Frank Fischer, Elisabeth Bauer, Tina Seidel, Ralf Schmidmaier, Anika Radkowitsch, Birgit J. Neuhaus, Sarah I. Hofer, Daniel Sommerhoff, Stefan Ufer, Jochen Kuhn, Stefan Küchemann, Michael Sailer, Jenna Koenen, Martin Gartmeier, Pascal Berberat, Anne Frenzel, Nicole Heitzmann, Doris Holzberger, Jürgen Pfeffer, Doris Lewalter, Frank Niklas, Bernhard Schmidt-Hertha, Mario Gollwitzer, Andreas Vorholzer, Olga Chernikova, Christian Schons, Amadeus J. Pickal, Maria Bannert, Tilman Michaeli, Matthias Stadler and Martin R. Fischer
To advance the learning of professional practices in teacher education and medical education, this conceptual paper aims to introduce the idea of representational scaffolding for…
Abstract
Purpose
To advance the learning of professional practices in teacher education and medical education, this conceptual paper aims to introduce the idea of representational scaffolding for digital simulations in higher education.
Design/methodology/approach
This study outlines the ideas of core practices in two important fields of higher education, namely, teacher and medical education. To facilitate future professionals’ learning of relevant practices, using digital simulations for the approximation of practice offers multiple options for selecting and adjusting representations of practice situations. Adjusting the demands of the learning task in simulations by selecting and modifying representations of practice to match relevant learner characteristics can be characterized as representational scaffolding. Building on research on problem-solving and scientific reasoning, this article identifies leverage points for employing representational scaffolding.
Findings
The four suggested sets of representational scaffolds that target relevant features of practice situations in simulations are: informational complexity, typicality, required agency and situation dynamics. Representational scaffolds might be implemented in a strategy for approximating practice that involves the media design, sequencing and adaptation of representational scaffolding.
Originality/value
The outlined conceptualization of representational scaffolding can systematize the design and adaptation of digital simulations in higher education and might contribute to the advancement of future professionals’ learning to further engage in professional practices. This conceptual paper offers a necessary foundation and terminology for approaching related future research.
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Tom Aabo, Jochen Kuhn and Giovanna Zanotti
The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of founder families in medium‐sized manufacturing firms and to investigate the impact of such influence on risk management �…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of founder families in medium‐sized manufacturing firms and to investigate the impact of such influence on risk management – more specifically foreign exchange hedging and speculation.
Design/methodology/approach
This empirical study uses survey data and publicly available data for descriptive analysis and ordinary least squares/ordered regression analysis.
Findings
The authors find that two thirds of medium‐sized manufacturing firms are founder family firms in which the founder of the firm or members of his/her family are active in the management team, are members of the board of directors, and/or are shareholders of the firm. The study finds no difference between such founder family firms and other firms in terms of the use/non‐use decision related to foreign exchange derivatives but a marked difference in terms of the extent decision. Thus, founder family firms tend not only to hedge but also to speculate more extensively than other firms.
Research limitations/implications
The findings are based on medium‐sized manufacturing firms in Denmark.
Originality/value
This study provides empirical evidence on the influence of founder families in medium‐sized firms and adds to the sparse literature on the impact of founder family influence on risk management.
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Michael Hartmann, Jochen Koch and Matthias Wenzel
Research on creativity highlights feedback as an important driver of creative ideas. However, it advances a rather mechanistic understanding of communication, which obscures the…
Abstract
Research on creativity highlights feedback as an important driver of creative ideas. However, it advances a rather mechanistic understanding of communication, which obscures the specific practices in feedback interactions as well as their constitutive role in shaping creative ideas. In this paper, we advance conceptual arguments on how actors interact in communicative feedback processes on creative ideas. By drawing on the theory of communicative action by Jürgen Habermas and Hans Joas’ theory of creative action, we develop a more complex and nuanced understanding of creativity as a phenomenon that is constituted in communication. These authors’ work draws conceptual attention to the practices through which actors negotiate the novelty and usefulness of creative ideas in communicative interactions, the important role of feedback givers as creative actors, and “spaces for play” as a communicative sphere that allows creativity to emerge. We extend the literature on creativity by introducing a theory of communicative and creative action that offers to unpack communicative interactions through which creativity does or does not come into being.
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Matthias Wenzel and Jochen Koch
The purpose of this paper is to make a case for more process-based theorizing in the field of organizational change.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to make a case for more process-based theorizing in the field of organizational change.
Design/methodology/approach
To emphasize the importance of a process perspective on organizational change, this paper challenges the prevalent theorizing approach that treats organizational change as entity and argues that process-based theorizing can help researchers gain a better understanding of organizational change.
Findings
To direct future research toward more process-based theorizing, this paper proposes a systematic four-step procedure for the analysis of qualitative data that helps researchers theorize organizational change from a process perspective.
Originality/value
Overall, this paper contributes to theorizing efforts in the field of organizational change by offering a reflective account on the challenges that entity-based theorizing entails, strengthening the position of process-based theorizing in light of these challenges and providing an outlook on how scholars can develop theoretical insights on organizational change from a process perspective.
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Grit Laudel, Eric Lettkemann, Raphaël Ramuz, Linda Wedlin and Richard Woolley
Bose-Einstein condensation is a scientific innovation in experimental physics whose realisation required considerable time and resources. Its diffusion varied considerably between…
Abstract
Bose-Einstein condensation is a scientific innovation in experimental physics whose realisation required considerable time and resources. Its diffusion varied considerably between and within five countries that were comparatively studied. Differences between countries can be explained by the variation in the national communities’ absorptive capacities, while within-country differences are due to the impact of authority relations on researchers’ opportunities to build protected space for their change of research practices. Beginning experimental research on Bose-Einstein condensation required simultaneous access to the university infrastructure for research and to grants. The former is largely limited to professors, while the latter made researchers vulnerable to the majority opinion and decision practices of their national scientific community.
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Urs Alexander Fichtner, Lukas Maximilian Horstmeier, Boris Alexander Brühmann, Manuel Watter, Harald Binder and Jochen Knaus
One of the currently debated changes in scientific practice is the implementation of data sharing requirements for peer-reviewed publication to increase transparency and…
Abstract
Purpose
One of the currently debated changes in scientific practice is the implementation of data sharing requirements for peer-reviewed publication to increase transparency and intersubjective verifiability of results. However, it seems that data sharing is a not fully adopted behavior among researchers. The theory of planned behavior was repeatedly applied to explain drivers of data sharing from the perspective of data donors (researchers). However, data sharing can be viewed from another perspective as well: survey participants. The research questions (RQs) for this study were as follows: 1 Does data sharing increase participant's nonresponse? 2 Does data sharing influence participant's response behavior? The purpose of this paper is to address these issues.
Design/methodology/approach
To answer the RQs, a mixed methods approach was applied, consisting of a qualitative prestudy and a quantitative survey including an experimental component. The latter was a two-group setup with an intervention group (A) and a control group (B). A list-based recruiting of members of the Medical Faculty of the University of Freiburg was applied for 15 days. For exploratory data analysis of dropouts and nonresponse, we used Fisher's exact tests and binary logistic regressions.
Findings
In sum, we recorded 197 cases for Group A and 198 cases for Group B. We found no systematic group differences regarding response bias or dropout. Furthermore, we gained insights into the experiences our sample made with data sharing: half of our sample already requested data of other researchers or shared data on request of other researchers. Data repositories, however, were used less frequently: 28% of our respondents used data from repositories and 19% stored data in a repository.
Originality/value
To the authors’ knowledge, their study is the first study that includes researchers as survey subjects investigating the effect of data sharing on their response patterns.
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Michele Esteves Martins, Guilherme Silveira Martins, João Mario Csillag and Susana Carla Farias Pereira
The purpose of this paper is to characterize and discuss the collaborative network formed by researchers that published about services in the top journals in Operations…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to characterize and discuss the collaborative network formed by researchers that published about services in the top journals in Operations, Marketing, and Human Resources Management, and provide further comparison with major Service journals.
Design/methodology/approach
The method used was designed documentary research using papers published in the top three relevant international journals specific to Operations, Marketing, and Human Resources from 1995 to 2010. Papers were selected using a search of the ABI/Inform Global (Proquest) database on the word “service” in the title, abstract, or keywords. Additionally, it included two major Service journals. A total of 1,481 papers and 2,457 authors composed the Social Network Analysis (SNA).
Findings
The co‐authorship network revealed that the social structure is highly fragmented. However, its main component can be classified as “small world”, indicating that authors are connected to others outside their group through a small number of intermediaries. This type of structure is favorable both to knowledge flow and development.
Practical implications
The results may be valuable to the community of researchers interested in the theme of Services, as well as in the fields of Operations, Marketing, and Human Resources to identify researchers and research groups. Thus, it can serve as guidance for publishers, colleges, and companies in the search for scholars in the service subject.
Originality/value
The paper uses SNA to investigate the interaction/collaboration of co‐authors using authorship as the unit of analysis.
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Grit Laudel, Martin Benninghoff, Eric Lettkemann and Elias Håkansson
Evolutionary developmental biology is a highly variable scientific innovation because researchers can adapt their involvement in the innovation to the opportunities provided by…
Abstract
Evolutionary developmental biology is a highly variable scientific innovation because researchers can adapt their involvement in the innovation to the opportunities provided by their environment. On the basis of comparative case studies in four countries, we link epistemic properties of research tasks to three types of necessary protected space, and identify the necessary and facilitating conditions for building them. We found that the variability of research tasks made contributing to evolutionary developmental biology possible under most sets of authority relations. However, even the least demanding research depends on its acceptance as legitimate innovation by the scientific community and of purely basic research by state policy and research organisations. The latter condition is shown to become precarious.