Conjunctural causation in comparative case-oriented research

This article highlights one of the major benefits of qualitative comparative methodology as applied within a “small-N” research design, namely its potential use for specifying the scope conditions of (theoretically competing) causal mechanisms. It is argued that the identification of set-theoretic relationships, multiple paths, and analytic efforts in typological mapping can make valuable contributions to the elaboration and further development of middle-range theory.     

美国绩效评估研究中度量传统简析

本文从工作绩效的范围、工作绩效的维度、对管理者绩效的描述、绩效评估工具与程序的开发四个方面对美国绩效评估中度量传统的重要研究成果加以介绍,并提出度量传统的视角过于单一,不能充分体现评估过程中多因素的互动关系。     

Factual and modal notions in social research

The article discusses a distinction between factual and modal notions, and corresponding generalizations, in social research. The discussion starts from the suggestion, made by Charles Ragin, that theoretical statements in social research most often can be formulated as statements about sets of cases and relations between such sets. In contrast to this view, it is argued that theoretical statements in social research often require modal notions referring to possibilities and probabilities which cannot be formulated as statements about sets of cases. In order to show this, the article reformulates Ragin’s set-theoretic approach in the conceptual framework of statistical variables. It is shown that this can be done for both crisp and fuzzy set versions of Ragin’s approach. The article then goes on to argue that social research is often interested in modal generalizations (probabilistic and deterministic rules) which require a fundamentally different conceptual framework. The article shows how such a framework can be defined, and finally indicates its usage for causal interpretations.     

食品行业冷链物流研究

随着经济的发展、人们生活水平的提高，人们的食品消费观念从传统单一向现代的多样、快捷化变化，尤其中国加入WTO给中国的食品物流带来了新的发展空间，面对顾客提出的各种要求，食品行业应尽快从传统物流向现代的供应链物流转变，对于易腐食品，建立冷链物流，本文将对食品行业的冷链物流进行研究。     

透过当代美国华裔女性文学看女性身份书写

20世纪70年代,随着当代美国华裔文学的繁荣,当代美国华裔女性主义文学也开辟出了自己的新领域。华裔女性作家在自身族裔文化传统与西方经典文学传统结合的特定的历史境遇中,从华裔女性的切身体验出发而创作的富有女性意识、女性经验、女性书写的文学体系。丰富了我们对女性身份的认知,并为美国华裔及亚裔研究做出了自己独特的贡献。     

Two Hundred Years of Accounting Research

Recent investigations suggest that research assessments are mainly based on publication counts and journal level and, hence, fail at capturing the multifaceted nature of research performance. Instead, some commentators indicate that focus on the article's contribution would stimulate a more polycentric approach to research. In the current study we investigate the role of an article's contribution on its citations. In doing this, we gather data from European Accounting Review, an outlet that plays an instrumental role in the dissemination of Europe-based accounting research and that holds a long tradition of tolerance towards the use of diverse research methods and paradigms. We employ proxies to evaluate the objective contribution of an article as well as author reputation. Our findings suggest that articles are cited for their contribution rather than as a result of the characteristics of their authors. Our study also poses some suggestions to capture the multifaceted nature of research performance.     

Hubristic Start-up Founders – The Neglected Bright and Inevitable Dark Manifestations of Hubristic Leadership in New Venture Creation Processes

The hubris tradition of research has been criticized for limiting its scope by associating hubris predominantly with detrimental leadership behaviours. To counteract this bias, we provide a more nuanced exploration of hubris and consider both beneficial and detrimental manifestations of hubris in start-up founders’ leadership behaviours. Our analysis, based on qualitative data from expert interviews and two case studies, indicates that, whilst hubristic start-up founders are likely to fail overall, they also excel in creating and communicating visionary scenarios, steering employees through critical situations, and extracting commitment from third parties. These under-researched ‘bright’ manifestations of hubris allow start-up founders to lead their venture towards a stage, in which their visionary power and resilience become crucial prerequisites for economic progress. Our findings extend knowledge on hubristic leadership, offer new directions for the hubris tradition of research, and open up avenues for future research with a more balanced view of hubris.     

Sociomateriality — taking the wrong turning? A response to Mutch

In responding to Mutch's (2013) commentary on sociomateriality, our aim is to reassert a well-established tradition of plurality in theoretical approaches in information systems and organization research. We challenge his critique by proxy and exclusionary discourse in favour of identifying commonalities and mutuality among theories that explore subtle realism. Further, we maintain that ruling out novel perspectives and stifling innovation is likely to undermine any field of study. If there is a measure of healthy scholarship then it is surely our capacity to sustain the conditions that foster openness and experimentation in the framing and doing of our research endeavors.     

Politische Ökonomie der Rechnungslegung – Bisherige Forschungsergebnisse und künftige Forschungsperspektiven unter besonderer Berücksichtigung des Lobbyingkonzepts

Particularly in the field of German research tradition concerning financial accounting thoughts about interpretation and development of standards are focal points. Along with the appearance of the information economics it became apparent that financial accounting is not only a technical vehicle but a social institution. By making accounting information publicly available it may have an effect on the distribution of economic income. Insofar the presumption is feasible that those players influence standard-setting whose welfare is directly affected by it. The above mentioned view that is rarely noted in the German-speaking countries is followed by the research approach so called ‘‘Political Economy of Accounting’’. Aim of this research approach is to explain the complex standard-setting process by considering the different parties within a society. The article at hand contributes to sum up state-of-the-art advancements in the field of scientific discourse concerned and provides an outlook on perspectives in this research area.     

Anglo-American forms of management education: A practice-theoretical perspective

This article is based on a review of three Anglo-American journals of management education research, namely The Academy of Management Learning & Education, The Journal of Management Education, and Management Learning. In order to identify different forms of management education, articles in the journals were read from a practice-theoretical perspective. The main finding is that researchers have described or suggested five different conceptions of management education, which either revise the business-school tradition or provide alternatives to it. One implication of the finding is that it is not reasonable to speak for or against the US model of management education, since there are several. Management education research could thus aim at a more nuanced appreciation of what business-school teachers regard as good education.     

The institutional approach to entrepreneurship research. Introduction

The main argument of the presentation of this special issue is that entrepreneurship research based on institutional theory is a promising field of research. After a brief explanation of the nature, scope and philosophical foundation of institutional theory and the distinction between old and new institutionalism, an attempt is made to justify why entrepreneurship research using the institutional approach is promising. A reference to some previous research in this field illustrates not only its potential but also the long tradition in institutional economics. A brief reference to the content of each of the articles included in this special issue closes this presentation.     

Of hats and cattle: or the limits of macro-survey research in industrial relations

Attempts to use WIRS 3 data to assess the impact of HRM and specialist personnel management have produced implausible, inconclusive and contradictory results–demonstrating the severe limitations of the new macro-survey approach to industrial relations research. Yet macro-surveys threaten to become the dominant methodology. Imaginative insights, with practical implications, will not be achieved in this way. A major reorientation of research effort is needed before it is too late. Given its long tradition, of attempting to be both original and useful, British IR research deserves something better.     

Internationalization of Chinese banking and financial institutions: a fuzzy-set analysis of the leader-TMT dynamics

Abstract

Received international business and international human resource management theories have generally reached a consensus on the important role of leader and top management teams (TMTs) in deciding and shaping the firm’s internationalization process. However, what remains unclear is how a well-functioning TMT is formed to effectively achieve the desired internationalization goal. Utilizing a unique sample of Chinese banking and finance institutions’ initial public offering overseas, this study explores how Chinese BFIs configure the leader-TMT dynamics to achieve high internationalization performance. Using a set-theoretic approach and the technique of fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, a distinct taxonomy of the leader-TMT dynamics (namely, grass-root, strategic executor, born-global and glocal) is developed. Our findings provide novel insights into the IHRM variations within Chinese BFIs’ TMT formation, based on a theoretically and methodologically extended leader-TMT dynamics perspective.     

Guest Editors' Introduction

abstract   This introductory paper provides a background to the origins, themes and papers of this Special Issue on Micro Strategy and Strategizing. Our overarching argument is that, while the field of strategy has traditionally concentrated on the macro-level of organizations, it needs now to attend to much more micro-level phenomena. We propose an activity-based view of strategy that focuses on the detailed processes and practices which constitute the day-to-day activities of organizational life and which relate to strategic outcomes. The paper develops this view by considering two bodies of theory, those of the resource based view and institutionalism; two bodies of empirical work, those on corporate diversification and structure; and finally the process tradition of strategy research. The paper identifies the benefits of the activity-based view and introduces some challenges for further research. It concludes by introducing the papers in this Special Issue.     

Some reflection on research ‘Schools’ and geographies

Reflecting on real and perceived differences between European and North American research cultures, I challenge views that ‘European’ research is under appreciated or discriminated against, and caution against isolationist European positions. Instead, I argue that although no distinctive and coherent European tradition or culture really exists, there may be elements of the prevalent research culture that can be turned into an advantage for Europe-based and/or European-trained researchers in helping to influence and improve one, global research conversation. Of course, a range of sub-communities and sub-conversations will and should exist, but there is no reason for these to be based on geography.     

Worlds apart? — a look at the operations management area in the US,UK and Scandinavia

This paper is concerned with the discipline of Operations Management. The paper looks at the convergence and divergence of research in OM in Scandinavia, the US, and the UK. The three different research traditions are described and analysed separately and then compared and contrasted. A short example is presented from the management of advanced technology literature. A synthesis is offered that locates the three traditions on Jick’s “three-horned dilemma”. Opportunities for researchers in each tradition to learn from the others are described.     

对高校师德缺失现象的思考

当前高校师德存在逐渐缺失问题,虽属个别现象,但已影响了教师整体的形象,主要表现为:只授业不传道,育人目的淡化;重科研轻教学,教育功能虚化;重名利轻奉献,服务意识边缘化。其弱化原因有:社会理想化诉求传统与教师个体现实性追求之间的矛盾;教师管理与评聘制度的缺陷;市场经济对高校办学理念和教师主体价值的冲击;社会性道德危机对师德的影响等。     

Exploring notions of control across cultures: a narrative approach

This paper examines authorship distribution in a premiere Canadian-based research journal, Contemporary Accounting Research (CAR). It provides empirical evidence of a strong US elite dominance in the research agenda of a non-US research community. This is illustrated through a consistently higher proportion of authorship representation and participation of US elites (measured by doctoral origins) in CAR and its associated Conference. We also found that a small group of Canadian schools (measured by academic affiliations) contributes the most publications to CAR but their representation on the CAR editorial board and participation at the PhD Consortium was limited. We express our concern as to the constructive role of CAR as a top-tier journal in the dissemination of accounting research. We draw upon discussion on a European research tradition (represented by Accounting, Organizations and Society and The European Accounting Review), and its general approach to accounting research, which is perceived as distinct from the US elite approach (Lukka and Kasanen, 1996). Insights gained help widen the acceptable research in top tier journals such as CAR to further its aim to enhance geographical and intellectual diversity.     

高层建筑艺术形式与传统的契合

分析了在高层建筑创作领域中与传统契合的几个问题,认为传统的回归是丰富高层建筑创作的重要途径;传统是一个时间的概念,当前在艺术形式创作方面,首先应考虑到与传统的契合.     

The Policy World-Jurisprudence as a Policy Science

The Yale tradition of policy sciences offers a comprehensive taxonomy of human behavior, especially that which is associated with purposive institutional actions. Like newer schools of thought such as Public Choice, it has a theoretical base; like the Public Policy tradition, it focuses on historical explanations and analyses. Its categories of analysis range from Lasswell's famous eight value arenas to the seven policy functions that ate often used in identifying stages or phases of public action. Its professional breadth incorporates methods from economics, psychology, moral philosophy, and sociology, all in the context of policy behavior. The two volumes under review recapitulate theoretical and behavioral research dating back to the 1920s and still continuing at Yale and other policy centers. There is a strong moral commitment in these pages to human dignity, defined as the preferred outcomes among all competing and complementary basic values. The jurisprudence espoused in these volumes is a process through which people seek to clarify and secure their common interest; it is a tool of discovery rather than a mere syntactical philosophy of law. It is more a “political” than a “legal” science.