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Book part
Publication date: 16 January 2023

David Coghlan and Paul Coughlan

Reflecting on 25 years of collaborating in action learning research initiatives in interorganizational settings, the authors have framed three key theoretical contributions: (1) a…

Abstract

Reflecting on 25 years of collaborating in action learning research initiatives in interorganizational settings, the authors have framed three key theoretical contributions: (1) a formula for action learning in networks, (2) the notion of action learning research, and (3) the application of action learning research in networks. This chapter reviews how each of these three key theoretical contributions emerged as insights and were developed over time through three large-scale funded interorganizational action learning projects. The chapter provides insights into the process of theorizing as the authors show how these frameworks emerged through inquiry into experience and were consolidated through collaborative action as practice-based research, research as practice, and practice as research toward designed-in impact.

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Book part
Publication date: 8 April 2005

David Coghlan and Paul Coughlan

Increasingly, competition is moving from inter-company rivalry to that between supply chains and networks. In the field of manufacturing, such collaboration between companies may…

Abstract

Increasingly, competition is moving from inter-company rivalry to that between supply chains and networks. In the field of manufacturing, such collaboration between companies may develop into an Extended Manufacturing Enterprise (EME), a chain or network comprising all the relevant functions of the partners. EME competitiveness depends on how effective the partner companies are as innovative and knowledge creative players within dynamic, complex integrated networks. The CO-IMPROVE project explores this premise, focusing in particular, on the learning required to enhance collaborative improvement of the performance of EMEs and among researchers. The CO-IMPROVE project was undertaken in Europe through a collaborative research approach where the researchers were both managing the project and studying it at the same time. The company networks were comprised of the managers from the system integrators and their suppliers, while the researcher network was comprised of academic researchers and the system integrator managers working in outsider-insider researcher teams. This chapter identifies emergent challenges in collaboration in both settings and explores implications for such collaboration.

Details

Research in Organizational Change and Development
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-0-76231-167-5

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Article
Publication date: 13 May 2014

Bruce Gurd and Panayiotis Ifandoudas

– The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how agility as a central focus of an organization can be achieved through a modified balanced scorecard (BSC) system.

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Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how agility as a central focus of an organization can be achieved through a modified balanced scorecard (BSC) system.

Design/methodology/approach

An action research approach in a single organization is used to investigate the practicality and usefulness of an agility-focused BSC.

Findings

While the theory of constraints (TOC)-based approach was improving agility, it is too short-term. Using a BSC, based on agility principles, staff in the organization had their direction focused on drivers of important strategic issues and enabled a more agile environment.

Practical implications

Managers using the TOC have a way forward to use the TOC system, but build a performance measurement system that leads to agility and more sustained competitive advantage.

Originality/value

The role of a BSC in enabling agility in an environment using TOC has not been previously investigated.

Details

Measuring Business Excellence, vol. 18 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1368-3047

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Article
Publication date: 30 September 2011

Manuel F. Suárez‐Barraza, Juan Ramis‐Pujol and Fernando Sándoval‐Arzaga

In recent years, small family businesses in Mexico have come under enormous pressure from their external environment: this has resulted in serious problems affecting the running…

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Abstract

Purpose

In recent years, small family businesses in Mexico have come under enormous pressure from their external environment: this has resulted in serious problems affecting the running of their businesses, leading ultimately to a drop off in sales, customers and market share. Some have attempted to respond to this environment by using the Japanese approach of kaizen (meaning continuous improvement). The purpose of this paper is to ask if the kaizen approach is implemented in a specific environment such as that of small family businesses in Mexico.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, qualitative research was conducted using case studies as the research strategy. Two small, family‐run Mexican businesses were selected and studied (a restaurant and hotel) and a retrospective focus was adopted; four methods were used to gather data: direct observation; participative observation; documentary analysis; and semi‐structured interviews.

Findings

The findings of the three case studies show that the kaizen approach can be applied to small family businesses in Mexico, but that the degree of implementation depends on the evolutionary stage of each family business. Consequently, for this first exploratory study, it was found that, in the start‐up stage, only the First Guiding Principle of kaizen was observed, along with some indications for the Fourth Guiding Principle. Whereas for the expansion stage, the consolidated presence of the Second, Fourth and Fifth Guiding Principle of kaizen was observed. Finally, it was possible to identify certain techniques and tools at every stage in addition to the Guiding Principle. In closing, the exploratory study made it possible to investigate the major enablers and inhibitors that a family business goes through.

Research limitations/implications

Research was based in two case studies. However, rather than seeking empirical generalisation, the research tried to examine and explore how the kaizen approach is applied in a specific environment such as that of a sports organisation dedicated to football in Mexico.

Practical implications

The paper aspires to be of interest as much to researchers as to professionals in the family business context, whether they have top management responsibilities or are middle managers, and also to all those employees whose work is related to this sector, with the aim of understanding the management of small family businesses in Mexico from the kaizen perspective.

Originality/value

A review of academic and practitioner literature on the subject indicated that implementation of the kaizen approach in family businesses had scarcely begun to be explored. It is also significant that in Mexico and Latin America, examples of the implementation of this kind of approach are practically non‐existent in academic literature on family businesses.

Details

Journal of Family Business Management, vol. 1 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2043-6238

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Book part
Publication date: 12 March 2019

Hamed Fazlollahtabar and Mohammad Saidi-Mehrabad

Abstract

Details

Cost Engineering and Pricing in Autonomous Manufacturing Systems
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78973-469-0

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Article
Publication date: 1 March 1994

C.A. Voss, V. Chiesa and P. Coughlan

Sets out to examine two questions: first, can an academic‐based approachcontribute to benchmarking and self assessment and, second, can tools bedeveloped for use in manufacturing…

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Abstract

Sets out to examine two questions: first, can an academic‐based approach contribute to benchmarking and self assessment and, second, can tools be developed for use in manufacturing, in particular those to do with technology management. Proposes and tests a procedure for developing and evaluating benchmarking tools and frameworks. Illustrates this with the development of an overall technology management framework and detailed frameworks and tools for process technology and innovation management.

Details

International Journal of Operations & Production Management, vol. 14 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3577

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Article
Publication date: 28 January 2025

Gustavo Bagni, Josadak Astorino Marçola, Edmundo Escrivão Filho, Marcelo Seido Nagano and Luiz Philippsen

The purpose of this study is to propose a comprehensive model of a hybrid organizational structure through action research, aiming to fill a gap in the literature on…

26

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to propose a comprehensive model of a hybrid organizational structure through action research, aiming to fill a gap in the literature on organizational structure implementation. The focus is on designing a model that integrates structural elements (centralization and specialization) and a non-structural element (competence), emphasizing operational efficiency and innovation capacity. The study was conducted in the production scheduling and control department (PSC) of a manufacturing company, with quantitative results demonstrating the feasibility of the proposed model.

Design/methodology/approach

The study employs an action research approach to develop a hybrid organizational structure model in three phases comprising ten steps. It focuses on integrating structured elements like centralization and specialization, alongside a non-structural component, competence. The research was conducted within the PSC of a manufacturing firm. This methodological framework facilitates the systematic design and implementation of the organizational structure model, allowing for a comprehensive analysis of its impact on performance indicators.

Findings

The quantitative results of the action research revealed a 3% increase in Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE) and a 4% improvement in On Time/In Full (OTIF) performance metrics. These findings demonstrate the effectiveness and feasibility of the hybrid organizational structure model implemented in the PSC. The structured elements (centralization and specialization) combined with the non-structural element (competence) contributed to enhancing operational efficiency and meeting production goals, underscoring the significance of aligning organizational structure with strategic objectives for improved performance in dynamic competitive environments.

Originality/value

This study contributes to the literature by addressing the gap in research on implementing organizational structures. It offers a novel approach through action research, proposing a comprehensive model of a hybrid organizational structure. By integrating structured elements (centralization and specialization) with a non-structural element (competence), the model enhances operational efficiency and innovation capacity. The quantitative findings demonstrate the model’s effectiveness in improving performance metrics, emphasizing its value in guiding organizational design processes. This research underscores the importance of aligning organizational structures with strategic objectives to foster competitiveness and adaptability in dynamic business environments.

Details

Business Process Management Journal, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-7154

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Book part
Publication date: 10 May 2016

Anna Tarrant

To demonstrate how generational as well as gendered identities impacted on researcher-researched relationships built during the interview process, engendering specific insights…

Abstract

Purpose

To demonstrate how generational as well as gendered identities impacted on researcher-researched relationships built during the interview process, engendering specific insights about contemporary British grandfathering.

Methodology/approach

An ‘ad-hoc’ reflection of interview transcripts and researcher field notes generated from 31 qualitative interviews with men who are grandfathers, to reflexively interrogate how various identity markers operated within my encounters with them, as a young female researcher.

Findings

Men positioned me within a grandparent-grandchild relationship during the interviews, which afforded specific insights into contemporary grandfatherhood, including the socio-historical context in which grandfathering takes place. Whilst perceptions and assumptions about gender influence how participants perceive researchers, focusing too rigidly on gender is problematic. It risks re-enforcing potentially stereotypical assumptions about men and women, thus downplaying the contradictions and paradoxes inherent in men’s constructions and performances of their diverse later life identities, as well as obscuring the complex intersectionalities and power relations that operate in the field.

Originality/value

To argue that the concept of ‘betweenness’ aids in developing a more robust understanding of the complex and knowable negotiations of similarity and difference within research encounters.

Details

Gender Identity and Research Relationships
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78635-025-1

Keywords

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Article
Publication date: 24 April 2019

Brian A. Rutherford

The received wisdom on classical accounting thought is that its early stages were methodologically vacuous, while, in its “golden” age, it espoused the methods and philosophical…

346

Abstract

Purpose

The received wisdom on classical accounting thought is that its early stages were methodologically vacuous, while, in its “golden” age, it espoused the methods and philosophical commitments of received-view hypothetico-deductivism but actually remained methodologically incoherent. The purpose of this paper is to argue, to the contrary, that classical accounting thought possesses a coherent constitutional structure that qualifies as a methodology and unifies it as a body of argument.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper draws on Cartwright’s metaphysical nomological pluralism, which holds that we should attend to the actual practices of successful inquiry and the methodologies and metaphysical presuppositions that support it.

Findings

The paper argues that accounting does achieve disciplinary success and that classical accounting thought, using the methodology of defeasible postulationism, provides the theoretical infrastructure that supports that success. The accounting domain is a world of “dappled realism”, in which theories are useful in the construction of reporting schemes and inform our understanding of the nature of the domain.

Research limitations/implications

Applying metaphysical nomological pluralism rescues classical accounting thought from the charge of methodological incoherence and metaphysical naivety.

Originality/value

The paper justifies a place for classical accounting theorising in the endeavours of modern accounting scholarship and moves the analysis of classical accounting thought within a philosophy of science framework towards an approach with a contemporary resonance.

Details

Meditari Accountancy Research, vol. 27 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2049-372X

Keywords

Available. Open Access. Open Access
Article
Publication date: 20 December 2019

Suzi Elen Ferreira Dias, Edson Sadao Iizuka and Eduardo Pinto Vilas Boas

The purpose of this paper is to understand the theoretical discussion of effectuation since the seminal paper in 2001 and to propose an agenda for future studies.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to understand the theoretical discussion of effectuation since the seminal paper in 2001 and to propose an agenda for future studies.

Design/methodology/approach

Systematic literature review and content analysis of 71 papers.

Findings

Most papers performed a replication of the concepts empirically, and few studies proposed to understand theoretical aspects of effectuation, among them, some authors presented theoretical advances to improve the approach and others participated in an ongoing debate that shows there is no consensus on whether the approach is theory or if considered, appears to be under construction at a rudimentary level or being questioned.

Research limitations/implications

The method requires authors to make choices, so the database used and the criteria defined for searching papers that were analyzed are the main limitations of this research.

Practical implications

The authors suggest that researchers, teachers and practitioners use effectuation analytically and reflectively.

Social implications

The authors present and analyze the current theoretical debate on effectuation. Results suggest the need for new discussions about the concepts, as well as new theoretical efforts of the researchers to analyze the potentialities and limitations of this approach.

Originality/value

Among empirical and applied research, with replications of the concepts of effectuation, this research contributes to a theoretical discussion based on a systematic literature review, seeking to bring new reflections about this approach. Additionally, the authors present an agenda of theoretical gaps for the development of future research.

Details

Innovation & Management Review, vol. 17 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2515-8961

Keywords

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