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The purpose of this paper is to investigate, through practices and capabilities, how entrepreneurs use microfinance in a context of serious constraints.

The chosen methodology for this paper is longitudinal. A three-and-a-half-year study was conducted to be able to capture the entrepreneurial journeys of ten entrepreneurs at a micro-level in the developing economy of Ghana. This was augmented by a further 15 interviews with entrepreneurs and loan officers. This data is used to develop a theoretical model of entrepreneurial practices in this context.

The paper identifies two distinct pathways for understanding the recursive nature of entrepreneurial practices. It highlights how entrepreneurs generate capabilities through microfinance resources through convergent or divergent venturing in response to the serious constraints they face. This is identified as a generative recursive mechanism for the process, representing the “chain of actions” and how entrepreneurs engage with their “settings” and “intended relations” in practice.

The research is limited by its focus on one nation in Sub-Saharan Africa and therefore how the findings may be transferred to other contexts.

The paper contributes to a practice approach in entrepreneurship by identifying how mechanisms of practice relate to entrepreneurial action in this context. It also provides an important contribution to discussion at the intersection of entrepreneurship and the capabilities approach by using Amartya Sen's concepts of process and opportunity freedom to understand practices.

The purpose of this paper is to probe the recursive identification of piecewise affine Hammerstein models directly by using input-output data. To explain the identification process of a parametric piecewise affine nonlinear function, the authors prove that the inverse function corresponding to the given piecewise affine nonlinear function is also an equivalent piecewise affine form. Based on this equivalent property, during the detailed identification process with respect to piecewise affine function and linear dynamical system, three recursive least squares methods are proposed to identify those unknown parameters under the probabilistic description or bounded property of noise.

First, the basic recursive least squares method is used to identify those unknown parameters under the probabilistic description of noise. Second, multi-innovation recursive least squares method is proposed to improve the efficiency lacked in basic recursive least squares method. Third, to relax the strict probabilistic description on noise, the authors provide a projection algorithm with a dead zone in the presence of bounded noise and analyze its two properties.

Based on complex mathematical derivation, the inverse function of a given piecewise affine nonlinear function is also an equivalent piecewise affine form. As the least squares method is suited under one condition that the considered noise may be a zero mean random signal, a projection algorithm with a dead zone in the presence of bounded noise can enhance the robustness in the parameter update equation.

To the best knowledge of the authors, this is the first attempt at identifying piecewise affine Hammerstein models, which combine a piecewise affine function and a linear dynamical system. In the presence of bounded noise, the modified recursive least squares methods are efficient in identifying two kinds of unknown parameters, so that the common set membership method can be replaced by the proposed methods.

The paper seeks to support a better understanding of the types (or processes) of reflexivity which may be involved in the practice of organizational research, and the implications of reflexive practice for organizational researchers.

A characterization of reflexivity as a process is developed from extant research, in four steps. First, the principal dimensions of reflexivity – reflection and recursion – are identified and delineated. Second, recursion is shown to have two modes, active and passive. Third, reflection is shown to have both closed, self‐guided and open, relational modes. Fourth, through integrating the detailed characterizations of each of the dimensions, different types of reflexivity are identified and defined.

The paper shows how different types of reflexivity may be experienced sequentially, as a progressive process, by organizational researchers. Implications for research practice are derived from a consideration of this process.

The paper develops a novel conceptualization of reflexivity as a process with individual and relational aspects. This conceptualization supports important insights for the conduct and legitimation of reflexive research.

The typical approach of modeling the aerodynamics of an aircraft is to develop a complete database through testing or computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The database will be huge if it has a reasonable resolution and requires an unacceptable CFD effort during the conceptional design. Therefore, this paper aims to reduce the computing effort required via establishing a general aerodynamic model that needs minor parameters.

The model structure was a preconfigured polynomial model, and the parameters were estimated with a recursive method to further reduce the calculation effort. To uniformly disperse the sample points through each step, a unique recursive sampling method based on a Voronoi diagram was presented. In addition, a multivariate orthogonal function approach was used.

A case study of a flying wing aircraft demonstrated that generating a model with acceptable precision (0.01 absolute error or 5% relative error) costs only 1/54 of the cost of creating a database. A series of six degrees of freedom flight simulations shows that the model’s prediction was accurate.

This method proposed a new way to simplify the model and recursive sampling. It is a low-cost way of obtaining high-fidelity models during primary design, allowing for more precise flight dynamics analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to apply experimentalist framework to understand self-optimizing efforts within German manufacturing multinationals. Benefits and characteristic obstacles to diffusion are discussed. Mechanisms for combatting obstacles are outlined.

Qualitative case studies, interview-based research, processual and reflexive action theory are applied to the governance of manufacturing-based multinational enterprises.

Uncertainty is an ineradicable element in multinational companies (MNC) FDI operations. Self-optimizing systems, many with an experimentalist character, are a pervasive form of response to this uncertainty. Obstacles to the diffusion and effective operation of self-optimization are chronic and, indeed, endogenously generated. But as a result, so are superordinate efforts to undercut the continuous emergence of obstacles. MNC development is, thus, characterized by continuous self-recomposition.

Implication is that managers and management theorists should focus as much on the management of dynamic process and learning that results in the recomposition of institutional rules as they do on the constraining and enabling effects of those rules.

Superordinate mechanisms for the disruption of incipient insulation and exclusion are crucial for the implementation of successful experimentalist (learning) systems.

Transparency, stakeholder involvement in MNC governance processes has positive implications for learning, innovation and competitiveness.

This paper presents the application of experimentalist learning theory to MNC global governance.

The purpose of this article is to extend effectuation theory at the front end by building cognitive foundations for the effectual design process.

We adopt an integrative conceptual approach drawing on design cognition theory to explain entrepreneurial cognition.

We find a significant gap in the entrepreneurial cognition literature with respect to effectuation processes. We thus integrate the Situated Function–Behavior–Structure framework from design theory to elaborate on the cognitive processes of effectuation, specifically with regard to the opportunity development process. This framework describes the cognitive subprocesses by which entrepreneurs means and ends are cyclically (re)formulated over time until a viable “opportunity” emerges, and the venture is formalized, or else, the entrepreneur abandons the venture and exits.”

Unravelling this entrepreneurial design process may facilitate more appropriate and effective design work by entrepreneurs, leading to more successful product designs. It also should facilitate the development of better design techniques and instruction.

This research contributes to new cognitive foundations for effectuation theory and entrepreneurial process research. It better explains how means are transformed into valuable goods over time through an iterative reconsideration of means-ends frameworks. This theoretical elaboration will expectedly facilitate additional research into the iterative cognitive processes of design and enable more formulaic design thinking.

Wicked problems require holistic and systemic thinking that accommodates interdisciplinary solutions and cross-sectoral collaborations between private and public sectors. This paper explores how public relations (PR) – as a boundary-spanning function at the nexus of corporate and political discourse – can support societies to tackle wicked problems.

This conceptual paper synthesizes literature on PR with a service ecosystem perspective. The authors use the service ecosystem design framework to structure the PR literature and develop a model of service ecosystem shaping for social change, which highlights the important role that PR can play in shaping processes.

The authors explicate how PR can (1) facilitate value cocreation processes between broad sets of stakeholders that drive positive social change, (2) shape institutional arrangements in general and public discourse in particular, (3) provide a platform for recursive feedback loops of reflexivity and (re)formation that enables discourse to ripple through nested service ecosystems and (4) guide collective shaping efforts by bringing stakeholder concerns and beliefs into the open, which provides a foundation for collective sense-making of wicked problems and their solutions.

This paper explains the complexity of shaping service ecosystems for positive social change. Specifically, it highlights how solving wicked problems and driving social change requires reconfiguration of the institutional arrangements that guide various nested service ecosystems. The authors discuss in detail how PR can contribute to the shaping of service ecosystems for social change and present a future research agenda for both service and PR scholars to consider.

This paper aims to introduce a new approach to the framing of e-government projects. It discusses e-government as a continuing process of interaction and change. The paper uses general concepts borrowed from actor–network theory (ANT) to highlight the on-going negotiation that is an endogenous characteristic of every e-government projects.

The research builds on the findings of a case study. The case of the Akshaya e-government project in Kerala, India, is presented to offer an instance of the negotiation that occurs among the different actors involved and the consequent changes the project itself experiences.

The paper shows that e-government initiatives are unstable and change over time, as they are cast in the dynamic interaction that occurs between the actors involved in the e-government project. It also suggests that the ANT is a valuable framework to study these dynamics.

Main contribution of the paper is the evidence that e-government projects should be studied in their making and not as a result of planned action and sequential evolutionary phases.

The paper offers new insights for the planning, design and most importantly management of e-government projects.

The paper contributes to the literature by shedding light on the importance of the dynamic interactions that shape the impact of information and communication technologies (ICTs) on government policies. The proposed framework is a basis for further theorisation with regards to the complexity underpinning the deployment of ICTs in the public sector.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical perspective on whether the boundary-spanner model and consequently complex disaggregated intra-MNE value chain activities are crisis resilient.

The paper is a conceptual theory development based on literature integration and phenomenological juxtaposing.

The need for boundary-spanning in assisting dispersed new and complex knowledge creation activities – which can hardly be replicated in virtual collaboration spaces alone – will endure if not even grow. This requires deeper understanding of boundary spanning in the context of the globally dispersed MNE. Increased location diversification engendered by COVID-19 implies a greater need for the boundary spanning function, not less.

Regarding future research, the crisis provides a unique opportunity for taking a closer look at the formation, nurturing and resilience of interdependence, particularly behavioural interdependence and the actions and characteristics of individuals associated with [boundary spanning] actions. Specific research questions should focus on the boundary-spanning model in the virtual space; the characteristics and effects of temporality and the boundary-spanning model, the specific actions of boundary spanners during unforeseen events and the empirical testing of the relationships developed in Table 1.

For practitioners, I suggest avoiding compromising structural interdependence with defaulting on top-down hierarchical approaches during crises; and while doing so, not paying attention to the effects of such actions on behavioural interdependence and its champions (i.e. global boundary spanners). Such interference likely results in sub-optimal global collaboration outcomes and innovation, characterized by fundamentally recursive processes involving creativity, failure, reconfiguring, sensemaking and improvisation.

TBC

The author develops a critical perspective to assess the crisis-resilience of the boundary-spanning model. In so doing, I juxtapose two contemporary views on the persistence or fading of the global MNE model, and hence, the future need for a socio-behavioural managerial function – like boundary-spanning – connecting dispersed MNE activities. The authors provide numerous avenues for advancing extant research on boundary-spanning in MNEs.

The purpose of this paper is to review online records of the conference of the American Society for Cybernetics (ASC) in the summer of 2010. Also reviewed is a burst of activity on the Cybernetics Discussion Group (CYBCOM) list associated with the ASC, during October and November 2010. The discussion continues at the time of writing.

The aim is to review developments on the internet, especially those of general cybernetic interest.

The records of the ASC conference convey its flavour and atmosphere but are obviously no substitute for participation. The burst of activity in the CYBCOM list began with reference to a derogatory commentary on the political significance of cybernetics. The implications of this were rapidly dismissed, but with the invoking of basic principles, particularly that of “recursive distinctioning”, which prompted very much further discussion. Current discussion is of the meaning to be attached to “recursion”.

Cybernetics is absolved from being a tool of capitalist oppression. The careful consideration given to various basic concepts in the CYBCOM discussion clarifies a variety of issues.

It is hoped this is a valuable periodic review.