Although there has been some attention to how notions of entrepreneurship and family intersect in the life of family businesses, analysis of these issues in relation to…
Abstract
Although there has been some attention to how notions of entrepreneurship and family intersect in the life of family businesses, analysis of these issues in relation to inter‐generational and organisational emergence in small family firms is underdeveloped. In order to redress this imbalance, it is important to undertake analysis of entrepreneurial issues alongside those of family, ownership, management and inter‐generational emergence. A fourth entrepreneurial axis is added to Gersick's developmental life cycle framework to facilitate this. This is then applied to aid interpretive analysis of two second generation owner‐managers and sons‐in‐law of the original founders of a small manufacturing company in the UK. Working with his younger brother‐in‐law, the two family members are responsible for taking a small steeplejack company into its third generation and a new electrical engineering market. As the younger brother‐in‐law takes on an entrepreneurial role within the company and endeavours to develop new opportunities, the chairman gives an account of the struggles involved in achieving a balance between ownership, management and family tensions. The notion of “interpreneurship” whereby family members are interacting and creating new possibilities for themselves, their lives, their organizations whilst drawing upon past events, happenings, experiences and conversations that have gone before, is also considered.
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Richard W. Puyt, Finn Birger Lie and Dag Øivind Madsen
The purpose of this study is to revisit the conventional wisdom about a key contribution [i.e. strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (SWOT) analysis] in the field of…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to revisit the conventional wisdom about a key contribution [i.e. strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (SWOT) analysis] in the field of strategic management. The societal context and the role of academics, consultants and executives is taken into account in the emergence of SWOT analysis during the 1960–1980 period as a pivotal development within the broader context of the satisfactory, opportunities, faults, threats (SOFT) approach. The authors report on both the content and the approach, so that other scholars seeking to invigorate indigenous theories and/or underreported strategy practices will thrive.
Design/methodology/approach
Applying a historiographic approach, the authors introduce an evidence-based methodology for interpreting historical sources. This methodology incorporates source criticism, triangulation and hermeneutical interpretation, drawing upon insights from robust evidence through three iterative stages.
Findings
The underreporting of the SOFT approach/SWOT analysis can be attributed to several factors, including strategy tools being integrated into planning frameworks rather than being published as standalone materials; restricted circulation of crucial long-range planning service/theory and practice of planning reports due to copyright limitations; restricted access to the Stanford Research Institute Planning Library in California; and the enduring popularity of SOFT and SWOT variations, driven in part by their memorable acronyms.
Originality
In the spirit of a renaissance in strategic planning research, the authors unveil novel theoretical and social connections in the emergence of SWOT analysis by combining evidence from both theory and practice and delving into previously unexplored areas.
Research implications
Caution is advised for scholars who examine the discrete time frame of 1960–1980 through mere bibliometric techniques. This study underscores the risks associated with gathering incomplete and/or inaccurate data, emphasizing the importance of triangulating evidence beyond scholarly databases. The paradigm shift of strategic management research due to the advent of large language models poses new challenges and the risk of conserving and perpetuating academic urban legends, myths and lies if training data is not adequately curated.
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Outlines some of the resources that transactional analysis has tooffer counsellors. Discusses the origin of TA′s over‐simplified popularimage, the central idea of the ego‐state…
Abstract
Outlines some of the resources that transactional analysis has to offer counsellors. Discusses the origin of TA′s over‐simplified popular image, the central idea of the ego‐state model, application of the ego‐state model, the “I′m OK, you′re OK” phrase, and the counselling relationship. Surmises that TA offers counsellors the opportunity to recognise different manager/employee relationships and their chances of success.
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The aim of this paper is to illustrate the social aspects of supervising students’ research of accounting practice. It attempts to demonstrate that accounting practice and…
Abstract
Purpose
The aim of this paper is to illustrate the social aspects of supervising students’ research of accounting practice. It attempts to demonstrate that accounting practice and accounting research share a common characteristic – they are both forms of social practice.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is written as a personal reflection and confession. It follows a tradition in the social science literature of academics engaging in auto-ethnographic self-reflection. It is presented as a series of dialogues between the academic and the students.
Findings
The tensions between the experienced teacher and the students raise questions about the extent of involvement of the academic in the students’ work. Each project involves social interactions which affect the nature of the supervision required and provided. Positivistic approaches may give strict guidance in the form of accepted rules and conventions, but for social scientists who recognise that research, like practice, is socially constructed, outcomes are often uncertain.
Research limitations/implications
It is a personal reflection on specific research projects, and so there are no conclusions about supervision in general.
Practical implications
The intent is to capture the uncertain development and outcome of research projects. The uncertainty may be typical of supervisor/student experiences.
Originality/value
Though examples of auto-ethnographic self-reflection may be found in the social science literature, there are few, if any, in the accounting literature.
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N. C. A. da Costa and Francisco A. Doria
Rice’s Theorem is a notorious stumbling block in Computer Science. We review some previous work of us that shows that we can extend Rice’s result to large segments of everyday…
Abstract
Rice’s Theorem is a notorious stumbling block in Computer Science. We review some previous work of us that shows that we can extend Rice’s result to large segments of everyday mathematics, so that similar stumbling blocks appear in many areas of mathematics, as well as applied areas such as mathematical economics; one of its applications (Koppl’s conjecture) is discussed in some detail. Note: this paper has been written in an informal style.
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Ryan Rahinel, Rohini Ahluwalia and Ashley S. Otto
Humans engage in two types of processing. One system is the rapid, affect-based, and intuitive, “experiential” system, while the other is the relatively slower, cognition-based…
Abstract
Humans engage in two types of processing. One system is the rapid, affect-based, and intuitive, “experiential” system, while the other is the relatively slower, cognition-based, and reflective, “rational” system. Extant work focuses on the consequences of having one system relatively dominant over the other. In the current research, we show that consumers who use neither system to a great degree (i.e., low-system consumers) are vulnerable to undesirable outcomes. Specifically, four studies demonstrate that these consumers face confusion in the process of making judgments due to their lack of processing inputs and resolve this confusion by making judgments that are implied by salient stimuli, regardless of the stimuli's diagnostic value. The result is an unbalanced, easily biased, and “blown away by the gust of wind” judgment process that both policymakers and low-system consumers should be vigilant to.
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To summarize and evaluate John Levi Marin’s recent book, The Explanation of Social Action (2011), the central thesis of which is that the actions of other people cannot be…
Abstract
Purpose
To summarize and evaluate John Levi Marin’s recent book, The Explanation of Social Action (2011), the central thesis of which is that the actions of other people cannot be explained without first understanding those actions from the point of view of the actors themselves. Martin thus endeavors to reorient social science toward concrete experience and away from purportedly useless abstractions.
Design/methodology/approach
This review chapter employs close scrutiny of and applies immanent critique to Martin’s argumentative claims, warrants, and the polemical style in which these arguments are presented.
Findings
This chapter arrives at the following conclusions: (1) Martin unnecessarily truncates the scope of sociological investigation; (2) he fails to define the key concepts within his argument, including “explanation,” “social action,” and “understanding,” among others; (3) he overemphasizes the external or “environmental” causes of action; (4) rather than inducing actions, the so-called “action-fields” induce experiences, and are therefore incapable of explaining actions; (5) Martin rejects counterfactual definitions of causality while defining his own notion of causality in terms of counterfactuals; (6) most of his critiques of other philosophical accounts of causality are really critiques of their potential misapplication; (7) the separation of experience and language (i.e., propositions about experience) in order to secure the validity of the former does not secure the validity of sociological inquiry, since experiences are invariably reported in language; and, finally, (8) Martin’s argument that people are neurologically incapable of providing accurate, retrospective accounts of the motivations behind their own actions is based on the kind of third-person social science he elsewhere repudiates; that he acknowledges the veracity of these studies demonstrates the potential utility of the “third-person” perspectives and the implausibility of any social science that abandons them.
Originality/value
To date Martin’s book has received much praise but little critical attention. This review chapter seeks to fill this lacuna in the literature in order to better elucidate Martin’s central arguments and the conclusions that can be reasonably inferred from the logical and empirical evidence presented.