Integral futures based on the paradigm approach

The study discusses the interpretation of integral futures in the context of paradigm. The dynamic matrix model of futures paradigm has been developed for carrying out meta-analysis of futures. As a result of meta-analysis integral futures and its new paradigms are defined by way of reconstructing futures paradigm history as responses to changing societal needs and through the outcomes of dynamic and comparative analysis of futures paradigms. The study sets the argument that integral futures: (a) is entering a new phase in development of futures that responds to societal demands for sustainability, democratic participation and continuous knowledge production and integration, (b) it is the phase of cooperation building between theoretical and practical futures, (c) it is the complementary development of co-evolutionary and participatory paradigms, and (d) it unfolds further research perspectives for futures.     

Epistemology and public policy: using a new typology to analyse the paradigm shift in Finnish transport futures studies

The aim of the article is to present a new typology of paradigms of futures studies with specific focus on decision-making. Possible roles of futurists and other actors in long-term planning and decision-making processes are formed using logical analysis. The resulting seven schools of thought are interpreted in the light of literature of futures studies and planning theory. Connections to the philosophical discussion on the role of knowledge and values in policy recommendations are presented as well. Some futures studies methodological applications are attached to the paradigms. The new typology forms a gradient from technocracy performed by professionals to direct citizen participation. Finally, the paradigm shift of Finnish national transport futures studies is analysed using the new typology.     

In defence of triangulation: A critical realist approach to mixed methods research in management accounting

The notion of triangulation constitutes a key component of mixed methods research but has been contested on ontological and epistemological grounds, especially where this entails integration of theories and/or methods rooted in different philosophical assumptions (or paradigms). Drawing on critical realism, this paper addresses two criticisms of the use of triangulation in mixed methods research straddling between the functionalist and interpretive paradigms, namely (1) its propensity to suppress variations in situated meanings and (2) its treatment of empirical observations as objectively verifiable rather than inherently theory-related. The modified notion of triangulation advanced in this paper counters these criticisms by re-conceptualizing it as firmly grounded in abductive reasoning. This provides a foundation for maintaining researchers’ sensitivity to context-specific variations in meanings in efforts to derive theory-related explanations. The possibilities of using such a modified notion of triangulation in management accounting research are illustrated through a review of two empirical studies straddling between the functionalist and interpretive paradigms.     

The international system : Limits to forecasting

This article describes the obstacles which stand in the way of analysis of the future of the international system and identifies research needs for surmounting them. Such forecasting must be based on an understanding of the structure of the system and its evolution, yet given the heterogeneity of existing paradigms in the study of international relations, it is difficult to give coherent expression to that structure. Progress in forecasting research on the international system therefore implies a lessening of the heterogeneity of those paradigms, and suggestions are made with this end in view.     

Computer packages as cognitive paradigms: Implications for the education of accountants

Computer packages are playing an increasingly dominant role in the life of most business organisations, which in turn is reflected in a greater role for packages in education. These packages both presuppose knowledge on the part of the user, and also “contain” knowledge of accounting as well as mathematical and other concepts. This paper suggests that packages function not just as information processing tools, but as “paradigms” which structure the approaches taken to cognitive tasks—although there may be an important distinction between expected and actual paradigms. The change to package-based paradigms represents a substantial shift in cognitive framework. The paper discusses the implications of this for package users and for the educational process. Three important themes are emphasised: first the importance of students learning about packages on a “meta” level rather than simply learning to use them; second the suggestion that treating packages as “black boxes” may sometimes be inevitable and desirable; and third the possibility that computer packages may, to some extent, serve as a substitute for education.     

高校廉洁管理路径探析

廉洁文化是社会主义先进文化的重要组成部分。在高校推行廉洁化管理不仅是和谐高校构建的需要,还是我国反腐败战略的重要组成部分。当前,高校推行廉洁化管理,必须构建全员育廉、全程育廉、全方位育廉三种范式,并在实践中通过健全制度、利用载体和形成合力来完善这三种范式。     

Straddling between paradigms: A naturalistic philosophical case study on interpretive research in management accounting

This paper analyses interpretive research in management accounting from the perspective of naturalistic philosophy of science. We focus on the relation of interpretive research to the subjective/objective dichotomy appearing in the methodological literature of the social sciences. In management accounting research, it is often routinely assumed that interpretive studies, following the reasoning by Burrell and Morgan [Burrell, G., & Morgan. G. (1979). Sociological paradigms and organisational analysis. London: Heinemann], are based on subjectivism only. The major purpose of this paper is to give flesh to the existing debates around the nature of interpretive research with the help of in depth analysis of one example of such research in management accounting. Since abstract and general philosophical arguments are often used merely to cloud more relevant case specific issues concerning the focus of explanation and the nature of empirical evidence offered, our analysis aims at providing conceptual tools for articulating with greater precision what is being asserted in a given study. The specific target of the examination is the interpretive study by Dent [Dent, J. F. (1991). Accounting and organisational cultures: A field study of the emergence of a new organisational reality. Accounting, Organisations and Society, 16, 693–703], which is one of the highly appreciated and extensively quoted pieces of research picked from the interpretive management accounting literature. Our analysis indicates that though there certainly are, and needs to be, unique subjectivist features in interpretive studies as compared to more ‘objectivist’ approaches, there are also important similarities, and that the view of sociological paradigms as necessarily mutually exclusive does not hold water. Hence interpretive research straddles between paradigms. As we argue that interpretive studies, in addition to including subjectivist elements, also encompass objectivist features, we invert the typical social theory critique of ‘scientific’ (management) accounting research that it cannot be an objective ‘mirror of reality’ by claiming that interpretive studies cannot be exclusively subjectivist and still they remain theoretically relevant. Our philosophically tuned analysis explicates how concepts from different paradigms, such as interpretations, understanding meanings, and causality, can successfully co-exist and co-operate within a single study.     

The validity of management control topoi: Towards constructivist pragmatism

For decades, management accounting research paradigms have been in competition without reaching any apparent closure, and struggles to bridge the gap between knowledge and doing [Pfeffer, J., Sutton, R.I., 1999. Knowing what to do is not enough: turning knowledge into action. Calif. Manage. Rev. (Fall), 83–108] have not been successful either. This paper argues that this state of affairs is due to an insufficient understanding of reality, which is rooted in the management accounting paradigms. The paper establishes a concept of reality as an integrated set of conditions for actions and argues that, without such a concept, the issue of validity cannot be addressed: management accounting and control only provide valid results in practice if they incorporate the four aspects of the world of human life—facts, logic, values and communication. On the basis of these aspects, some predominant research paradigms are subsequently analysed and, using a case study, the paper shows how the four dimensions are integrated in the practice of a successful manager. Finally, the paper explains why the integration of the four aspects is always unique and company-specific, forming what is termed topoi.     

Evolution of futures studies

This article discusses the evolution of futures studies. The article starts with an evaluation of the different rival taxonomies and definitions for futures studies, and proceeds to discuss the very concept of paradigm. Are there paradigms in this discipline? If we think there are, what kind of arguments can we use to define those? I argue that there have been two paradigms in the evolution of futures studies so far, and there are signs of emergence of a new one. Both of the existing paradigms have had many rival macro-level methodological approaches, ontological and epistemological branches, and phases of evolution. The first paradigm is the age-old prediction tradition that combines thinking about the future into mystic explanations. This line of thinking bases its argument on the deterministic future and effects of the world of spirits. The second paradigm was basically started in the U.S. military after World War II. This modern line of thinking bases its argument on indeterministic futures, probabilities, aim to control and plan, modelling and systems thinking, and the effects of external trends. The new emerging paradigm may base its line of thinking on disconnecting from the western control based technical thinking, and accepting internal dynamic fluctuations, paradoxes and dialectic thinking.     

Scenarios to challenge strategic paradigms: Lessons from 2025

As a process looking for alternative visions of environment and corporate futures, scenario planning challenges strategic paradigms. In that way, scenario planning is dealing with the different beliefs of the many actors who make the organization and its global and business environments. Among these beliefs, emerging ideologies are one of the main shaping factors for the construction of new visions of corporate environment and corporate futures. To analyse the interaction between scenario planning and emerging ideologies, this paper will first propose a conceptual framework based on the dynamics of strategic paradigms. Second, it will discuss Electricité de France 2025 scenarios longitudinal case study in the context of the diffusion process of the French so called prospective approach to show interests and traps of scenario planning to manage paradigm shifts.     

Differences and similaritites between corporate governance principles in Islamic banks and Conventional banks

The purpose of this paper is to present the some differences and similarities between corporate governance principles in Islamic banks and conventional banks by paradigmatic diversification. Since Corporate governance in Islamic banks is a social phenomenon in Islamic societies, the paper uses social theory paradigms (functionalist, interpretive, radical humanist and radical structuralist) to compare between corporate governance in Islamic banks and conventional banks. This paper demonstrates that mainstream corporate corporate governance theories are not a law of nature but a social construct.     

IN-QUOTES: a knowledge-based system for supporting decision making in weakly structured domains

In complex and weakly structured domains, decision makers often employ multiple techniques, including quantitative modeling and reasoning from past experiences, to address the problem at hand. As such, there has been a call for more research on developing systems that merge problem-solving approaches, such as reasoning from past experiences, with other paradigms to provide support for both the unstructured and structured aspects of the decision-making process. Development of these systems is dependent on acquiring and modeling the knowledge and expertise inherent in the process and then representing and implementing it in an appropriate form. However, in weakly structured domains, knowledge acquisition may be better described as knowledge ‘co-creation’ in which the expert and system builder work together to understand the process and lend as much structure to it as possible. In this paper, we propose that the integration of principles drawn from the paradigms of case-base reasoning, expert systems, and object-oriented programming facilitates this process by providing a powerful approach to acquire and model knowledge in a weakly structured domain. We demonstrate this approach through the development of a system designed to assist a decision maker in the performance of a difficult, somewhat unstructured design and planning task. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

EXPLORING AN ACCOUNTING PARADIGM: THE CASH ACCOUNT

This paper explores the possibility that practitioners' standards of accounting rationality are partly determined by a “cash account” paradigm, of which the method for preparing accounts from incomplete records is a major exemplar (an important part of the Kuhnian concept). Preparation of accounts from incomplete records forms part of many accountants' early practical experience, and often provides the setting in which elementary bookkeeping and accounting concepts start to become “second nature”. In addition to this, and partly as a result of it, accountants may tend to refer (perhaps not always explicitly) to the so-called “single entry method” when addressing much more complex and intractable problems. Practitioner paradigms get less attention in the literature than research paradigms, and one purpose of this paper is to redress this balance, and to show how articulation of a practitioner paradigm might suggest ways out of some conceptual difficulties     

Liquidity and Autocorrelations in Individual Stock Returns

This paper documents a strong relationship between short‐run reversals and stock illiquidity, even after controlling for trading volume. The largest reversals and the potential contrarian trading strategy profits occur in high turnover, low liquidity stocks, as the price pressures caused by non‐informational demands for immediacy are accommodated. However, the contrarian trading strategy profits are smaller than the likely transactions costs. This lack of profitability and the fact that the overall findings are consistent with rational equilibrium paradigms suggest that the violation of the efficient market hypothesis due to short‐term reversals is not so egregious after all.     

Russian transnationals and international investment paradigms

This paper explores the main features of outward foreign direct investment by Russian transnational corporations – referred to as ‘eagle multinationals’ in the literature – and some of the implications of their recent rise to global prominence (since the 1990s) for the paradigms of international investment. Surprisingly, lower middle-income Russia is already a net capital exporter, and some of its firms, to mention Gazprom, Lukoil, Mechel, Norilsk Nickel and Severstal, for example, have already leapfrogged to a global status. The paper aims also at identifying issues for further analysis, such as the growing role of the state in controlling natural resource-based firms and its implications for the future of the Russian transnationals. This paper suggests that different investment paradigms fare divergently in trying to explain outward FDI from the Russian Federation. For example, the eclectic paradigm could be applied to Russian transnationals with some extension on home-country factors. Other theories, however, would require more radical re-thinking in future research.     

Bridging the paradigm divide in management accounting research: The role of mixed methods approaches

This paper discusses the role of mixed methods research in management accounting and how it may help researchers bridge the divide between the economics-based, functionalist ‘mainstream’ and the ‘alternative’ paradigm informed by interpretive and critical perspectives. Whilst noting the considerable barriers to dialogue across these paradigms, I outline how mixed methods research can be mobilized as part of a strategy of meta-triangulation to engender inter-paradigmatic engagement.     

Limited information limits accuracy: Whether ensemble empirical mode decomposition improves crude oil spot price prediction?

A reliable crude oil price forecast is important for market pricing. Despite the widespread use of ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) in financial time series forecasting, the one-time decomposition on the entire time series leads the in-sample data to be affected by the out-of-sample data. Consequently, the forecasting accuracy is overstated. This study incorporates a rolling window into two prevalent EEMD-based modeling paradigms, namely decomposition-ensemble and denoising, to ensure that only in-sample time series is processed by EEMD and used for model training. Given the time-consuming process of stepwise preprocessing and model fitting, two non-iterative machine learning algorithms, random vector functional link (RVFL) neural network and extreme learning machine (ELM), are used as predictors. Hence, we develop the rolling decomposition-ensemble and rolling denoising paradigms, respectively. Contrary to the majority of prior studies, empirical results based on monthly spot price time series for the Brent and West Texas Intermediate (WTI) markets indicate that EEMD plays a weak role in improving crude oil price forecasts when only the in-sample set is preprocessed. This is compatible with the weak form of the efficient market hypothesis (EMH). Nevertheless, the suggested rolling EEMD-denoising model has an advantage over other employed models for long-term forecasting.