The Problematizing Review: A Counterpoint to Elsbach and Van Knippenberg’s Argument for Integrative Reviews

In this paper we provide a counterpoint to conventional views on integrative reviews in knowledge development, as exemplified by Elsbach and Van Knippenberg (2020). First, we critique their proposed integrative review by identifying and problematizing several key assumptions underlying it, particularly their idea that the integrative review can simply build on existing studies and lead the way to knowledge. Second, based on this critique, we propose as an alternative the problematizing review, which is based on the following four core principles: the ideal of reflexivity, reading more broadly but selectively, not accumulating but problematizing, and the concept that ‘less is more’. In contrast to the integrative review, which regards reviews as a ‘building exercise’, the problematizing review regards reviews as an ‘opening up exercise’ that enables researchers to imagine how to rethink existing literature in ways that generate new and ‘better’ ways of thinking about specific phenomena.     

The agricultural revolution and the conditions of the rural poor,southern Sweden, 1750–1860

The social consequences of agrarian change have been widely debated. The traditional view of the lower classes becoming increasingly vulnerable due to the loss of access to resources has been met with the revisionist view that this change was counteracted by an increase in the volume and regularity of employment due to investments and new farming practices. This article address this issue by studying the agricultural revolution in southern Sweden using aggregate data at the parish level. New micro‐level data on actual harvest outcomes, supplemented by price data, make it possible to differentiate between the development of the local economy and exogenous price shocks. Our results indicate a clear mortality response to harvest fluctuations in general and to harvest failures in particular. The response differed greatly between farming regions, being strongest in the areas most dependent on grain production. The response also diminished during the agricultural revolution, indicating the increasing efficiency of the local economy. This indicates employment effects in line with the revisionist view. At the same time, vulnerability to fluctuations in prices of basic foodstuffs remained high until the second half of the nineteenth century and was also quite similar across farming regions.     

Measuring oligopsony power

An empirical test of oligopsony power is developed, where the conjectural and supply elasticities are estimated simultaneously. A Generalized Leontief profit function is used to represent the production structure. The test is applied to the Swedish pulpwood market. Support is found for the hypothesis that the degree of market power varies over time.We acknowledge a research grant from the Swedish Council for Forest and Agricultural research.     

An econometric analysis of the European Commission's merger decisions

Using a sample of 96 mergers notified to the European Commission and logit regression techniques, we analyse the Commission's decision process. We find that the probability of a phase-2 investigation and of a prohibition of the merger increases with the parties' market shares. The probabilities increase also when the Commission finds high entry barriers or that the post-merger market structure is conducive to collusion. We do not find significant effects of “political” variables, such as the nationality of the merging firms.     

The strategic impact of external networks: subsidiary performance and competence development in the multinational corporation

This paper explores the importance of relational embeddedness in external networks as a strategic resource for performance and competence development in multinational corporations (MNCs). Two different types of relational embeddedness at the subsidiary level—business embeddedness and technical embeddedness—are proposed to have an influence on the subsidiary's market performance as well as its importance for competence development in the MNC. Using data on 97 Swedish MNC subsidiaries, five hypotheses are tested in a LISREL model analysis. The results suggest that technical embeddedness has a positive impact on both the subsidiary expected performance and its role in the development of products and production processes in the MNC. Indirectly, through external technical embeddedness, external business embeddedness also influences the sister units' product and process development and subsidiary market performance. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The charismatization of routines: Management of meaning and standardization in an educational organization

This paper reports a study of a Swedish School company, characterized by charismatic leadership and a radical vision, trying to create and implement standard operating procedures. We illuminate how efforts to bureaucratize are given meanings quite different to conventional ones of experiences of constraints and, at best, reluctant acceptance. The charisma that the members of the organization ascribe to the founder and the linking of standardization with radical corporate vision and identity building are viewed as central. Theoretically, the paper aims to throw some new light on the theme of organizational control through showing how different forms of control may intersect. The need to develop ideas that can bridge various forms of control is emphasized. Hence, we suggest a concept that may prove helpful in such a project: the charismatization of routines.     

ORGANIZATIONS AS RHETORIC: KNOWLEDGE-INTENSIVE FIRMS AND THE STRUGGLE WITH AMBIGUITY

This article discusses the concepts of knowledge-intensive workers and firms. the functional view is questioned and a perspective on knowledge as institutionalized myth and rationality-surrogate is proposed. the ambiguity of knowledge work is emphasized and it is argued that a crucial dimension of a knowledge-intensive organization concerns the struggle with this ambiguity, which leads to efforts to refine various rhetorical strategies. Besides those stressing knowledge, science and rationality, the article points to rhetoric describing employees in knowledge-intensive firms as possessing other personal qualities and orientations than personnel employed in bureaucracies.     

House price depreciation rates and level of maintenance

My objective in this paper is to estimate different depreciation rates of house prices depending on the level of maintenance of the property and the location of the property. I do this by supplementing transaction price data with owner information about level of maintenance. The result indicates that the level of maintenance has a substantial impact on the price level. Since maintenance offsets some of the physical deterioration of the property, the depreciation rate will be lowered by maintenance, ceteris paribus. To be able to estimate maintenance effects on depreciation rates, I isolated the interaction effect between the level of maintenance and the age of the property to allow for the fact that maintenance has an impact on the effective age of the property. In this study, I separate maintenance into indoor and outdoor maintenance levels (or absence of maintenance).My results show that the depreciation rates are significantly different for a maintained property and for a property that is not maintained. The price difference between a 40-year-old property (built in 1960) and maintained both indoors and outdoors and a property of the same age that is not maintained is about 13% (−10% compared to −23% in total age effect). The absence of outdoor maintenance has more impact on price depreciation rates.     

Reflecting on Reflexivity: Reflexive Textual Practices in Organization and Management Theory

abstract    This paper identifies four sets of textual practices that researchers in the field of organization and management theory (OMT) have used in their attempts to be reflexive. We characterize them as multi-perspective, multi-voicing, positioning and destabilizing. We show how each set of practices can help to produce reflexive research, but also how each embodies limitations and paradoxes. Finally, we consider the interplay among these sets of practices to develop ideas for new avenues for reflexive practice by OMT researchers.     

Lessons for Crisis Communication on Social Media: A Systematic Review of What Research Tells the Practice

This study analyzes explicit pieces of advice for effective social media crisis communication given by researchers in various subdisciplines of strategic communication. The themes are identified by a systematic content analysis of peer-reviewed journal articles and conference papers (n = 104) published between 2004 and 2017. Five overall thematic “lessons” are identified and critically discussed. These are that effective social media crisis communication is about: (1) exploiting social media’s potential to create dialogue and to choose the right message, source and timing; (2) performing precrisis work and developing an understanding of the social media logic; (3) using social media monitoring; (4) continuing to prioritize traditional media in crisis situations; and finally, (5) just using social media in strategic crisis communication. These guidelines mainly emerged from quantitative research conducted in the context of the United Stated and on Twitter. There is need for more research focusing on other platforms and other empirical material. There is also a future need for an in-depth methodological discussion of how to further bridge the gap between research and practice on a global scale, and how to develop more evidence-based recommendations for strategic crisis communication practitioners.