legitimization processes and the importance of intra-organizational communities.

Details

Agents, Actors, Actorhood: Institutional Perspectives on the Nature of Agency, Action, and Authority
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78756-081-9

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 25 October 2022

Ahmed A.F.M. Hassan and Johann Fortwengel

The transfer of organizational practices in multinational enterprises (MNEs), typically from the headquarters to foreign subsidiaries, has been a key theme in international…

Abstract

Purpose

The transfer of organizational practices in multinational enterprises (MNEs), typically from the headquarters to foreign subsidiaries, has been a key theme in international business (IB) literature. Research on this topic increasingly acknowledges the important role of organizational actors external to the focal MNE. Furthermore, there is a growing interest in the microfoundational underpinnings of practice transfer as an important phenomenon in IB. This paper aims to bring together these two emerging research trends to outline an exciting and important avenue for further research.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a conceptual paper. This paper builds on prior empirical research to theorize different types of involvement of external organizational actors in the transfer process. This study further identifies specific mechanisms that lead to transfer outcomes in terms of practice adaptation.

Findings

The authors develop conceptual arguments regarding the role of external actors in the microfoundations of transfer. The involvement of external organizational actors can be either direct or indirect, and it can occur in the initiation stage at headquarters level and/or in the implementation stage at subsidiary level. The authors theorize how the involvement of external organizational actors in the transfer process shapes practice adaptation as a key outcome. This study summarizes the theorization with the help of propositions, and this study also identifies a set of research questions that can guide future research on this increasingly important topic.

Originality/value

This paper contributes to the literature by developing a research agenda to open up the black box regarding the role of external actors in the microfoundations of practice transfer in MNEs.

Details

Multinational Business Review, vol. 31 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1525-383X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 September 2015

Erik Wikberg and Niklas Bomark

The purpose of this paper is to extend the literature on how actors manage competing logics in an organizational field. The authors do so by introducing the concept of…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to extend the literature on how actors manage competing logics in an organizational field. The authors do so by introducing the concept of organizational irony to the literature on how to manage competing logics, and analyze a collaborative cultural project encompassing actors subjected to competing institutional logics.

Design/methodology/approach

The case study is built on qualitative data from in-depth interviews, newspaper articles and observations.

Findings

The authors describe and analyze a cultural project encompassing actors subjected to competing institutional logics and show how they responded to institutional pressures in their environment with the use of organizational irony. Thereby, the actors could collaborate with actors subjected to a competing institutional logic and still maintain adherence to their respective institutional logic.

Research limitations/implications

Most studies of how to manage competing logics asserts that one logic will prevail over a competing one, either through “battles” or gradual dominance (Reay and Hinings, 2009). This study supports and adds to Reay and Hinings’ (2009) finding that actors also can collaborate and maintain adherence to their respective logic under such circumstances. In particular, it supports two identified mechanisms of how this can be achieved, namely, to separate decisions and to jointly innovate in experimental sites. It also adds to these mechanisms by showing that this can be done through the use of organizational irony. The authors only study one cultural project in one organizational field. It remains unclear if these findings are common in other cultural projects or in other organizational field, and the authors therefore encourage other researchers to extend or challenge the findings of this study.

Practical implications

The authors believe that the analysis and findings can be useful for politicians to take into account and address either to minimize the risk of organizational irony or on the contrary encourage it as a source of reflexive critique of society and cultural politics. The authors also believe that the response of organizational irony to institutional pressures broadens the acting space of cultural actors, provide media and critics with an analytical tool to analyze and deconstruct practices that otherwise would risk to be silenced or neglected. Finally, the authors believe that an analysis of organizational irony has the potential to make people attend to contradictions and multiple meanings in the artworks under study in a novel way.

Originality/value

The paper provides an intriguing and complex empirical case to demonstrate how actors manage competing logics in an organizational field through the production of organizational irony. The authors believe that its theoretical contributions and practical implications can inspire future research on how paradoxes can be managed through the use of organizational irony in other projects and organizational fields.

Details

International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, vol. 8 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1753-8378

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 19 December 2018

Jean-Paul Peronard and Jacob Brix

The purpose of this study is to consolidate existing research on ‘service networks’ and to frame this literature as a new ‘context for learning’. Research from inter-organizational

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to consolidate existing research on ‘service networks’ and to frame this literature as a new ‘context for learning’. Research from inter-organizational learning is used to qualify this consolidation and advances from inter-organizational learning are used to operationalize how service network actors in this new context can organize for inter-organizational learning to create more value for themselves and their customers.

Design/methodology/approach

By conceptualizing the learning context of a service network and the interrelated dimensions, an overview of the learning challenges for improved service performance is provided.

Findings

Inspired by the service triangle, the proposed framework highlights the learning challenges among two or more actors and the knowledge and skills needed for them to organize the service network. To build a collaboration characterized by trust, behaviors associated with transparency and receptivity are argued to be imperative.

Practical implications

The framework can increase the opportunities for inter-organizational learning in a service network. Knowing the learning context and the challenges associated with this learning allows for a more accurate intervention and allocation of resources to improve service network performance.

Originality/value

The novelty lies in the consolidation of the literature of service networks and the extension of the literature on inter-organizational learning hereto.

Details

The Learning Organization, vol. 26 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-6474

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 12 October 2015

João Oliveira and Stewart Clegg

This paper aims to clarify a paradox in an organisation: in the past, formally powerful “central” actors confronted important limitations in their relations with formally less…

1032

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to clarify a paradox in an organisation: in the past, formally powerful “central” actors confronted important limitations in their relations with formally less powerful actors. However, three innovations – the financial accounting module of an enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, a corporate centre (CC) and a shared services centre (SSC) – substantially changed and re-centred network power relations. The authors adopt a critical discourse to explain this paradox, contributing to the emerging literature on SSCs and bridging the management control and power literatures.

Design/methodology/approach

An in-depth, processual, actor-network theory-inspired three-year case study of a large Portuguese manufacturer.

Findings

As the intertwined accounting-related innovations were (re)mobilised by actors, dynamically adjusting to unfolding repercussions, control and power effects emerged, enabling enhanced organisational steering.

Research limitations/implications

Based on a single case, this paper highlights effects of managerial technologies, in particular ERPs and SSCs, on control and power relations, and refines Clegg’s model for future research.

Practical implications

The transactional, low value-added activities typically performed by SSCs should not lead to underestimating their potentially profound organisational consequences. However, the surrounding socio-technical network is decisive for the emerging, inter-related repercussions.

Originality/value

This paper explains the relative capacity of actors to influence the practices and configuration of the organisational network structurally, fixing power relations within the socio-technical network through innovations in the accounting area, in particular ERPs and SSCs. By revising Clegg’s circuits of power framework, this paper contributes to understanding possibilities and limits of accounting techniques in management control procedures.

Details

Qualitative Research in Accounting & Management, vol. 12 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1176-6093

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 11 September 2009

Antonio Messeni Petruzzelli, Vito Albino and Nunzia Carbonara

Following the line traced by two previous works of Albino et al. and Messeni Petruzzelli, the paper aims to analyze how technology districts reach and acquire external

1943

Abstract

Purpose

Following the line traced by two previous works of Albino et al. and Messeni Petruzzelli, the paper aims to analyze how technology districts reach and acquire external competencies and capabilities by means of organizational and cognitive proximity. This allows districts to modify their geographical boundaries and evolve into technology clusters.

Design/methodology/approach

The research design is based on a case study methodology. In particular, two actual technology districts are analyzed, namely Castel Romano and Toulouse, in order to show how they use organizational, and cognitive proximity to acquire external knowledge sources and re‐shape their geographical boundaries.

Findings

Based on the findings of the empirical study, two main propositions are formulated. The first proposition refers to the negative relationship between the geographical distance to the district's actors and the use of organizational proximity as a means for reaching external knowledge sources. By contrast, the second proposition indicates the positive relationship between the geographical distance to the district's actors and the use of cognitive proximity as a means for reaching external knowledge sources.

Research limitations/implications

As regards the firm strategic behaviors, it seems particularly crucial to exploit all the three dimensions of proximity, in order to guarantee openness and sustain innovativeness and competitiveness. Concerning policy implications, the local governments should address their actions to help and promote the openness of technology districts and the formation of technology clusters. With this aim, actions should be devoted also to sustaining single local firms that are part of a technology cluster but not of a technology district. These, in fact, by increasing their competitive position, may generate positive externalities in the local area, fostering the diffusion and sharing of knowledge in the area and, then, acting as knowledge gatekeepers for the whole area.

Originality/value

The paper extends the findings of previous works linking three proximity dimensions in a holistic framework that explains the different use of organizational and cognitive proximity to acquire knowledge, according to the geographical distance between organizations.

Details

Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 13 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1367-3270

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 28 March 2015

Brayden G King

Selznick’s theory of organizations offers a starting point to understand how organizations cohere as social actors. Each organization has a specific character that reflects its…

Abstract

Selznick’s theory of organizations offers a starting point to understand how organizations cohere as social actors. Each organization has a specific character that reflects its commitments to particular constituencies and that embodies certain values. Selznick’s theory explained how character evolves in relation to the formal structure of the organization, stamping an organization with a personality that guides its leaders’ future decision-making and deliberation. This paper traces Selznick’s development of this theory and suggests that his theory is useful for contemporary scholars who are interested in understanding how organizations relate and respond to and potentially shape their environments.

Details

Institutions and Ideals: Philip Selznick’s Legacy for Organizational Studies
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78441-726-0

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 August 2023

Atika Ahmad Kemal and Mahmood Hussain Shah

While the potential for digital innovation (DI) to transform organizational practices is widely acknowledged in the information systems (IS) literature, there is very limited…

Abstract

Purpose

While the potential for digital innovation (DI) to transform organizational practices is widely acknowledged in the information systems (IS) literature, there is very limited understanding on the socio-political nature of institutional interactions that determine DI and affect organizational practices in social cash organizations. Drawing on the neo-institutionalist vision, the purpose of the study is to examine the unique set of institutional exchanges that influence the transition to digital social cash payments that give rise to new institutional arrangements in social cash organizations.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper draws on an in-depth case study of a government social cash organization in Pakistan. Qualitative data were collected using 30 semi-structured interviews from key organizational members and stakeholders.

Findings

The results suggest that DI is determined by the novel intersections between the coercive (techno-economic, regulatory), normative (socio-organizational), mimetic (international) and covert power (political) forces. Hence, DI is not a technologically deterministic output, but rather a complex socio-political process enacted through dialogue, negotiation and conflict between institutional actors. Technology is socially embedded through the process of institutionalization that is coupled by the deinstitutionalization of established organizational practices for progressive transformation.

Research limitations/implications

The research has implications for government social cash organizations especially in the Global South. Empirically, the authors gained rare access to, and support from a government-backed social cash organization in Pakistan (an understudied country in the Global South), which made the data and the consequent analyses even invaluable. This made the empirical contribution within this geographical setting even more worthy, since this case study has received little attention from indigenous scholars in the past. The empirical findings showcased a unique set of contextual factors that were subject to BISP and interpreted through an account of socio-cultural sensitivities.

Practical implications

The paper provides practical implications for policymakers and practitioners, emphasizing the need to address institutional challenges, including covert power, during the implementation of digitalization projects in the public sector. The paper has certain potential for inspiring future e-government related (or public sector focused) studies. The paper may guide both private and government policy-makers and practitioners in presenting how to overcome certain institutional challenges while planning and implementing large scale multi-stakeholder digitization projects in similar country contexts. So while there is scope of linking the digitization of public sector organizations to anti-corruption measures in other Global South countries, the paper may not be that straightforward with the private sector involvement.

Social implications

The paper offers rich social insights on the institutional interchanges that occur between the social actors for the innovation of technology. Especially, the paper highlights the social-embeddedness nature of technology that underpins the institutionalization of new organizational practices. These have implications on how DI is viewed as a socio-political process of change.

Originality/value

This study contributes to neo-institutional theory by theorizing covert power as a political force that complements the neo-institutional framework. This force is subtle but also resistive for some political actors as the force shifts the equilibrium of power between different institutional actors. Furthermore, the paper presents the social and practical implications that guide policymakers and practitioners by taking into consideration the unique institutional challenges, such as covert power, while implementing large scale digital projects in the social cash sector.

Details

Information Technology & People, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0959-3845

Keywords

1 – 10 of over 44000