Focussing on the dynamic nature of entrepreneurship, the purpose of this paper is to advance an understanding of entrepreneurial practice in phases of radical change, which the…
Abstract
Purpose
Focussing on the dynamic nature of entrepreneurship, the purpose of this paper is to advance an understanding of entrepreneurial practice in phases of radical change, which the authors conceptualize as periods of liminality. A particular focus on the management of tension is taken to investigate destabilization of practices, sources of resistance and enablers of change during shifts from a familiar past into an unfamiliar and uncertain future.
Design/methodology/approach
An exploratory longitudinal study of a single case firm was conducted to study the entrepreneurial change process during radical transition phases. To understand and theorize liminality and practice renewal in the entrepreneurial firm, the authors leveraged data collection tools from ethnography and engaged in data analysis inspired by grounded theory.
Findings
The authors build a process model of becoming that maps the following processes: destabilizing incumbent practices, sources of resistance and enablers of change, acceptance of upheaval and trying on a new state of being. A research agenda for future research in this area is also formulated.
Originality/value
The research contributes to contemporary entrepreneurship-as-practice research and to research considering the concept of liminality in entrepreneurship. Through processual theory building based on empirical research, the authors highlight that simultaneously handling the practices of the past whilst breeding new trajectories in an unknown future create tensions that can make or break the entrepreneurial firm.
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More pluralistic approaches have recently emerged in entrepreneurship, yet the discipline remains disinterested in the ideological influences underpinning its research and…
Abstract
More pluralistic approaches have recently emerged in entrepreneurship, yet the discipline remains disinterested in the ideological influences underpinning its research and teaching practices. Following Louis Althusser’s work on interpellation, the process by which ideology enrols and consummates its subjects, the chapter examines the interpellation of entrepreneurship-as-practice researchers and draws attention to the powerful nature of ideology. Critical reflexivity is put forward as an exercise to explore the researchers’ beliefs and identity and to tease out their relationship with the discipline. Finally, using three autoethnographic accounts, the chapter argues that the boundaries of the entrepreneurship discipline can only be shifted if and when researchers learn to recognise themselves as ‘the person in the mirror’. The reflexive spotlight also allows researchers to spot ideological breaks and engage in acts of ‘ideological resistance’.
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Nicole Gross, David Carson and Rosalind Jones
– The purpose of this paper is to propose the application of social practice theory for the investigation of entrepreneurial marketing (EM) practices.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose the application of social practice theory for the investigation of entrepreneurial marketing (EM) practices.
Design/methodology/approach
A theoretical gap has been found between scholarly efforts to explain the nature of EM practice and the actual marketing practice or marketing doings of small firms.
Findings
The paper covers some of the EM literature and perspectives and examining the notion of “practice” in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SME) and entrepreneurship research. Based on an increasing focus on practice in the social theory literature and the contributions of key social theorists, a discussion is framed in terms of how EM practice can be studied through the investigation material and bodily observations and common interpretations.
Research limitations/implications
The paper offers a proposal that the observations of practitioners’ actions and activities and the investigation of common interpretations can be conceptualized to explain the nature of EM practice. It also gives avenues for future research.
Practical implications
The paper suggests that marketing comprises a wide scope of activities or practices and, in the case of a small firm, is all-pervasive. It also suggests that scholars engage in understanding the collective, distributed, situated, ongoing and tacit nature of EM.
Originality/value
The paper provides a fresh conceptual approach about how EM practice can be studied through the investigation material and bodily observations as well as common interpretations.
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This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting-edge research and case studies.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint 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 authors build a process model of becoming that maps the following processes: destabilizing incumbent practices, sources of resistance and enablers of change, acceptance of upheaval and trying on a new state of being. A research agenda for future research in this area is also formulated.
Practical implications
The paper 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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Riitta Hekkala and Mari-Klara Stein
This study examines emotionologies (Stearns & Stearns, 1985), that is, attitudes that members of an inter-organizational information systems (IOIS) project hold toward emotions…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines emotionologies (Stearns & Stearns, 1985), that is, attitudes that members of an inter-organizational information systems (IOIS) project hold toward emotions and their appropriate expression and regulation in this project. In order to understand attitudes toward emotions and emotion regulation, we suggest the adoption of the concept of emotion structure, consisting of emotion rules and resources (Callahan, 2004).
Methodology/approach
To investigate the kinds of emotionologies present in this IOIS development project, we have chosen a qualitative case study approach. Our data consists of 41 qualitative interviews, collected in two phases.
Findings
We trace how emotion rules and corresponding emotion regulation strategies change among the sub-groups working in the project throughout their first year of collaborating. We show that organizational actors are skilled emotion managers, whose behavior is guided not only by many collective emotion rules (professional, organizational, social) but also by personal emotion rules. Our findings also suggest the need to critically reflect on certain emotion rules, such as those pertaining to the expression of fear and anger, and their potential positive and negative implications on project work.
Research implications
We argue that group emotionologies with their professional, organizational, and social emotion rules interact with personal emotion rules, resulting in interesting emotion regulation strategies that often try to minimize emotional dissonance, sometimes at the expense of risking open conflict among project members. With this in mind, one theoretical and practical suggestion is to further explore the potential constructive implications of experiencing and expressing fear in projects.
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Nicole Cockburn, Lisa Schubert, Nam-Phuong Quoc Nguyen and Pauline Ford
Australian sales of hyperpalatable beverages (HPB) (a term used to describe naturally or artificially sweet beverages) have followed a consistent upward trend since 2000. The…
Abstract
Purpose
Australian sales of hyperpalatable beverages (HPB) (a term used to describe naturally or artificially sweet beverages) have followed a consistent upward trend since 2000. The purpose of this paper is to examine HPB brand placements in the top 20 annual highest grossing movies in Australia in 2010-2014.
Design/methodology/approach
A content analysis was undertaken on the 20 highest grossing movies annually from 2010 to 2014. Movies were analysed according to the prevalence and portrayal of branded beverages.
Findings
In total, 35 per cent of movies contained an HPB brand placement. Movies were more likely to be classified M, MA15+, R/R18+, and categorised as comedy, or action/adventure genre. Soft drinks were the most prevalent category (60.9 per cent), and Coca Cola Company manufactured 40.6 per cent of the brands that were embedded throughout the movies.
Originality/value
This study revealed some of industry’s non-direct marketing strategies through HPB placement in movies. Findings suggest that further scrutiny is needed of the relatively underresearched medium of beverage advertising.
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Nicole Andreini, Veronica Boniotti, Daniela Scuticchio, Annamaria Bianco and Marco O. Bertelli
In persons with an intellectual developmental disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are often difficult to differentiate, particularly…
Abstract
Purpose
In persons with an intellectual developmental disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are often difficult to differentiate, particularly when patients present major communication difficulties and low accessibility to subjective symptoms and clinicians are poorly trained in the specific psychopathological phenomenology. OCD and ASD share some important symptoms such as repetitiveness of behaviours, low flexibility to contextual variations or a narrow range of interests. The purpose of this study is to identify and describe symptomatological specificities, including how they manifest at behavioural level.
Design/methodology/approach
The present study is a retrospective case series study (n = 3) focusing on in-depth assessment, detection and comprehension of symptomatological specificities as well as on the direct observation of behavioural symptoms.
Findings
Some symptoms such as signs of sudden autonomous nervous system activation or behavioural equivalents of obsessive thoughts are crucial in achieving an effective differential or comorbidity diagnosis. These symptoms can be identified through a multidisciplinary and comprehensive evaluation, integrating present clinical and test findings with a thorough developmental and medical history. Symptoms should also be interpreted in the light of antecedent, contextual and personal factors.
Originality/value
Differential diagnosis between OCD and ASD in persons with major cognitive and communication issues is a rather neglected research area, although it has significant implications for treatment planning and implementation.
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Lee T. Barnum, Karl A. Groskaufmanis and Nicole R. Love
To explain and analyze the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission’s complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against AT&T Inc. alleging…
Abstract
Purpose
To explain and analyze the U.S Securities and Exchange Commission’s complaint filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against AT&T Inc. alleging repeated violations of Regulation FD (Fair Disclosure), and against three of AT&T’s Investor Relations executives for aiding and abetting those violations.
Design/Methodology/Approach
Describes the SEC’s allegations and AT&T’s response and recommends practice points that issuers and their legal counsel can draw from the enforcement action.
Findings
The SEC’s suit against AT&T and its three IR executives serves as an important reminder that the SEC remains committed to ensuring the full and fair disclosure of information by issuers and is willing to litigate Regulation FD-based enforcement actions when it deems necessary.
Practical Implications
Every public company must develop systems to manage selective disclosure risks in its investor relations program.
Originality/Value
Practical guidance from experienced corporate governance, litigation, capital markets, securities enforcement and regulation lawyers.
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Bianca Maria van Niekerk, Mornay Roberts-Lombard and Nicole Cunningham
This study aims to explore the impact of store atmospherics on urban bottom-of-the-pyramid consumers’ behavioural intentions to purchase apparel in an emerging African market…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the impact of store atmospherics on urban bottom-of-the-pyramid consumers’ behavioural intentions to purchase apparel in an emerging African market context. This study also considers purchase antecedents to attitude, perceived behavioural control and social norms as determinants of urban bottom-of-the-pyramid consumers’ apparel behavioural intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
Using non-probability sampling, specifically purposive and interlocking sampling, data collection was secured from 881 economically active Namibian urban bottom-of-the-pyramid respondents through interviewer-administered questionnaires. Covariance-based structural equation modelling assessed the significant relationships among all constructs in the conceptual model.
Findings
This study found that for favourable apparel behavioural intentions of urban bottom-of-the-pyramid consumers to occur, apparel retailers should emphasise trust, perceived awareness and self-identity through apparel assortment and groupings, easy-to-read visible signage, together with competent, friendly and respectful sales personnel in their store atmospherics.
Practical implications
The findings of this study may guide apparel retailers in other emerging African markets to develop regional integration, market-based solutions and inclusive economic growth focusing on “non-essential” products, such as apparel, among urban bottom-of-the-pyramid consumers.
Originality/value
This study expands the intellectual boundaries of urban bottom-of-the-pyramid consumers’ behavioural intentions towards “non-essential” products. The theoretical framework supports the integration of both the stimulus-organism-response model and the theory of planned behaviour into one single model for empirical investigation. Additionally, adopting a novel theoretical framework helped identify the impact of store atmospherics from a bottom-of-the-pyramid perspective in an emerging African market context, such as Namibia.