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The study here examines how business actors adapt to changes in networks by analyzing their perceptions or their network pictures. The study is exploratory or iterative in the sense that revisions occur to the research question, method, theory, and context as an integral part of the research process.

Changes within networks receive less research attention, although considerable research exists on explaining business network structures in different research traditions. This study analyzes changes in networks in terms of the industrial network approach. This approach sees networks as connected relationships between actors, where interdependent companies interact based on their sensemaking of their relevant network environment. The study develops a concept of network change as well as an operationalization for comparing perceptions of change, where the study introduces a template model of dottograms to systematically analyze differences in perceptions. The study then applies the model to analyze findings from a case study of Norwegian/Japanese seafood distribution, and the chapter provides a rich description of a complex system facing considerable pressure to change. In-depth personal interviews and cognitive mapping techniques are the main research tools applied, in addition to tracer studies and personal observation.

The dottogram method represents a valuable contribution to case study research as it enables systematic within-case and across-case analyses. A further theoretical contribution of the study is the suggestion that network change is about actors seeking to change their network position to gain access to resources. Thereby, the study also implies a close relationship between the concepts network position and the network change that has not been discussed within the network approach in great detail.

Another major contribution of the study is the analysis of the role that network pictures play in actors' efforts to change their network position. The study develops seven propositions in an attempt to describe the role of network pictures in network change. So far, the relevant literature discusses network pictures mainly as a theoretical concept. Finally, the chapter concludes with important implications for management practice.

This paper illuminates the distinction between individual and organizational actors in business-to-business markets as well as the coexistence of formal and informal mechanisms of coordination in multinational corporations. The main questions addressed include the following. (1) What factors influence the occurrence of personal contacts of foreign subsidiary managers in industrial multinational corporations? (2) How such personal contacts enable coordination in industrial markets and within multinational firms? The theoretical context of the paper is based on: (1) the interaction approach to industrial markets, (2) the network approach to industrial markets, and (3) the process approach to multinational management. The unit of analysis is the foreign subsidiary manager as the focal actor of a contact network. The paper is empirically focused on Portuguese sales subsidiaries of Finnish multinational corporations, which are managed by either a parent country national (Finnish), a host country national (Portuguese) or a third country national. The paper suggests eight scenarios of individual dependence and uncertainty, which are determined by individual, organizational, and/or market factors. Such scenarios are, in turn, thought to require personal contacts with specific functions. The paper suggests eight interpersonal roles of foreign subsidiary managers, by which the functions of their personal contacts enable inter-firm coordination in industrial markets. In addition, the paper suggests eight propositions on how the functions of their personal contacts enable centralization, formalization, socialization and horizontal communication in multinational corporations.

This paper reports the results of a three-year-long research on business relationships, relying on qualitative data gathered through multiple-case study research of four focal companies operating in Australia. The industry settings are as follows: steel construction, vegetable oils trading, aluminum and steel can manufacture, and imaging solutions. The research analyzes two main aspects of relationships: structure and process. This paper deals with structure describing it by the most desired features of intercompany relationships for each focal company. The primary research data have been coded drawing on extant research into business relationships. The main outcome of this part of the research is a five construct model composed by trust, commitment, bonds, distance, and information sharing that accounts for all informants’ utterances about relationship structure.

Elite interviewing is a well-established area of interview research methods. Nevertheless, the actual casting of an “elite” has been generally conducted in a prima facie or broad manner. A consideration of entrepreneurs and owner-managers as “elites” has been less profiled and received less attention, therefore the paper views the entrepreneurs and owner-managers as constituting a form of “local elite” within given and varying sectorial, regional and community boundaries. The authors argue that a consideration of entrepreneurs as “local elites” and transferring knowledge from an elite interviewing perspective may strongly support scholarly research in the entrepreneurship field.

The study conducts a comprehensive narrative literature review of elite interviewing literature and transfers key methodological insights to the entrepreneurship field. The methodological contribution based on literature is complemented by experiences and observations from an extensive inductive interview study with over 30 entrepreneurs of German manufacturing Small and Medium-sized Entities (SMEs) and are used to reflect on, and refine, interview research approaches with entrepreneurs.

The reflections and discussions in this paper provide valuable insights for other researchers conducting research in entrepreneurship domains regarding the power dynamics of negotiating access, procedural issues of interviews and thereby enhancing the quality of data.

The contribution to knowledge is mainly of a methodological nature. While the paper takes a novel act of recasting elite interviewing in the SME and entrepreneurship context, the paper methodologically contributes to the entrepreneurship and elite interview literature thereby facilitating higher quality interviews.

Elite individuals and groups constitute a distinctive, upper echelon and social grouping. In various shapes and forms, elites have been an enduring feature of many societies and in the contemporary era, the concept of elites and the related notion of celebrity have seen fresh interconnected developments. The purpose of the paper is to consider the literature on elite interviewing both generally and more specifically against a backdrop of an organization and management disciplinary setting. Importantly the paper examines and surfaces the role of context in relation to elite interviewing. In order to consider and illustrate this phenomenon the argument engages with the organizational environment and behaviours of the English professional football industry with the intention of offering fresh perspectives into the form and function of context in elite interviewing.

The paper's examination of the literature feeds into the fieldwork stage which employs an inductive and interpretivistic methodology. The key method employed within the methodology is semi‐structured interviews tailored for elites and conjoined with participant observation. The approach is applied within an elite interviewing process in the specific organizational context of the professional football industry.

The paper concludes that in relation to elite interviewing, there is scope to consider a contextualisation and recontextualisation of elite interviewing processes through the development of a potential range of novel conceptual and theoretical models. By engaging with interview frameworks, the paper draws heightened attention to the possibility of generating typologies for, and categorising elites operating within, those given contexts. The paper underlines the established notion of inter‐differences between elites in different sectors, and, more importantly, surfaces intra‐differences in elites within sectors. This issue of diversity of elites is currently not a factor that is clearly acknowledged or addressed in the extant literature. In the case of the present study this novel analysis and illustration are undertaken within the English professional football industry. Therein, the argument exemplifies how elites and elite interviewing may be understood in this specific context through the concepts of process, power and “positionality” and “knownness” identifying, for example, issues of arrogance, amateurism and the phenomenon of insider‐outsider.

Elites and celebrities constitute longstanding phenomena that have endured into the twenty‐first century and, as a consequence, merit on‐going close analysis. Equally replete in contemporary life are the multifarious organizational and managerial domains and contexts in which given elites reside and operate. Given the potential impact of elites and their actions on people, it would seem worthwhile and important to seek heightened understanding of them. The professional football industry is one particular instance for study given that it is high profile, represents a substantial business sector in its own right, and, plays a central role in the lives of many members of the public.

The work is an original study of the contextual issues surrounding interviewing elites in the organizational and management setting of the English professional football industry. In a more specific sense, the paper contributes insights into the issue of typologies within elite interviewing, the role of elites in English professional football and makes progress in redressing a general paucity of commentary on elite in the overall business and management research methodology literature.

This series of papers aims to explore the transition from higher education into work. It reports on research undertaken over a period of two years and which sought to track a number of young graduates as they completed their studies and embarked upon career of choice.

The approach adopted is defined and discussed as one of “common sense”. Alongside the notion of “common sense” the paper deploys two further concepts, “convention” and “faith” necessary to complete a rudimentary methodological framework. The narratives which are at the heart of the papers are built in such a way as to contain not only the most significant substantive issues raised by the graduates themselves but also the tone of voice specific to each.

Five cases are presented; the stories of five of the graduates over the course of one year. Story lines that speak of learning about the job, learning about the organisation and learning about self are identified. An uneven journey into a workplace community is evident. “Fragmentation” and “cohesion” are the constructs developed to reflect the conflicting dynamics that formed the lived experience of the transitional journeys experienced by each graduate.

Whilst the longitudinal perspective adopted overcomes some of the major difficulties inherent in studies which simply use “snap shot” data, the natural limits of the “common sense” approach restrict theoretical development. Practically speaking, however, the papers identify issues for reflection for those within higher education and the workplace concerned with developing practical interventions in the areas of graduate employability, reflective practice and initial/continuous professional development.

The series of papers offers an alternative to orthodox studies within the broader context of graduate skills and graduate employment. The papers set this debate in a more illuminating context.

Consists of a series of nine articles under the same title. Each article provides a different slant on the hiring process. Outlines the legal position when hiring employees and concentrates on providing a framework for managers. Covers areas including job analysis and descriptions, where to advertise and recruit, selection criteria, the interview, testing, negotiating the offer of employment and references. Briefly describes trends in employment practices and ways to minimize potential litigation through best practice.

I approach this work in the knowledge that the recruitment and selection of staff is one of the most neglected areas of library management. I have been unable to trace any monograph devoted to the subject published during the past 10 years and few general books on library management spare more than a cursory glance in its direction.

This study aims to understand the factors that are perceived to influence the completeness and accuracy of officers’ accounts of an officer-involved shooting (OIS).

Research interviews were conducted with 13 Australian police officers who had been involved in a shooting and subsequently undergone an investigative interview by their agency’s internal investigators. The authors integrated the officers' experiences of, and perspectives on, these investigative interviews using inductive thematic analysis.

Officers’ accounts of a shooting relied not just on their memory but their engagement and ability to provide their account. This was influenced by their psychological state as well as the interview process. Interview timing was relevant. However, it was not necessarily the length of time to wait, but the treatment experienced during that time that had the most impact, not only on officers’ satisfaction with the process but also on the quality of information provided. Officers felt they performed best when supported, and demonstrations of procedural and informational justice were key.

Knowledge of the factors that affect officers’ ability to provide accounts of stressful events can contribute to policies that recognise individual-level needs and ensure fair treatment of subject officers.

While prior research has recognised OISs as traumatic events with long-term impacts on officer wellbeing, far less is known about the immediate aftermath of a shooting with respect to the needs of the officer and how this might impact the interview process. By drawing on the insights of officers with direct experience, this study adds to the evidence for best-practice interviewing of officers after a shooting.