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1 – 10 of over 3000This study investigates Rokkan's research programme in the light of the differences between case- and variables-based methodologies. Three phases of the research process are…
Abstract
This study investigates Rokkan's research programme in the light of the differences between case- and variables-based methodologies. Three phases of the research process are distinguished. Studying the way Rokkan actually proceeded in the research within his Europe project, we find that he follows the protocols of case-methodologies such as grounded theory. In the second phase of the research process, however, he constructs variables-based models as tools for his macro-historical comparisons. To get to variables from the sensitizing concepts coded in the first phase, Rokkan defines his variables as close to cases as possible: variables as nominal level typologies, types as variable values. He thus faces two interrelated dilemmas. First, a philosophy of science dissonance: he legitimates his research only with reference to a variable-methodology, while his research is thoroughly case based. Second, a paradox of double coding: using variable-based models in the second phase, the status of the knowledge available in the first phase memos is degraded. Rokkan cannot decide between the two main solutions to these dilemmas: The first solution is to discard his heterogeneous data, instead working only with homogeneous data that opens up to more consistently variables-oriented research. The second solution is to replace the notion of variables/variable values with typology/types, thereby returning to cases, pursuing comparative case reconstructions in the third phase of research. The study concludes in favour of the second solution.
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The purpose of this paper is to introduce a range of sensitising themes that may help to frame the emerging concept of fractured landscapes.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to introduce a range of sensitising themes that may help to frame the emerging concept of fractured landscapes.
Design/methodology/approach
Key concepts are drawn from the forced migration field, from social theory and from Library and information science research to frame the concept of fractured landscape research. Methodological and ethical aspects that influence research are also introduced.
Findings
The importance of nomenclature is identified in relation to designations of refugee and migrant. The concept of a fractured landscape provides a suitable way of describing the disruption that is caused to refugees’ information landscapes in the process of transition and resettlement. The sensitising themes such as the exilic journey, liminality, integration, bonding and bridging capital are introduced to provide a way of framing a deeper analysis of the information experience of people who must reconcile previously established ways of knowing with the new landscapes related to transition and resettlement.
Originality/value
Original paper that introduces an emerging conceptual framework and a range of questions that may be useful to library and information science researchers who wish to pursue research that contributes to the humanitarian area or library services.
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Rebecca Moran, Julie Hollenbeck and Cassandra Phoenix
This chapter proposes a way to deepen our understanding of the health impacts of climate change. It explores how and why individuals and communities may experience the climate…
Abstract
Purpose
This chapter proposes a way to deepen our understanding of the health impacts of climate change. It explores how and why individuals and communities may experience the climate change-human health interface in different ways.
Design/methodology/approach
We suggest that the concepts of structural vulnerability and narrative inquiry can provide a thick (ethnographic) description of how and why individuals and communities experience and give meaning to the health impacts of climate change. We begin by defining the two concepts before bringing them together to explore the relationship between climate change and health.
Findings
The combination of these two concepts offers the potential to advance our knowledge in two key ways. Firstly, they facilitate a critical and interpretive approach to both the notion of agency and the public health paradigm of the ‘rational-actor’. Secondly, they reveal how vulnerability to climate change is embodied at the level of the mundane and everyday.
Social implications
These concepts, when applied to the climate change–human health interface, can help demonstrate how vulnerability is often a social construction, and, with sufficient political will, may be ameliorated. We see the combination of the concepts discussed here as an opportunity for research to address inequality and justice.
Originality/value
This paper takes two innovative and established concepts in medical anthropology (structural vulnerability) and social science (narrative inquiry) and invites their application to our understanding of climate change and human health. Research analysed via these concepts will provide a clearer understanding of the impacts of climate change and experiences of vulnerability.
Hanna Komulainen, Tuija Mainela, Jaana Tähtinen and Pauliina Ulkuniemi
The purpose of this paper is to examine why retailers' perceptions of the value of a novel technology‐intensive mobile advertising service differ.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine why retailers' perceptions of the value of a novel technology‐intensive mobile advertising service differ.
Design/methodology/approach
The research design follows an abductive approach. The empirical data were gathered through a field experiment by interviewing retailers who used a mobile advertising service for the first time.
Findings
This study suggests a categorisation of customer‐perceived value sub‐elements in a novel technology‐intensive business‐to‐business (b‐to‐b) service consisting of two outcome‐level benefits, three process‐level benefits, and two types of sacrifices, i.e. monetary and non‐monetary. Furthermore, the study suggests that the value elements are not of equal importance. Different retailers value different threshold benefits that influence their willingness to use the service. Moreover, the retailers' participation in value co‐creation with a service provider influences the value perceived from the service.
Research limitations/implications
This experimental empirical setting involves two limitations. The trial period was relatively short and, due to the development stage of the service, the use of the service was offered free of charge. Therefore, future research should be conducted with commercialised novel technology services.
Practical implications
Retailers differ according to their willingness and ability to use novel technology‐intensive services, which also reflects how they perceive value and what kind of value they perceive. Thus, mobile service providers need to consider offering different service packages to different types of customers. Service providers also need to ensure that retailers are aware of all the commercial and non‐commercial benefits of the novel service. Retailers should realise that the commercial potential of mobile advertising is different from the traditional means of advertising.
Originality/value
For a research audience, the study extends the existing research on value creation by focusing on retailers' different value perceptions of a novel technology‐intensive b‐to‐b service. For developers of an innovative technology‐intensive service, the study shows the different customer types and how they influence buying decisions.
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The purpose of this paper is to introduce a qualitative research approach based on current developments in the field of practice theory. The novelty of this approach is that it…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to introduce a qualitative research approach based on current developments in the field of practice theory. The novelty of this approach is that it positions organizational practices as a central unit of analysis of archival and recordkeeping work. The goal of the paper is to highlight the continuity between practice theory and archival and recordkeeping scholarship and to then propose how practice theory could be used in archival and recordkeeping research.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper traces the continuity between practice theory and two influential bodies of literature in archival and recordkeeping scholarship developed in the last two decades. It then outlines a practice theory research agenda for archival and recordkeeping research by drawing on the disciplines of cultural sociology, science and technology studies, ethnomethodology and organizational studies. The potential research application of practice theory is illustrated with examples from an on-going doctoral project on appraisal and preservation practices in a digital broadcasting archive.
Findings
The analysis of current literature shows an agreement that archival and recordkeeping practices exhibit a complexity that makes them important foci for further research. By placing these insights into contact with practice theory, the paper champions a new research agenda for archival and recordkeeping research.
Originality/value
The paper positions and outlines the tenets of practice theory, making them methodologically available to archival and recordkeeping scholars and practitioners. It also indicates how practice theory offers a new perspective for conceptualizing the causal effects of organizational culture on organizational practices.
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Miriam Feuls, Mie Plotnikof and Iben Sandal Stjerne
This paper stimulates methodological debates and advances the research agenda for qualitative research about time and temporality in organizing processes. It develops a framework…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper stimulates methodological debates and advances the research agenda for qualitative research about time and temporality in organizing processes. It develops a framework for studying the temporal in organizing that contributes by: (1) providing an overview to prepare for and navigate various methodological challenges in this regard, (2) offering inspiration for relevant solutions to those challenges and (3) posing timely questions to facilitate temporal reflexivity in scholarly work.
Design/methodology/approach
Based on a literature review of studies about temporality in organizing processes, the authors develop a framework of well-acknowledged methodological challenges, dilemmas and paradoxes, and pose timely questions with which to develop potential solutions for research about organization and time.
Findings
The framework of this study offers a synthesis of methodological challenges and potential solutions acknowledged in the organization studies literature. It consists of three interrelated dimensions of methodological challenges to studying temporality in organizing processes, namely: empirical, analytical and representational challenges. These manifests in six subcategories: empirical cases, empirical methods, analytical concepts, analytical processes and coding, representing researchers’ temporal embeddedness and representing multiple temporalities.
Originality/value
This paper allows scholars to undertake a more ambitious, collective methodological discussion and sets an agenda for studying the temporal in organizing. The framework developed stimulates researchers’ temporal reflexivity and inspires them to develop solutions to specific methodological challenges that may emerge in their study of the temporal in organizing.
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The Internet of Things (IoT) envisions a global infrastructure of networked physical objects that render radical transparency to supply chain management. Despite the perceived…
Abstract
Purpose
The Internet of Things (IoT) envisions a global infrastructure of networked physical objects that render radical transparency to supply chain management. Despite the perceived advantages of IoT, industry has still not widely adopted IoT-enabled logistics and supply chain management. The purpose of this paper is to understand the incentives and concerns behind firms’ decisions to adopt IoT, explore the determinant factors affecting IoT adoption in logistics and supply chain management.
Design/methodology/approach
This study uses mixed methods research to explore the determinants of IoT adoption intention in logistics and supply chain management. Qualitative analysis using the Grounded Theory methodology reveals the underlying perceptions regarding logistic innovation with IoT. Quantitative hypotheses are then developed based on qualitative investigation and adoption literature. Survey data were collected from the managerial staff of Taiwanese firms across various industries. Structural equation modeling with partial least square is used for data analysis.
Findings
The results of the qualitative study identify uncertainties and issues regarding firms’ intention to accept or reject IoT technology in logistics and supply chain management, including the benefit and cost aspects of adopting IoT, uncertainties about the trustworthiness of IoT technology, and the external motivating force to embrace IoT. The resulting quantitative model shows that perceived benefits, perceived costs, and external pressure are significant determinants of IoT adoption intention, while technology trust is not. However, technology trust does indirectly influence IoT adoption intention through perceived benefits.
Practical implications
The empirical findings of this study provide some guidelines for logistics and supply chain managers to evaluate IoT adoption in their firms. Likewise, IoT solution providers can also benefit from this study by improving their solutions to mitigate the IoT adoption concerns addressed herein.
Originality/value
This paper is among the first known to examine IoT adoption intention in logistics and supply chain management using mixed methods research. The mixed methods approach offers a better insight in understanding incentives behind firms’ decisions to adopt IoT vs the use of either a qualitative or quantitative method alone.
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