With strategy, it is better to imitate the powerful rather than the common or imaginary — and if one applies Machiavelli's clinical stance of cold reality to analyzing the ways of…
Abstract
With strategy, it is better to imitate the powerful rather than the common or imaginary — and if one applies Machiavelli's clinical stance of cold reality to analyzing the ways of powerful companies, one sees machinations rooted in behavior manipulation and the orchestrating of upper hands. This article works with a political concept of strategy and uses strategy themes of Intel and Microsoft to demonstrate how objectives are achieved through the use of scheme and premeditation. The author works beneath the rhetorical coverings to get at the true behavior in effective strategy. He describes the use of power over another company or over customer groups to get those parties to behave in ways that suit the manipulator, and how the forces of politics play out in the pursuit of corporate goals.
Details
Keywords
This article discusses power and resistance in commercial environments. It finds that a company's ability to realize its goals (fulfill its strategy) is a function of its ability…
Abstract
Purpose
This article discusses power and resistance in commercial environments. It finds that a company's ability to realize its goals (fulfill its strategy) is a function of its ability to deal with resistance; to recognize it first of all, and then to find ways to overcome it, which inevitably involve the use of power in some form.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper examines strategies used by pharmaceutical companies for getting drugs prescribed, programs by credit card companies to defeat resistance to card proliferation, and strategies by software companies to overcome resistance in OEMs to product acceptance.
Findings
The author concludes that the success of the products/companies studied is explained by their capacity for overcoming resistance, that it cannot be attributed to a compelling vision statement, or a five‐year plan, a competitive analysis, or any of the other strategy approaches used by the majority of companies.
Practical implications
All companies, presumably, have goals, and all companies operate in power‐dependent environments, and all companies, whether they recognize it or not, face resistance beyond the existence of competitors. The key is to be able to see resistance, and to understand how it is manifesting itself against a specific goal.
Originality/value
The thesis of the paper is important to practitioners because it gets them thinking about resistance beyond the existence of competitors. It reveals other, more powerful sources of opposition, and gives them a new platform for strategy based on finding power over resistance.
Details
Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to provide an in-depth consideration of the color line in the US music market, much deeper treatment than that of a superficial social construct.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide an in-depth consideration of the color line in the US music market, much deeper treatment than that of a superficial social construct.
Design/methodology/approach
Content analysis was performed using archives from the Performing Arts Division of the New York Public Library.
Findings
A complex intersection of social and capitalist influences is fueled by culture and economics, filtered through the contributions of artists and media. Six major categories: social, media, artist, culture, industry, and economics contribute to its development and propagation. It continues to affect contemporary music markets.
Research limitations/implications
Interpretation of archival data is subject to availability of material and subjectivity of the researcher. Steps were taken to minimize bias. The research implies an opportunity for the US music market to celebrate diversity and social justice.
Practical implications
Focusing on the symbolic use of music, marketers have the opportunity to empower consumers to embrace diversity, reversing the trajectory of the color line.
Social implications
Embracing cultural heritage and celebrating diversity can promote economic gain without detriment to cultural interests.
Originality/value
The present research provides a much deeper consideration of the color line in the American Music Market than previous literature does. The consideration includes a combination of forces, from profit focused to cultural.
Details
Keywords
The chapter is an auto-ethnographic account of the self-management of a chronic illness within the context of a participatory research project on Mediterranean Diet (MD). A group…
Abstract
Purpose
The chapter is an auto-ethnographic account of the self-management of a chronic illness within the context of a participatory research project on Mediterranean Diet (MD). A group of Italian women with type 2 diabetes is following a non-medical, personal interpretation of the Mediterranean-style diet. The research account is preceded by a critical appraisal of the scientific narratives of the MD.
Methodology/approach
Analysis of epidemiological research on MD examines some methodological aspects of gender blindness in its scientific approach. The ethnography concerns self-management of MD diet and redefinition of gender relations.
Findings
MD is analyzed as a case of transplantation of yesterday’s cultural and social capitals of the peasant classes, to today’s discourses on food considered as appropriate for affluent people suffering from satiety diseases. The ethnography highlights gender aspects of biographical work, examining in particular a “conversion” dietary model.
Research limitations
The ethnography must be amplified to include women and men from different social classes with various Mediterranean cooking habits, and family and gender patterns.
Practical implications
The chapter highlights cultural processes for women’s empowerment in self-managing type 2 diabetes.
Originality/value
This chapter may represent a seminal sociological work on chronic illness, gender and food studies in one of the “native” contexts of the Mediterranean-style diet.
Details
Keywords
Sonia Coman and Damon J. Phillips
We propose that the ambiguity of discourse around a category – rather than being problematic – improves the longevity of that category. This is especially true in the creative…
Abstract
We propose that the ambiguity of discourse around a category – rather than being problematic – improves the longevity of that category. This is especially true in the creative industries. Using methods and theories drawn from sociology and art history, we tested this thesis using swing as a case study. Based on three years of archival research we found 70 co-existing definitions of swing and 89 different uses of the term. These multiple meanings enabled various understandings to come in and out of focus over time, contributing to swing’s longevity. Our findings extend to other categories within the creative industries.
Details
Keywords
The objective of this paper is to extend the study of new product development speed in the marketing discipline. The article outlines a conceptual framework to organize and guide…
Abstract
The objective of this paper is to extend the study of new product development speed in the marketing discipline. The article outlines a conceptual framework to organize and guide future theoretical and empirical research. A set of propositions is developed which focus on the antecedents and outcomes of new product development speed germane to the discipline of marketing. The article discusses how both infrastructural factors (bureaucratic structure and adhocratic culture) and procedural factors (organizational control and interfunctional coordination) affect new product development speed. It also discusses the impact of new product development speed on performance factors internal to the organization (organizational learning and organizational stress). Research contributions and research directions are addressed.
Details
Keywords
This paper aims to examine the structure and dynamics of scholarly publications dealing with Wikipedia. The research also aims to investigate how such research evolved since its…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the structure and dynamics of scholarly publications dealing with Wikipedia. The research also aims to investigate how such research evolved since its launch in 2001.
Design/methodology/approach
Wikipedia has grown to be the biggest online encyclopedia in terms of comprehensiveness, reach and coverage. Based on 1,040 PubMed Wikipedia documents written by 5,280 authors over two decades (2001–2021), this paper conducts a bibliometric review of the intellectual structure of scholarly publications dealing with Wikipedia.
Findings
Results show that annual scholarly publications on Wikipedia growth rate is 13.26. Major outlets publishing Wikipedia’s research are PloS One, the Journal of Medical Internet Research, Nucleic Acids Research, Studies in Health Technology and Informatics, Bioinformatics and the International Journal of Medical Informatics. Results also show that the author collaboration network is very sparse, signifying rather negligible collaboration among the authors. Furthermore, results reveal that the Wikipedia research institutions’ collaboration network reflects what is sometimes termed Wikipedia’s “North-South divide,” indicating limited collaboration between rich and poor nations’ institutions. Finally, the multiple correspondence analysis applied to obtain the Wikipedia research conceptual map and its intellectual structure reveals the intellectual thrust and the diversity of the scholarly publications dealing with Wikipedia.
Originality/value
To the best of the author’s knowledge, this research represents the first application of bibliometric methods to investigate two decades of scholarly publications dealing with Wikipedia based on the PubMed database.