Craig M. Parker, Emilia Bellucci, Ambika Zutshi, Luba Torlina and Bardo Fraunholz
The aim of this paper is to report on an exploratory, qualitative study of how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) describe their firm’s relationships with or impact on…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to report on an exploratory, qualitative study of how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) describe their firm’s relationships with or impact on stakeholders when communicating corporate social responsibility (CSR) on their websites.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative content analysis was conducted on 22 Australian SME websites from the information media and telecommunications sector. Stakeholder theory was used as the basis for analysis.
Findings
An important aspect of CSR communication is reporting the firm’s relationships with stakeholders such as society/communities, ecological environment, employees, customers and suppliers. This paper provides insights into how these relationships are manifested in SME website communications. For example, three-way relationships between the firm and stakeholders were described on some websites, but few explained the impact of their CSR on stakeholders.
Research limitations/implications
This study concentrated on identifying the CSR communication on websites from one industry sector in Australia. These limitations provide the basis for future research to explore and compare CSR communication on websites by SMEs from other industry sectors and countries.
Practical implications
The findings offer SME owner-managers ideas on different ways they can incorporate details of stakeholder relationships in CSR website communications.
Originality/value
There has been little research on how SMEs use channels such as websites to communicate CSR. This paper addresses this gap in knowledge by providing insights into how SMEs describe stakeholder relationships in CSR website communications.
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Craig M. Parker and Tanya Castleman
The paper critiques a range of theories and evaluates their ability to provide a lens for explaining the idiosyncratic nature of small firms and their e‐business adoption…
Abstract
Purpose
The paper critiques a range of theories and evaluates their ability to provide a lens for explaining the idiosyncratic nature of small firms and their e‐business adoption decisions.
Design/methodology/approach
This literature review firstly summarises the existing research evidence that shows that small firms are idiosyncratic when it comes to e‐business adoption. It then critiques theories commonly used in the literature in this field to examine the extent to which they take this small firm idiosyncrasy into account when explaining e‐business adoption decisions.
Findings
The critical analysis shows that no commonly‐used theory adequately explains small firm adoption of e‐business because each omits important aspects of small firm idiosyncrasy. The analysis suggests that an integrated theoretical framework is needed. Preliminary ideas on this framework are provided.
Originality/value
Existing research generally applies a small number of selected theories and formulates research models of adoption factors. However, there is no systematic analysis of theories in this field and no consensus about theoretical frameworks. This paper addresses this limitation of the literature by critically evaluating the commonly used theories in terms of their individual suitability as lenses for explaining small firm e‐business adoption.
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Craig M. Parker and Paula M.C. Swatman
Telecommunications addresses the tyranny of distance forinternational and domestic trade communities by providing informationlinkages both internally and externally to an…
Abstract
Telecommunications addresses the tyranny of distance for international and domestic trade communities by providing information linkages both internally and externally to an organization. These global networks give firms the opportunity to gain strategic advantages such as the strengthening of trading partner relationships and the redesigning of internal procedures to improve overall efficiency and cost effectiveness. The business community, however, has been slow to adopt telecommunications and its enabled technologies – electronic data interchange (EDI) in particular – owing to a general lack of understanding of the benefits available from their effective utilization. Describes an education‐oriented approach designed to encourage greater acceptance of telecommunications and EDI by educating university students – the managers of the future – about applied telecommunications in an international environment. Discusses also the cultural and cross‐cultural experiences of the students who participated in this pilot project. The results indicate that there is evidence to support the hypothesis that EDI is an appropriate exemplar technology for teaching applied telecommunications in an international environment; and that a laboratory‐based strategy is an effective way of using EDI to achieve this objective and providing students with experience of the cultural and cross‐cultural factors involved in international commerce.
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Darlene Ciuffetelli Parker and Cheryl J. Craig
This chapter addresses a sensitive topic in the field of education: the relationship between and among narrative inquiry, critical analysis, and critical theory. It argues that…
Abstract
This chapter addresses a sensitive topic in the field of education: the relationship between and among narrative inquiry, critical analysis, and critical theory. It argues that narrative inquirers are critical – but not in the same way that critical theorists are critical, although they may draw on the same literature and terms. To make our point, we unpack three of our peer-reviewed articles and highlight our theoretical frames and research moves to demonstrate criticality in narrative inquiry. We specifically discuss (1) titles and topics, (2) research frameworks, (3) historical and contemporary data, (4) use of participants' voices (words and feelings), (5) themes, and (6) new knowledge. We mostly argue that narrative inquiry exists because of experience. From experience, everything else unfolds – including criticality – depending on where the researcher in relationship with research participants, takes the inquiry. This chapter explicitly addresses a lived issue known both inside the narrative inquiry community and outside of it.
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Chestin T. Auzenne-Curl and Daphne Carr
Following the mass closing of US schools during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, the authors noted an increase in discourse among literacy teachers and literacy coaches on social…
Abstract
Following the mass closing of US schools during the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, the authors noted an increase in discourse among literacy teachers and literacy coaches on social media platforms. Over a period of 9 months, the authors followed the interactions and work of social media scholars on the Twitter platform. In reflecting on Craig's (1995; Craig, Curtis, Kelly, Martindell, & Perez, 2020) illustrative pillars of knowledge communities and Brock's work on black cyberculture, we use narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000; Connelly & Clandinin, 1990) to: (1) explore the elements of social media scholarship and (2) reflect on how active engagement in social media scholarship aids in the development of online knowledge communities that amplify and sustain the work of black womxn scholars.
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This chapter explores literacy narratives as a narrative inquiry approach used in a Canadian education foundation course which focuses on story and experience as told and retold…
Abstract
This chapter explores literacy narratives as a narrative inquiry approach used in a Canadian education foundation course which focuses on story and experience as told and retold through letter-writing correspondence among teacher candidates. The process is illustrated in the chapter through a literacy narrative exemplar. The 3R framework developed by the author in her research program on poverty and education was applied to teacher candidates’ narrative ways of excavating storied experiences and assumptions in schooling. The 3R framework helps teacher candidates deconstruct their literacy narrative correspondences in order to avoid ‘hardening’ into their lived storied experiences as they work through the framework of: narrative reveal to help them excavate unconscious assumptions that surface in their writing; narrative revelation to show how they can interrogate further their own (sometimes biased) experiences, and; narrative reformation to show how prospective teachers can begin to transform teacher knowledge through awakened new narratives. Literacy narratives, as a curriculum making pedagogy to deconstruct formally and informally using personal educative experiences, readings from the course, and usage of the 3R framework, is a pedagogical example of social justice that gives dignity, respect, and perspective in order to reframe thinking about diverse issues in teaching and teacher education.
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Edward Howe and Masahiro Arimoto
Interest in narrative pedagogies is growing. However, few studies have been conducted outside Western contexts. There remains a paucity of narrative research published by Japanese…
Abstract
Interest in narrative pedagogies is growing. However, few studies have been conducted outside Western contexts. There remains a paucity of narrative research published by Japanese scholars, despite a pervasive culture of “teacher to teacher conversations,” storytelling, reflection, and action research by teachers in Japan. Thus, this research fills an important gap in the literature. It provides exemplars from preservice teacher education, higher education, and high school, as these educational milieus reflect the notion of “traveling stories” (Olson & Craig, 2009). We describe how this narrative pedagogy is interpreted from an insider’s point of view, through the voices of teacher education students, teachers, and teacher educators. In this process, students and teachers become curriculum-makers (Clandinin & Connelly, 1988; Craig & Ross, 2008), co-constructing knowledge, and reshaping teacher knowledge and identity. Narrative teacher education pedagogies resonate with Japanese teachers and play an important role in curriculum, teaching, and learning in Japan within our increasingly interconnected world. Furthermore, narrative relates favorably to many Japanese cultural practices, including kankei (interrelationships), kizuna (bonds), and kizuki (with-it-ness). These are important, integral, and tacit elements of Japanese teachers’ practices because they embody the “mind and heart” of their personal practical sense of knowing. Furthermore, these practices involve placing other people’s needs ahead of our own – an essential skill for global citizens of the 21st century.
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Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to trace the origins of narrative inquiry as an empirical research method specifically created to examine how teachers come to know in…
Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this chapter is to trace the origins of narrative inquiry as an empirical research method specifically created to examine how teachers come to know in their own terms.
Approach – The chapter reviews key conceptualizations in the teaching and teacher education field chronologically.
Findings – The review begins with Clandinin and Connelly's groundbreaking work concerning teachers’ personal practical knowledge, the professional knowledge landscapes of schools, and stories to live by (teacher identity). Three other important narrative conceptualizations on the research line are then highlighted: narrative resonance, narrative authority, and knowledge communities. Special attention is also paid to how narrative inquiry has fueled studies having to do with curriculum, subject matter, and culture. Narrative inquiry's important contributions to the emergence of the self-study of teaching and teacher education practices genre of research is additionally highlighted, along with several more recent advances having to do with collaborative narrative inquiries, studies with children, and reforming school landscapes.
Research implications – Lingering issues relating to narrative inquiry's acceptance as a legitimate research approach are also discussed; latent opportunities are likewise paid attention.
Value – The value of the chapter is that it is the first work that has specifically followed developments on the Connelly–Clandinin research line. The chapter shows the major contributions that the world-class research program – and the associated research projects spawned from it – have made to teaching and teacher education internationally.
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Maria Assunção Flores, Darlene Ciuffetelli Parker, Maria Inês Marcondes and Cheryl J. Craig
This chapter is a multinational policy analysis focusing on what happened in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil, Canada, Portugal, and USA. It is a follow-up to the…
Abstract
This chapter is a multinational policy analysis focusing on what happened in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic in Brazil, Canada, Portugal, and USA. It is a follow-up to the first two analyses which were also conducted collaboratively (2019, 2022). The studies are constant-comparative. The four-country approach illuminates policies and practices in what hopefully is post-Covid-19 times. Neoliberal approaches to policymaking and education in general ensure that the technicalities of teaching received heightened attention to the neglect of the well-being of teachers and the agency afforded them. The critical situation of the teaching profession in the post-pandemic time means there are teacher shortages as well as the lowering of working conditions for teachers. Turmoil and crisis are two words that describe the education sector and are clearly illustrated in the media and in research. While the need to invest in education, and particularly teachers' education and career prospects, is reiterated in policy discourse, it is far from being a reality as the four cases show. The pandemic has exacerbated the existing problems in the field of education, causing heightening concern about teachers' recruitment, working conditions and well-being.