Innovations in meta-analysis and social impact analysis relevant for tech mining

In the social sciences, non-utilization of knowledge is a major problem. Many publications stored in libraries or available on the Internet should be used more than they are now. Conventional approaches like providing abstracts and lists of keywords have proven to be insufficient. For more than thirty years already, meta-analysis is available for the accumulation and dissemination of scientific knowledge. In the social sciences, meta-analysis has been used on a limited scale only, mainly because there still remains a gap between the knowledge available and its application in policymaking. Recently, value transfer has been introduced as an additional method to bridge the gap between available knowledge and the demands for knowledge in new problem areas. Not only in the social sciences but also in the information sciences non-utilization of information is a major problem. It is the mission of tech mining to contribute to a mitigation of this non-utilization. In this article, we will show how tech mining could profit from innovations in meta-analysis and social impact assessment. Special attention will be paid to research on technology generations, research on social change in cohesive social systems showing solidarity at work, and tech mining in support of the Lisbon Strategy of the European Commission.     

The client as consumer: Marketing the law,clinic-style

In 1977 the Supreme Court ruled that lawyers could not be prevented from advertising their prices for routine services, thus outlawing a long standing restriction imposed by the legal profession on its own members. This decision prompted a ferocious controversy (even for lawyers) over the proprieties of advertising legal services, not to mention the effect that “marketplace ethics” might wield on the delivery pricing, and quality of services offered to the great lay public. This article looks at how legal consumers are affected by the kind of high-volume, low-priced delivery of routine services that can only be offered profitably through aggressive marketing. Then it discusses how one firm used segmentation strategy and a consumer orientation to introduce the clinic concept on the East Coast. Finally, some implications of the immediate future of lawyer marketing for marketing professionals are analyzed.     

Co-evolutionary Dynamics Within and Between Firms: From Evolution to Co-evolution

abstract The extensive selection–adaptation literature spans diverse theoretical perspectives, but is inconclusive on the role of managerial intentionality in organizational adaptation. Indeed this voluminous literature has more to say about selection and sources and causes of structural inertia than about self‐renewing organizations that might counteract such inertia. In this introductory essay, we identify four co‐evolutionary generative mechanisms (engines) – naïve selection, managed selection, hierarchical renewal and holistic renewal – which illustrate the extensive range of evolutionary paths that can take place in a population of organizations. In particular, the managed selection engine provides the foundations of the underlying principles of co‐evolving self‐renewing organizations: managing internal rates of change, optimizing self‐organization, and balancing concurrent exploration and exploitation. However, it is altogether clear that empirical co‐evolution research represents the next frontier for empirically resolving the adaptation selection debate. The essay concludes with a discussion of requirements for co‐evolutionary empirical research and introduces the empirical papers in this Special Research Symposium.     

Paradox of authenticity versus standardization: Expansion strategies of restaurant groups in China

Restaurant customers demand both personalized innovative, yet, affordable service delivery. Accordingly, restaurant groups that seek expansion must consider how to respond effectively to the standardization–authenticity paradox. This paper addresses two questions: what is the relationship between standardization and authenticity? How can restaurant managers use these concepts for the strategic positioning of their restaurant group? Typically, researchers present the two dimensions as a binary. In contrast, this paper first presents a theoretical model and analyzes the variations in the standardization–authenticity relationship. Subsequently, it classifies restaurant group expansion strategies into four categories: standardization of authenticity, authentic alliance, standardized chains and heterogeneity, and examines their respective level of competence required to increase performance. It concludes by presenting suggestions to position restaurants in terms of the extent of standardization and the extent of flexibility.     

Challenging the NPM Ideas About Performance Management: Selectivity and Differentiation in Outcome‐Oriented Performance Budgeting

This paper shows how the performance budget of a local government organization, in this case a province in the Netherlands, can be attuned to the specific task characteristics of the programmes in these budgets. Three ways of alignment are suggested: differentiating between standardized and complex programmes; focussing on the politically most relevant programmes in order to avoid information overload; and distinguishing between the types of performance information in terms of the role of the province in the programme (facilitator versus executor) and the stage in the policy making cycle (policy development, policy elaboration or policy execution). These suggestions challenge the generally straightforward NPM rationale of performance budgeting, in which standardized outputs are directly related to resources. Our empirical research shows on the one hand that the redesigned programme budget based on the above principles received substantial approval of its users, i.e., the provincial councillors. On the other hand, as regards the use of this programme budget the picture is rather diffuse, i.e., the majority of the councillors indicate that they use the information rather intensively, but its formal use in official Council and Council committee meetings remains limited.