Materiality and change: Challenges to building better theory about technology and organizing

Researchers have had difficulty accommodating materiality in voluntaristic theories of organizing. Although materiality surely shapes how people use technologies, materiality’s role in organizational change remains under-theorized. We suggest that scholars have had difficulty grappling with materiality because they often conflate the distinction between the material and social with the distinction between determinism and voluntarism. We explain why such conflation is unnecessary and outline four challenges that researchers must address before they can reconcile the reality of materiality with the notion that outcomes of technological change are socially constructed.     

Materiality in integrated and sustainability reporting: A paradigm shift?

This paper investigates the implementation of integrated reporting (IR) by Generali, one of the most important listed companies in Italy. The research questions we aim at answering are the following: Is the IR approach to materiality inherently different from the sustainability reporting (SR) approach? Does IR lead to the identification of different material topics than does SR? On the one hand, institutional theory suggests that IR and SR material topics are going to be significantly different because IR is mainly driven by a market logic, whereas SR is inspired by a stakeholder logic. On the other hand, organizational change theory predicts there will be some resistance to change by the organization, therefore leading to IR and SR topics being similar. In order to answer our research questions, we implement two empirical analyses. First, we propose and develop an innovative methodological approach on the basis of content analysis, which allows measuring the materiality of different issues under the IR approach. Second, we rely on evidence obtained through interviews, which suggests that IR and SR approaches to materiality are inherently different.     

The Contraction of Meaning: The Combined Effect of Communication,Emotions, and Materiality on Sensemaking in the Stockwell Shooting

In this paper, we seek to understand how individuals, as part of a collective, commit themselves to a single, and possibly erroneous, frame, as a basis for sensemaking and coordinated actions. Using real‐time data from an anti‐terrorist police operation that led to the accidental shooting of an innocent civilian, we analyse how individual actors framed their circumstances in communication with one another and how this affected their subsequent interpretations and actions as events unfolded. Our analysis reveals, first, how the collective commitment to a framing of a civilian as a terrorist suicide bomber was built up and reinforced across episodes of collective sensemaking. Second, we elaborate on how the interaction between verbal communication, expressed and felt emotions, and material cues led to a contraction of meaning. This contraction stabilized and reinforced the overall framing at the exclusion of alternative interpretations. With our study we extend prior sensemaking research on environmental enactment and the escalation of commitment and elaborate on the role of emotions and materiality as part of sensemaking.     

Authentication as Institutional Maintenance Work

Institutional maintenance work refers to actors’ deliberate effort to maintain an institution. This paper examines how actors use authentication, i.e., the relational constitution of an artefact as original or as a genuine expression of a particular type, style or person, to accomplish institutional maintenance work. We investigated contemporary adjustments to six listed buildings. These works were undertaken to keep these buildings functional while at the same time protecting their listing; by doing so they contributed to maintain the institution of Architectural Heritage. Our analysis identifies three forms of authentication: material consolidation, crafts mobilization and character enhancement. We elaborate on each of them and explain their institutional underpinnings and outcomes. The paper concludes with an articulation of authentication as a potent form of institutional maintenance work. Taking its starting point in materiality, authentication is a relational practice that helps maintain institutions relying on irreplaceable artefacts for their maintenance.     

Financial materiality in the informativeness of sustainability reporting

This study examines whether financial materiality in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosure benefits the stock market by increasing the amount of accessible and relevant firm-specific information. Based on the value relevance of information and the principle of financial materiality, we demonstrate that disclosing material ESG information increases stock price informativeness. We conduct an automated content analysis of 150,000 electronic documents filed by firms listed on the S&P/TSX Composite Index from 1999 to the end of 2014. Our findings show that ESG disclosure is indeed value relevant for investors and that financial materiality in ESG disclosure leads to more informative stock prices. In addition, the effect of ESG disclosure on stock price informativeness differs across the ESG components, being more sensitive to the social component. This study contributes to the literature on sustainability reporting, and in particular to the ongoing discussion about whether the financial materiality of ESG issues matters. This study also deepens the understanding of agency theory predictions about the economic effects of ESG disclosure.     

How to model multivariate extremes if one must?

In this paper we discuss some approaches to modeling extremely large values in multivariate time series. In particular, we discuss the notion of multivariate regular variation as a key to modeling multivariate heavy-tailed phenomena. The latter notion has found a variety of applications in queuing theory, stochastic networks, telecommunications, insurance, finance and other areas. We contrast this approach with modeling multivariate extremes by using the multivariate student distribution and copulas.     

Conceptualizing the processes,benefits, and challenges of organizational lifelong learning at Yuhan-Kimberly,Korea: the notion of anticipative affordance

This research investigates, reports, and theorizes Yuhan-Kimberly's journey to establish its organizational lifelong learning program in Korea. Based on a four-year longitudinal study and the principles of grounded theory, we propose the notion of anticipative affordance to elaborate the process through which benefits derived from an organization's lifelong learning are created, interconnected, and amplified through the gradual and long-term building and accumulation of shared understanding and commitment. Main theoretical contributions derived from this study are threefold. First, the concept of anticipative affordance enhances our understanding about the key process and challenges related to organizational lifelong learning. Second, anticipative affordance serves as a bridge to synthesize the separation between the cognitive and situated aspects of learning. Third, our research empirically illustrates how collective benefits of organizational learning are actualized over time through the development of learning mechanisms and through the integration of its individual members' learning.     

Magic of the gift in the workplace: Reply to Dodlova and Yudkevich

The article is a reply to M. Dodlova and M. Yudkevich. In their recent paper they undertake an attempt to use the notion of gift in the analysis of principal–agent relationship and to generalize the idea of gift in order to obtain a theory of gift exchange in the workplace. However, the analysis suggested lacks conceptual clarity and rests upon false presuppositions regarding the nature of gift. As a result, authors draw erroneous conclusions and fall victims of the magic of the gift. This short reply points to these deficiencies and suggests some ideas for alternative approaches to the analysis of certain phenomena observed in the workplace.     

How supervisors set the tone for long hours: Vicarious learning,subordinates' self-motives and the contagion of working hours

This paper develops a theoretical model that highlights the mechanisms underlying the contagion of long working hours from supervisors to subordinates at different stages of their relationship. Drawing upon social learning theory, we suggest that subordinates mimic the supervisor's working hours through vicarious learning. Focusing first on the role-taking stage of the supervisor-subordinate relationship, we identify four factors, namely supervisor's perceived status, subordinate's work centrality, congruence between organizational norms and supervisor's working hours, and subordinate's identification with the supervisor, that may influence the perceived desirability of adopting the supervisor's working hours. We then examine the relative influence of each of these factors through the lens of subordinates' self-motives. Turning, next, to the routinized supervisor-subordinate relationship, we elaborate on how social contagion may evolve over time. Lastly, the implications of our model as well as future research avenues are presented.     

The digital is different: Emergence and relationality in critical realist research

When analyzing empirical phenomena, the implicit or explicit assumptions we have of relationality guide what we take as the primary units of analysis and how we study them. This paper investigates and expands on the notion of relationality and relational explanations in the Critical Realist (CR) paradigm of Information Systems (IS) research. As digital technologies are becoming increasingly adaptive to the social and socio-technical structures they are embedded in, it is necessary to expand the field's conceptual tools in its study of digital phenomena. Therefore, to explain why the digital seems more tightly coupled to social phenomena than other types of technologies, the concept of transformational emergence is introduced. The key argument is that the malleability of digital entities entails that they are disposed to transform by emergence, which is key to understanding the constitutive relationality between the social and the technical in contemporary digital phenomena. This has fundamental implications for CR-based theories in the IS field, most notably Affordance theory and Representation theory.     

全球消费导向对消费者全球品牌态度的作用及路径研究

本文以消费文化理论和社会认同理论为基础,探讨了在发展中国家,全球消费导向如何影响对于来自发达国家和发展中国家全球品牌的态度。结果表明,全球消费导向能够正面影响对发达国家全球品牌的态度,而且全球认同和民族中心主义在其中发挥互补性中介作用。研究结果证明了全球化背景下消费心理对于品牌态度产生重要影响,从这一角度为发展中国家消费者对发达国家全球品牌的偏好提供了新的解释,并为中国企业建设全球品牌提出了建议。     

Performative Achievement of Routine Recognizability: An Analysis of Order Taking Routines at Sushi Bars

The concept of performativity, a central theme in routine dynamics research, suggests that a routine does not first exist as a recognizable phenomenon, and then actions are taken subsequently. On the contrary, actions themselves need to achieve the recognizability of the routine. This paper revisits recognizability in light of routine interdependence and materiality. Focusing on order taking routines at sushi bars, the analysis reveals that participants constantly achieve the beginning of a routine performance by drawing on performances of other routines and materiality, both of which are seemingly unrelated to the focal routine. Prior to routine initiation, much material and embodied work is conducted in order to make the routine recognizable. Once initiated, the routine performance makes subtle use of materiality, allowing participants to engage in a seemingly unrelated routine while they remain subordinately attentive to the focal routine. While a routine appears to exist on its own once it is recognized, the achievement of this recognition relies largely on factors that are not part of the routine.     

The dynamics of business service exchanges: Insights from logistics outsourcing

This paper offers insights about the dynamics of business service exchanges. We draw on the interaction approach, contracting theory and the notion of qualification from economic sociology to develop an analysis frame for such dynamics. We then apply this frame to a single, longitudinal case study. Contrary to the extant service supply literature assuming that service definitions remain (or should remain) fixed throughout the purchasing process, our findings suggest that, under high uncertainty conditions, the service exchange object is (re)shaped through iterative cycles of stabilisation and destabilisation. This study also reveals a connection between service definition and relationship governance dynamics—uncertainty and opportunism risks related to service destabilisation can be managed through dynamic deployment of relational, contractual and economic mechanisms. This paper also contributes to our understanding of the contract as basis for interaction and openness and offers an extension of qualification theory to complex business-to-business (B2B) service settings.     

When tools ‘bite first’: How tools-for-reflection (do not) afford reflection and knowledge creation

The paper delineates how our understanding of reflection and knowledge development changes, if we drop the widespread assumption that objects such as tools merely ‘talk back’ (Schön) or ‘bite back’ (Engeström & Blackler) when humans use them. By drawing on the notion of affordances, the paper provides an account of how tools ‘bite first’, which means that their materiality pre-reflectively affords certain patterns of thinking and acting as well as affective states while others are less likely. My 12-month action ethnography basically offers three insights. First, my findings indicate that a tool’s materiality which affords flexibility, complexity, embodied engagement, and happiness is more likely enacted as ‘facilitative reflection’, a type of reflection that results in knowledge creation. Second, if a tool’s materiality affords less flexibility, an entity-focus, detached interaction, and frustration, ‘oppositional reflection’ is enacted, a second type of reflection that does not result in knowledge creation. Since only ‘facilitative reflection’ results in knowledge creation, the affordances-based account of tools-for-reflection also challenges the widespread argument that reflection leads to knowledge creation. Third, I offer some fresh insights into the relation between a tool’s materiality, breakdowns, and associated affective states.     

Unpacking the Dialectic: Alternative Views on the Discourse–Materiality Relationship

This paper extends the issues raised in this forum by highlighting assumptions and characteristics of the discourse–materiality relationship that appears in five explanatory frameworks, including the Foucauldian approach and the materiality–performativity perspective presented in the previous two papers. It argues for preserving the dialectical relationship between the two by holding the tensions between them in continual interplay. Using a dialectic lens, it overviews how each of the frameworks treats the point of entry, nature of the relationship, and management of these tensions.     

Sustainability reporting,materiality, and accountability assessment in the airport industry

Air travel is, nowadays, recognized as being one of the most popular modes of transport. Air transport is among the most significant contributors to the world gross domestic product and is accountable for a great environmental and social impact. Driven by the well‐established sustainability discourse and the vital role businesses can play in disseminating the sustainable development concept, this paper attempted to map airport industry's most material operational aspects and assess airport operators' accountability level on disclosing corporate information regarding airports' economic, environmental, and social performance. In this context, 33 reports and 903 material issues representing 193 international airports were reviewed and assessed, and a methodology for benchmarking the accountability level of best reporting airport operators was developed, showcasing materiality assessment as a useful management tool for strengthening airport operators' business strategy and enhancing their corporate performance. The paper indicated that (a) customer focus (i.e., health, safety and satisfaction), economic viability, and business continuity and preparedness are operational aspects of high materiality and (b) the disclosure level, especially concerning specific performance indicators, is still moderate. In conclusion, this study has shown that materiality assessment gains ground as a management tool among airports' management teams and the completeness of Sustainability reports is positively correlated with the “level” of adherence as described by the Global Reporting Initiative.     

The Multiple Boundaries of the Firm*

ABSTRACT The notion of firm boundaries has received considerable attention in theories of the firm that address the problems of investment incentives and mitigation of hold‐up problems. In this paper we attempt to develop a different approach to the problem of vertical firm boundaries, based on recent advances in the capabilities view of the firm. Our arguments rely on the pioneering insights of Penrose, Richardson and Loasby to elaborate a view of the boundaries determined by the interaction of the firm's direct and indirect capabilities with other actors. We develop the notion of indirect capabilities to highlight how firm boundaries respond to the distribution of capabilities in the economy as well as the modes of access to complementary and external capabilities. We conclude that the evolution of firm boundaries must be understood in the context of decisions on how the firm relates to other actors in its environment.     

Challenged and satisfied: the role of organisational ownership and employee involvement

Abstract

This study aims to offer a more fine-grained approach to our understanding of the relationship between job stress and job satisfaction. Building on organisational theory and Job Demand-Control model, we investigated an important institutional characteristic – organisational ownership – as an additional moderator to influence the interactive effects of job demands and control upon job satisfaction. Using data collected from 1838 Chinese retail sector employees, we found that this three-way interaction was strongest for employees working in foreign-invested firms, who experienced higher employee involvement at work and perceived a high level of challenge-related stress. The relationship was weakest for employees in state-owned enterprises who reported low levels of both employee involvement and challenge-related stress. Our study constitutes an early attempt to assess the impact of institutional characteristics such as ownership on aspects of human resources management, and highlights the need for further research to recognise the importance of such characteristics as contextual factors that influence the effect of organisational practices and the work environment upon individual work-related outcomes. The paper’s concluding sections elaborate on the contributions our research makes both to theory as well as to the practicalities faced by human resource managers in contexts such as China.     

石油企业物资管理问题及对策研究

本文分析了石油企业物资管理的问题，剖析了产生超储的原因，着重关注了存储模型在石油行业的应用情况。然后依据油田实际情况．以ABC控制法和运筹学原理为理论基础，将需求为连续型的随机存储模型运用于油田材料库存管理中，就完善材料库存管理进行了探索性研究。