David J. Langley, Nico Pals, J. Roland Ortt and Tammo H.A. Bijmolt
The purpose of this paper is to describe a method of estimating the likelihood that a person with particular characteristics will imitate a particular new behaviour (i.e. the use…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe a method of estimating the likelihood that a person with particular characteristics will imitate a particular new behaviour (i.e. the use of an innovation). This estimation can be used to provide a new form of forecast for the likely market demand for an innovation.
Design/methodology/approach
This method, termed imitation analysis, is based on imitation theories from the behavioural sciences and is applied in two recent case studies in The Netherlands: broadcast TV on mobile phones and a mobile friend‐network service.
Findings
These cases illustrate how: the market segments with the highest potential can be identified; marketing communication can be focused on specific issues important for each segment (e.g. based on the highest imitation potential); product design can be improved (by highlighting the characteristics with the most room for improving the imitation potential); and market demand can be modelled (the overall chance of imitation occurring).
Practical implications
Management implications for the two services, as well as the usefulness of imitation analysis in forecasting studies, are discussed.
Originality/value
The paper expands on original work published in this journal in 2005, showing the value of the approach in real‐world settings.
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David J. Langley, Nico Pals and J. Roland Ortt
The goal of this article is to show that memetics is particularly useful to predict the adoption of major innovations.
Abstract
Purpose
The goal of this article is to show that memetics is particularly useful to predict the adoption of major innovations.
Design/methodology/approach
Describes how TNO Telecom, an applied research institute in The Netherlands, adopted the theory of memetics to develop an instrument that predicts the adoption of major innovations. Explains and defines relevant aspects of this focus.
Findings
Initial results are encouraging and suggest that the approach may provide qualitatively better results than the existing methods when applied to major innovations.
Originality/value
Describes for the first time how the theory of memetics can be used to gain a real insight into the market adoption of major innovations as well as to focus and optimise product development.
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Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.
Abstract
Purpose
Reviews the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoints practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.
Design/methodology/approach
This briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.
Findings
The introduction of innovative products into the marketplace has always been a risky business. Get it right and your product will become as ubiquitous as the cell phone. But get it wrong and your company's profit margin and reputation may both go into terminal decline. So how does a company make the right choices about developing and marketing products that are substantially different from those currently available?
Practical implications
Provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.
Originality/value
The briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to‐digest format.
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Toni Eagar and Andrew Lindridge
The academic discourse around celebrity and iconicity has resulted in the same human brand as labeled as an inauthentic and illegitimate celebrity and as a culturally important…
Abstract
Purpose
The academic discourse around celebrity and iconicity has resulted in the same human brand as labeled as an inauthentic and illegitimate celebrity and as a culturally important symbol of legitimate achievement. We address the research question of how are contradictions between celebrity and iconicity resolved in creating and managing a human brand.
Methodology/approach
Using structuration theory, we analyzed David Bowie’s 50 year career, from 1964 to 2013, totaling 562 documents. Applying Langley’s (1999) stages of data collection of grounding, organizing, and replicating, we develop a process of model of celebrity and iconicity.
Findings
We identify three stages of human brand symbolic associations: forming, fixing, and transitioning associations. These represent alternate trajectories that Bowie and Ziggy Stardust followed to become icons. In resolving his trajectories across these stages, Bowie adapts and adopts commercial materials, business practices, and new technologies to converge his symbolic associations into a coherent iconic human brand.
Research limitations/implications
Limitations of this paper lie in focusing on one human brand in a particular industry. Future research is suggested in three areas: (1) the relationship between the proposed model and other human brand activities; (2) to explore how the process is manipulated by other market agents; and (3) whether a human brand’s association shifts can precede culture.
Originality/value
This perspective challenges existing conceptualizations of celebrity and iconicity by framing them as inter-related processes, where celebrity associations are fixed in time, while iconic associations transition across time periods to reflect changing cultural values and concerns.
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Charlotte Cloutier, Jean-Pascal Gond and Bernard Leca
This volume presents state-of-the-art research and thinking on the analysis of justification, evaluation and critique in organizations, as inspired by the foundational ideas of…
Abstract
This volume presents state-of-the-art research and thinking on the analysis of justification, evaluation and critique in organizations, as inspired by the foundational ideas of French Pragmatist Sociology’s economies of worth (EW) framework. In this introduction, we begin by underlining the EW framework’s importance in sociology and social theory more generally and discuss its relative neglect within organizational theory, at least until now. We then present an overview of the framework’s intellectual roots, and for those who are new to this particular theoretical domain, offer a brief introduction to the theory’s main concepts and core assumptions. This we follow with an overview of the contributions included in this volume. We conclude by highlighting the EW framework’s important yet largely untapped potential for advancing our understanding of organizations more broadly. Collectively, the contributions in this volume help demonstrate the potential of the EW framework to (1) advance current understanding of organizational processes by unpacking justification dynamics at the individual level of analysis, (2) refresh critical perspectives in organization theory by providing them with pragmatic foundations, (3) expand and develop the study of valuation and evaluation in organizations by reconsidering the notion of worth, and finally (4) push the boundaries of the framework itself by questioning and fine tuning some of its core assumptions. Taken as a whole, this volume not only carves a path for a deeper embedding of the EW approach into contemporary thinking about organizations, it also invites readers to refine and expand it by confronting it with a wider range of diverse empirical contexts of interest to organizational scholars.
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C. John Langley, David P. Carlisle, Stephen B. Probst, Donald F. Biggs and Roy E. Cail
Study teams, including industry representatives, themselves experienced in the use of microcomputers in logistics, report on a survey of such use.
Rebecca Bednarek, Marianne W. Lewis and Jonathan Schad
Early paradox research in organization theory contained a remarkable breadth of inspirations from outside disciplines. We wanted to know more about where early scholarship found…
Abstract
Early paradox research in organization theory contained a remarkable breadth of inspirations from outside disciplines. We wanted to know more about where early scholarship found inspiration to create what has since become paradox theory. To shed light on this, we engaged seminal paradox scholars in conversations: asking about their past experiences drawing from outside disciplines and their views on the future of paradox theory. These conversations surfaced several themes of past and future inspirations: (1) understanding complex phenomena; (2) drawing from related disciplines; (3) combining interdisciplinary insights; and (4) bridging discourses in organization theory. We end the piece with suggestions for future paradox research inspired by these conversations.
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Heiko Marc Schmidt and Sandra Milena Santamaria-Alvarez
Processual approaches to entrepreneurship have increasingly captured researchers’ interest. One such approach that tries to understand entrepreneurs in real time by looking with…
Abstract
Processual approaches to entrepreneurship have increasingly captured researchers’ interest. One such approach that tries to understand entrepreneurs in real time by looking with them, not at them, has been termed withness (Shotter, 2006). But how does one design a study that captures this experience of living in the flow? In this methodological reflection, we propose using the metaphor of warp and weft to think of grounded theory research designs that seek to approximate withness. To this end, we also reflect on our experience studying the unfolding processes in international new ventures and highlight the usefulness of multiple data collection instruments, notably diaries and interviews.
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Michael L. Nelson, Gretchen L. Gottlich, David J. Bianco, Sharon S. Paulson, Robert L. Binkley, Yvonne D. Kellogg, Chris J. Beaumont, Robert B. Schmunk, Michael J. Kurtz, Alberto Accomazzi and Omar Syed
The National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 established theNational Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and charged it to“provide for the widest practicable and…
Abstract
The National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958 established the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and charged it to “provide for the widest practicable and appropriate dissemination of information concerning ... its activities and the results thereof”. The search for innovative methods to distribute NASA′s information led a grassroots team to create the NASA Technical Report Server (NTRS), which uses the World Wide Web and other popular Internet‐based information systems.