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1 – 10 of 88The present study aims to contribute to the understanding of digital participation in heritage collections as a democratizing practice by identifying and challenging silent…
Abstract
Purpose
The present study aims to contribute to the understanding of digital participation in heritage collections as a democratizing practice by identifying and challenging silent assumptions concerning how the insufficient influence of participants is conceived of as a problem.
Design/methodology/approach
Three carefully selected scholarly texts incorporating problematizations of insufficient participatory agency were analyzed in detail using a method inspired by Carol Bacchi's approach “what's the problem represented to be?” (WPR), with special emphasis on analysis of ontological elements of the problematizations.
Findings
Participation is problematized based on the assumption that participatory agency risks jeopardizing the protection of heritage and leads to parts of the public memory being forgotten. To challenge the idea that participatory agency is destructive, the present article argues for elaborating an understanding of what forgetting entails for heritage. Framing forgetting as a potentially both harmful and generative concept enables a separation of destructive forgetting (e.g. destruction of historical evidence) and constructive forgetting (re-contextualization).
Research limitations/implications
The study is based on a limited number of texts, and problematizations are investigated in relation to a specific perspective on participatory agency.
Practical implications
By understanding forgetting as a potentially beneficial activity for representation and heritage construction, the article provides a conceptual rationale for facilitating re-contextualization in the design of multi-layered information structures for heritage collections.
Originality/value
There is little earlier research on the silent assumptions that affect how participation is understood and implemented.
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Elisabeth Berg, Christina Mörtberg and Maria Jansson
This article aims to focus attention on users of information technology (IT), especially mobile telephony. It focuses on what people actually say about mobile technology but also…
Abstract
Purpose
This article aims to focus attention on users of information technology (IT), especially mobile telephony. It focuses on what people actually say about mobile technology but also aims to pay attention to what they do not talk about, what is found in the silence, especially with new technology when much can be taken for granted. This latter is, according to Foucault, even more important to understand.
Design/methodology/approach
The research draws on empirical research through 11 semi‐structured interviews and interviews with five focus groups, comprising between four and eight care assistants in each group. The interviews were with three women and three men between 25‐70 years old, five female public sector middle managers and care assistants from five focus groups at social services departments in the north of Sweden. A Foucauldian approach is adopted to interpret the findings and explore how their locations within the circuits of socio‐technical networks engender uncertainty with mobile technology. The present spread of IT reinforces a belief that people are integrated into the circuits of socio‐technical networks.
Findings
The findings suggest, on the one hand, that new technologies like mobile communication can be used to organise our everyday lives, whilst, on the other, there are risks with the new technologies, which can discipline discourses.
Originality/value
These issues are discussed from a sociological and informatics perspective.
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Maria Ivanova-Gongne and Lasse Torkkeli
This paper aims to investigate the role of culture in managerial sensemaking and conceptualization of business networking.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to investigate the role of culture in managerial sensemaking and conceptualization of business networking.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors apply qualitative methodology through the sensemaking approach on three Finnish and three Russian managers in mutual buyer–supplier business relationship dyads.
Findings
The results imply that the cultural background of the manager determines his perception of the level at which business networking occurs. Finnish managers conceptualize business networking as an organizational strategy, whereas their Russian counterparts conceptualize the phenomenon squarely at the individual level.
Research limitations/implications
The authors suggest that the underlying cause of the differences in the conceptualization of networking may be that Finnish business networking relies more on concepts derived from Western European business culture, whereas Russian networking relies more on the traditional culture. Consequently, they suggest that the concept of business networking in extant research may suffer from ethnocentricity. Limitations of the study include the limited extent of generalizations from its qualitative nature.
Practical implications
The results imply that business network relationships should be managed differently in different cultures, and that depending on the cultural background of the business partner, managing both the organizational and the individual levels of business networking is needed.
Originality/value
The study contributes to limited literature on culture and the role of individuals in managerial conceptualization of business networking. This is one of the rare studies to illustrate differences through individual sensemaking on both sides of the relationship dyad and account for both Western European and Russian market environments.
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An Thi Binh Duong, Uyen My Diep, Paulo Sampaio, Maria Carvalho, Hai Thanh Pham, Thu-Hang Hoang, Dung Quang Truong and Huy Quang Truong
This research aims to specialise in the investigation of risk management for service-oriented manufacturing supply chains via two stages, highlighting its differences from…
Abstract
Purpose
This research aims to specialise in the investigation of risk management for service-oriented manufacturing supply chains via two stages, highlighting its differences from manufacturing. The research article is commenced by executing an encyclopedic review of earlier research to ascertain the distinctive traits of service-oriented manufacturing supply chains and identify prevalent risks. Secondly, an empirical study in the construction field, amongst the industry hardest struck in the mist of the COVID-19 epidemic, is conducted to thoroughly inspect the resonant effect of these risks on service-oriented manufacturing supply chain performance.
Design/methodology/approach
In this study, to validate the resonant effect mechanism, a thorough assessment is undertaken by juxtaposing theoretical model to a newly constructed comparative model that encompasses the single effects of risks on supply chain performance.
Findings
63% variance of service-oriented manufacturing supply chain performance was showcased by the resonant effect model, compared with 46.3% in the comparative model. Moreover, each risk exerts a more glaringly significant impact on supply chain performance, asserting the mechanism of the resonant influence. Another noteworthy result involves the demand risk possessing a low effect on supply chain performance, thus emphasising the superiority of service-oriented manufacturing supply chains.
Research limitations/implications
Future research endeavours should hinge on the optimal “resonant” model explosion, thereby foreseeing and alleviating worst-case scenarios to guarantee the robustness and resilience of supply chain networks.
Practical implications
Indubitably, reducing the intensity of the resonant effect revolves around lowering the coefficient of “a,” thereby restricting/eliminating the link among risks. Therefore, the suggested resonant impact model might thus serve as “a road map”. In light of the aforementioned considerations, it is advisable that supply chain executives employ supply chain management tactics namely avoidance, prediction, and postponement, but only after meticulous consideration the costs and benefits of adopting such strategies.
Originality/value
The service-oriented manufacturing supply chain features and advantages have been analysed and explained throughout the article. The data gathered during the COVID-19 pandemic is a captivating and topical point of this paper.
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Maria Flavia Mogos, Anna Fredriksson and Erlend Alfnes
This paper aims to develop a procedure for preparing production transfers based on risk management principles. The procedure should help companies reduce the amount of supply…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to develop a procedure for preparing production transfers based on risk management principles. The procedure should help companies reduce the amount of supply chain disruptions during transfers and achieve their outsourcing/offshoring objectives.
Design/methodology/approach
The procedure was developed during a three-year Design Science study. First, a literature review and case studies were conducted to frame the research problem. Second, a preliminary procedure was developed based on preventive risk mitigation actions from the production transfer literature. Third, the procedure was implemented during an electronics-offshoring case and refined during workshops with the sender and receiver’s transfer personnel. Fourth, during a seminar, transfer practitioners verified the procedure by applying it to outsourcing/offshoring cases with which they had experience.
Findings
Most of the preventive actions were evaluated as relevant for the transfers the procedure was applied to, regardless of industry and relocation type. Moreover, the electronics-offshoring case showed that the success of a production transfer not only depends on the physical, knowledge and supply chain transfers, as presented in earlier research, but also on the administrative transfer and on the organisation, project and quality management actions. This paper also attempts to enhance the production transfer literature by clarifying transfer risk management.
Practical implications
The procedure can be used during the production transfer phase as a preparation procedure. Moreover, it informs the decision-making process during the relocation-decision and supplier-selection phases.
Originality/value
To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first production-transfer-preparation procedure based on risk management principles.
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Guido Bortoluzzi, Maria Chiarvesio, Eleonora Di Maria and Raffaella Tabacco
The purpose of this paper is to understand whether and how specific capabilities at the firm level can sustain firms during the process of international expansion in emerging…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand whether and how specific capabilities at the firm level can sustain firms during the process of international expansion in emerging markets (EMs).
Design/methodology/approach
A quantitative study was carried out, and the authors analyzed data from a sample of 271 manufacturing firms. A logistic regression was used to check for differences in the endowment of resources and capabilities of firms solely focussing on advanced markets (AMs) or extending their international scope to EMs as well.
Findings
Firms that expanded their business in EMs showed a significantly higher endowment of international experience and marketing capabilities compared with firms that focussed only on AMs. The authors found that the size of the firm is irrelevant: even small firms can reach EMs by leveraging an appropriate set of capabilities.
Research limitations/implications
The study is cross-sectional and cannot provide a longitudinal view of the process of capability development. Future research will be needed to detail the process of capability development during the international expansion of firms into EMs.
Practical implications
Regardless of size, firms that plan to enter EMs should develop specific capabilities, especially marketing capabilities, to increase the likelihood of success. Already internationalized firms have a considerable advantage due to the knowledge they have accumulated in other markets.
Originality/value
This paper advances understanding of the process of the international expansion of firms in EMs from a resource-based perspective.
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Maria Flavia Mogos, Anna Fredriksson, Erlend Alfnes and Jan Ola Strandhagen
This paper explores the operationalization of production network coordination – the production transfer (PT) – and the relationships between transfer risk sources, preventive…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper explores the operationalization of production network coordination – the production transfer (PT) – and the relationships between transfer risk sources, preventive actions, supply chain disruptions, corrective actions and losses to better understand how to mitigate the risk and achieve an effective transfer process.
Design/methodology/approach
A longitudinal field study of a PT process from Norway to Spain was studied in depth for 25 months.
Findings
The paper presents the implications of three areas of importance for PT success: (1) how the transfer influences the plant roles, (2) the cross-locational management of the transfer project at the sender and receiver and (3) whether adapting the transferred production to the receiver's environment is an enabler or an inhibitor of transfer success.
Practical implications
The findings about how to mitigate the transfer risk and the frameworks of risk sources, supply chain disruptions, losses and preventive and corrective actions, along with the examples from the in-depth study, can aid the practitioners in managing PTs and achieving the relocation goals.
Originality/value
This is one of the first studies of PT, which is from the perspective of both transfer parties, and addresses both preventive and corrective actions and all the transfer phases. Moreover, this study addresses the operational aspects of production network coordination, which received limited attention in earlier research.
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Bastian Jørgensen and Jannick Schou
This paper examines how digital reforms affect the relationship between frontline workers and citizens in Danish public sector institutions. Using ethnographic research in two…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper examines how digital reforms affect the relationship between frontline workers and citizens in Danish public sector institutions. Using ethnographic research in two branches of public administration, the study highlights how frontline workers act in accordance with seemingly contradictory modes of ordering. Their acts problematize linear conceptualizations of change that often prevail in digital reforms.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is based on a comparative ethnographic study of frontline workers in the Danish tax and customs administration and municipal citizen service centers. The concept of modes of ordering is used to highlight new tensions that arise as frontline workers adapt to make digital reforms work.
Findings
Frontline workers act according to two different modes of ordering based on the separation between helping citizens help themselves and helping citizens directly. National policies and strategies promote the underlying rationale of the first mode but, as this paper shows, this mode is sustained by a second mode, which involves the intervention of professionals when citizens cannot be helped to help themselves.
Originality/value
The paper, which contributes to our understanding of how digitalization is changing public administrations and the relationship between frontline workers and citizens, challenges applying a linear, technocratic focus in discourses on public sector digitalization and highlights the contradictory practices of frontline work. It demonstrates the necessity of going beyond policy narratives and calls for increased attention to how frontline workers adapt to make reforms work.
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