Denise Moraes Carvalho, Edson Guarido Filho and Veronica Eberle de Almeida
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between organizational performance and the pattern of strategic decisions formalized in the planning of a Brazilian heavy…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between organizational performance and the pattern of strategic decisions formalized in the planning of a Brazilian heavy construction company between 2006 and 2014. In this period, the company experienced a recurrent pattern of maintaining strategic decisions, despite the systematic decrease in performance and investments in the formal strategic planning (SP) and monitoring of results. The research focus is on strategic inertia and the influence of social determinants on the relationship between performance and the strategic actions negotiated in formal planning.
Design/methodology/approach
This is a single-case study. The exploratory-descriptive research comprises data collection on performance and strategic decisions from the period between 2006 and 2014. The analysis was guided through documentary material and data collected from 16 interviews conducted with members of the middle to top management concerning performance, goals, and strategic initiatives. The interviewees’ statements were used to apprehend the interpreted dimension of SP expressed in the meanings attributed to this process. The analysis adopts a sociological base, and strategic inertia is the underlying phenomenon that guides this analysis.
Findings
The results show the interactive effect caused by political, cognitive, discursive, and ceremonial mechanisms obstruct the company’s strategic decisions. This case study illustrates that the conditions for the phenomenon of path dependence were created, reinforcing the strategic inertia observed in the maintenance of a reproduced pattern of strategic initiatives and goals, even though the performance was recurrently unsatisfactory. In this case, strategic inertia showed a complex relationship between the interpreted performance and strategic actions negotiated in formal planning, conditioned by mechanisms of trajectory reinforcement that interfered with the conditions for strategic change.
Research limitations/implications
Strategic inertia demonstrates a complex relationship between the interpreted performance and strategic actions negotiated in formal planning, conditioned by mechanisms of trajectory reinforcement that interfere with the conditions for strategic change. Future research on social mechanisms from the perspective of strategy-as-practice could be developed to capture the tacit components, language, power games, and other relevant categories in the social interaction of strategy development at the organizational level. In addition, future research could focus on investigating the extent to which path dependence is contingent, assuming that it is a temporary and, therefore, reversible process.
Practical implications
This work contributes to the view of SP from the social perspective and shows that the relationship between performance and strategy has biases that can compromise performance. The work highlights implications for maintaining strategic initiative patterns, which shape a path whose function is less associated with its effects on performance and more associated with the commitment to instrumental results, due to the social nature of organizations.
Social implications
This work deals with social mechanisms that influence strategic decisions. Since organizational performance depends on strategic decisions, the social nature of strategic inertia has causal implications to economic and social impact of organizations.
Originality/value
This work argues in favor of the influence of self-reinforcing mechanisms of path dependence in the relationship between performance and strategic decisions. The results extended the predominantly structural approach of path dependence by considering interpretive aspects related to the political, discursive, cognitive, and ceremonial dimensions of strategic inertia.
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Nádia Cristina Pinheiro Rodrigues, Valéria Teresa Saraiva Lino, Leonardo Soares Bastos, Gisele O'Dwyer, Denise Leite Maia Monteiro, Inês Nascimento Carvalho Reis, Vera Cecília Frossard and Mônica Kramer Noronha Andrade
This study aims to improve our understanding of violence, focusing on the analysis of the relation between socioeconomic factors and homicide rates from 2005 to 2019 in Brazilian…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to improve our understanding of violence, focusing on the analysis of the relation between socioeconomic factors and homicide rates from 2005 to 2019 in Brazilian capitals.
Design/methodology/approach
Multilevel Poisson models were used to estimate the homicide risk in men and women. The response variable was the homicide rate. Fixed effects were estimated for age group, year and gross domestic product (GDP).
Findings
The average homicide rate over the 2005–2019 period was 5.83/100,000 and 83.72/100,000 for women and men, respectively. In both sexes, the homicide rates increased over the period. The highest mortality rates were observed in North and Northeastern capitals. The peak homicide rates were 2010–2014, the risk of homicide decreased as age increased, and the capitals with GDP lower than US$5,000 showed a greater homicide rate.
Originality/value
Brazil remains among the countries with the highest risk of homicide, especially in the north and northeast regions, where socioeconomic conditions are more unfavorable. The improvement of socioeconomic conditions may contribute to changing this situation.
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Marcella Brito Galvão, Raíssa Corrêa de Carvalho, Lucas Ambrósio Bezerra de Oliveira and Denise Dumke de Medeiros
The purpose of this paper is to explore marketing analysis by developing a customer loyalty approach for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the service sector, based on…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore marketing analysis by developing a customer loyalty approach for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the service sector, based on customer relationship management (CRM) in the context of an emerging economy.
Design/methodology/approach
This study analyzes different models of CRM in the literature and defines a loyalty approach for SMEs in the service sector. It is characterized as exploratory research, with a qualitative approach. A systematic review of the literature is undertaken as the starting point for achieving the main objective of the study.
Findings
The need to develop a framework for an approach to customer loyalty for SMEs based on CRM and to make it operational.
Research limitations/implications
It is a qualitative and exploratory study, applied only to a company’s two main clients.
Practical implications
The contribution of this study is that it offers SMEs consistent guidelines on how best to conduct relationship management with their customers by using a systemic methodology that can be adapted to the requirements of more effective interaction between a company and its customers. It also provides coherence to the purpose of meeting customers’ needs. This is an action strategy that focuses especially on the use of tools, such as SERVQUAL, Kano and SWOT analysis, and thereby increases the competitive profile of organizations in this sector.
Originality/value
This study is a new approach to customer loyalty for SMEs in the service sector, which integrates elements of CRM strategy and implementation.
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Joana Milan Lorandi and Pamela Block
This chapter explores the experiences of people with complex conditions before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, their fears for imagined futures when the pandemic first appeared…
Abstract
Purpose
This chapter explores the experiences of people with complex conditions before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, their fears for imagined futures when the pandemic first appeared, their reflections on their experiences and present status, as well as plans for a post-pandemic future.
Methods/Approach
This research is based on semi-structured interviews conducted by phone, Zoom, or in-person with six participants, each interviewed twice – before and during the pandemic – who either have complex medical conditions or are mothers of a child with complex medical conditions, in the United States. Half the interviews were conducted before the pandemic and the other half during the pandemic.
Findings
The data illuminate the understanding of our participants of the COVID-19 pandemic as a disability issue, which should be analyzed with the focus of disability as an intersectional social category and that disabled people felt at higher risk due to ableism in health policies and getting their health needs met. The results demonstrated the tremendous impact of the pandemic on the lives of our participants with complex medical conditions, whether in their work, care, physical and mental health, and social relationships.
Implication/Value
This study points to the importance of policymakers incorporating strategies to reduce ableism in health care provision, rationing, and other forms of decision-making. Services need to be designed keeping in mind the challenges of disabled people and their need for care. In addition, adequate education, and employment opportunities for disabled people must be ensured, while continuing to expand access options to disabled people that were available throughout the lockdown.
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Wioleta Kucharska and Denise Bedford
This chapter describes the business goals, purpose, and strategy of public diplomatic services. It reinforces diplomatic organizations’ fundamental bureaucratic administrative…
Abstract
Chapter Summary
This chapter describes the business goals, purpose, and strategy of public diplomatic services. It reinforces diplomatic organizations’ fundamental bureaucratic administrative culture (Tier 1). The bureaucratic culture of diplomacy is deconstructed, and each of the five layers is described in detail. The authors also explain why focusing on the artifacts and behavior layers are the dominant and essential starting points for analysis in diplomatic cultures. The public service culture (Tier 2) overlays and mediates the bureaucratic culture.
Additionally, the authors describe the influence that political appointees as leaders may play in shaping public service cultures. Next, the authors explain how diplomatic cultures reflect the core values of a state’s culture. Next, the chapter outlines the landscape of external influencing cultures (Tier 3) in diplomacy. Finally, the knowledge, learning, and collaboration (KLC) culture of diplomacy is considered, with opportunities for future growth.
The purpose of this paper is to report on ethnographic research that investigated how self-employed nurses perceive the contemporary healthcare field, what attributes they possess…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to report on ethnographic research that investigated how self-employed nurses perceive the contemporary healthcare field, what attributes they possess that facilitate their roles as change agents, what strategies they use to influence change, and what consequences they face for their actions, thus contributing to what is known about organizational change in institutionalized settings such as healthcare.
Design/methodology/approach
Focussed ethnography was used to explore self-employed nurses’ work experiences and elucidate the cultural elements of their social contexts, including customs, ideologies, beliefs, and knowledge and the ways that these impact upon the possibilities for change in the system.
Findings
These self-employed nurses reflected on the shortcomings in the healthcare system and took entrepreneurial risks that would allow them to practice nursing according to their professional values. They used a number of strategies to influence change such as capitalizing on opportunities, preparing themselves for innovative work, managing and expanding the scope of nursing practice, and building new ideas on foundational nursing knowledge and experience. They had high job satisfaction and a strong sense of contribution but they faced significant resistance because of their non-traditional approach to nursing practice.
Originality/value
Despite dramatic restructuring in the Canadian healthcare system, the system remains physician-centered and hospital-based. Nursing ' s professional potential has been largely untapped in any change efforts. Self-employed nurses have positioned themselves to deliver care based on nursing values and to promote alternative conceptions of health and healthcare. This study offers a rare exploration of this unique form of nursing practice and its potential to influence health system reform.
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Brian McBreen, John Silson and Denise Bedford
This chapter introduces the concept of an intelligent organization in the context of the twenty-first-century knowledge economy. An intelligent organization is one in which…
Abstract
Chapter Summary
This chapter introduces the concept of an intelligent organization in the context of the twenty-first-century knowledge economy. An intelligent organization is one in which individuals behave intelligently, work is grounded in intelligent methods and choices, and rich stocks of intelligence in the form of knowledge capital to support intelligence work and choices. Intelligence is defined as both a thing and attribute and behavior and way of working. The chapter also highlights examples of intelligent behaviors and or organizational pathologies. The chapter also highlights the importance of becoming aware of intelligent and unintelligent choices.
Giovanna Bagnato, Stefania Denise Escobar and Felipe Ruiz Moreno
This exploratory study aims to identify and prioritize key sustainable innovation challenges faced by family-owned businesses in the wine ecosystem. It also explores whether the…
Abstract
Purpose
This exploratory study aims to identify and prioritize key sustainable innovation challenges faced by family-owned businesses in the wine ecosystem. It also explores whether the criticality of these challenges differed pre- and post-COVID-19 by comparing the prioritization of these challenges at these two times.
Design/methodology/approach
Three methodologies were used. First, a systematic literature review identified the key sustainable innovation challenges in the wine ecosystem, which were then summarized into macro-categories (macro-challenges). Second, a panel of experts validated these challenges. Finally, the best-worst method was used using 40 qualitative interviews to prioritize the most critical challenges in two alternative scenarios to explore potential changes in challenge criticality following COVID-19.
Findings
This study provides evidence that the primary challenge to sustainable innovation (i.e. constraints on businesses because of limited financial resources) was the same pre- and post-COVID-19. In contrast, although the challenge associated with knowledge sharing was identified as a key strategy of wine ecosystem actors, particularly in recent years, it was the least critical factor at both times.
Originality/value
This exploratory study extends the conceptual boundaries of sustainable innovation by introducing it to the wine ecosystem. It establishes a practical agenda for small and medium-sized enterprises to enable managers who are constrained by limited resources to prioritize challenges. This agenda outlines a path to identifying competitive strategies. This path can also be followed by a range of stakeholders within this ecosystem to achieve resilience and define medium-to-long-term strategies. Furthermore, policymakers and governments can follow this path to formulate more targeted investment management plans and policies, thereby supporting sustainable economic growth in this key sector for many countries.
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Wioleta Kucharska and Denise Bedford
This chapter focuses on corporate cultures as critical focus points for the knowledge economy. The authors explain how culture is a crucial intangible asset in the hyperdynamic…
Abstract
Chapter Summary
This chapter focuses on corporate cultures as critical focus points for the knowledge economy. The authors explain how culture is a crucial intangible asset in the hyperdynamic knowledge economy. The de facto business cultures in every organization – visible or invisible – are also discussed. The authors describe the four common types of business cultures – bureaucracy, market, clan, and fief. Finally, the importance of aligning culture and strategy is explained. In the event of culture, this chapter explains why culture will always prevail in any strategy-culture conflict. The chapter is supported by practical use cases.
Barbara de Lima Voss, David Bernard Carter and Bruno Meirelles Salotti
We present a critical literature review debating Brazilian research on social and environmental accounting (SEA). The aim of this study is to understand the role of politics in…
Abstract
We present a critical literature review debating Brazilian research on social and environmental accounting (SEA). The aim of this study is to understand the role of politics in the construction of hegemonies in SEA research in Brazil. In particular, we examine the role of hegemony in relation to the co-option of SEA literature and sustainability in the Brazilian context by the logic of development for economic growth in emerging economies. The methodological approach adopts a post-structural perspective that reflects Laclau and Mouffe’s discourse theory. The study employs a hermeneutical, rhetorical approach to understand and classify 352 Brazilian research articles on SEA. We employ Brown and Fraser’s (2006) categorizations of SEA literature to help in our analysis: the business case, the stakeholder–accountability approach, and the critical case. We argue that the business case is prominent in Brazilian studies. Second-stage analysis suggests that the major themes under discussion include measurement, consulting, and descriptive approach. We argue that these themes illustrate the degree of influence of the hegemonic politics relevant to emerging economics, as these themes predominantly concern economic growth and a capitalist context. This paper discusses trends and practices in the Brazilian literature on SEA and argues that the focus means that SEA avoids critical debates of the role of capitalist logics in an emerging economy concerning sustainability. We urge the Brazilian academy to understand the implications of its reifying agenda and engage, counter-hegemonically, in a social and political agenda beyond the hegemonic support of a particular set of capitalist interests.