Business Commons^™

Using Institutional Theory To Develop A Conceptual Framework For Benchmarking, Edmund W. Watts, Amanda Mead

Ted Watts

The objective of this research was to develop a conceptual framework based on institutional theory to explain the key drivers or mechanisms behind the adoption and use of the business practice of benchmarking. The paper commences with the conceptualisation of benchmarking identifying the four dimensions of benchmarking, internal, direct competition, industry, and best-in-class. This was followed by the development of a construct for investigation using institutional theory through its major components, organisational isomorphism, organisational dependency, and organisational legitimacy. Overlaying the benchmarking and institutional theory literature on the four dimensions of benchmarking and the institutional theory construct a conceptual crossover was …

Double Vision: The Theory Of Mutual Causality And The Strategic Balanced Scorecard, Edmund W. Watts, Carol J. Mcnair

Ted Watts

Management accounting researchers have criticised the practitioner-oriented management accounting techniques of the last decade for lacking integrated theories. A contrasting perspective is that these emerging techniques are not atheoretical, but rather natural applications of existing theory as defined in complementary disciplines. Using concepts theory, this paper relates the strategic balanced scorecard (SBSC) to the theoretical concepts of cybernetics. The three fundamental characteristics of cybernetics: causal relationships, communication and change are compared to the SBSC in practice. The results align the practical characteristics of the SBSC to contemporary descriptions of theory, specifically those directed towards abstraction and explanation, thus providing a …

An Activity-Theory Analysis Of Corporate Wikis, Helen M. Hasan, Charmaine C. Pfaff

Helen Hasan

Purpose: Wiki technologies, which are popular in social settings, are beginning to contribute to more flexible and participatory approaches to the exploitation of knowledge in corporate settings. Through the lens of activity theory, this paper aims to investigate contentious challenges to organizational activities that may be associated with the introduction of corporate wikis, in particular the potential democratization of knowledge work. Design/methodology/approach: From a study of several cases of corporate wiki adoption, this paper presents and interprets two representative cases sampled to provide more generalized results. Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured interviews and observation. The analysis followed a systematic …

An Activity Theory Analysis Of A Case Of It-Driven Organisational Change, Wannapa Suratmethakul, Helen Hasan

Helen Hasan

The paper describes unexpected problems encountered in the automation of a scheduling process using an IT application already in use in other similar organisations. A grounded theory approach was used to collect and categorise data on the case. Activity Theory was then used to analyse the attempt by management to implement organisational change through the introduction of the system. The findings suggest that it is inadvisable to impose organisational change through the introduction of a complex IT system, particularly when this disrupts entrenched decision-making processes of the organisation.

A Theory Of Happiness-Wealth Relationship With Status-Sensitive Communication, Amnon Levy

Amnon Livermore

Personal happiness might not solely depend on the individual's level of wealth but also on the individual's level of sincere social capital. This paper argues that if sincere interpersonal communication is sensitive to economic status disparities, the accumulation of personal wealth beyond the community's average erodes the individual's sincere social capital. A measure of sincere social capital that is based on such sensitivity is constructed. Its consideration leads to the depiction of the individual's happiness-wealth relationship as an inverted U-shaped curve that peaks at personal wealth that is greater than the community mean.

The Network Centric Environment Viewed Through The Lens Of Activity Theory, Irena Ali, Leoni Warne, Helen M. Hasan

Helen Hasan

A network centric (NC) environment has the potential to transform the ways in which people gather, share, and process information with connectivity achieved thorough technological and social networks. This is of relevance to the military environment which ischaracterised by constant change and uncertainty, and exposed to the vagaries of the political and economic climate. This chapter will analyse human activities in the military network centric contextthrough the lens of the Cultural-Historical Activity Theory. Based on current research findings it is proposed that the activity of sense-making is central to common awareness and decision making, through information sharing, in technology enabled …

Articulating Knowledge Work: The Contributions Of Activity Theory And Task-Based Knowledge Management, Henry Linger, Frada Burstein, Helen M. Hasan

Helen Hasan

This chapter addresses issues of knowledge work in organisations with a concern that mainstream knowledge management (KM) has fallen short of expectations. The real nature of knowledge work remains hidden, and thus inaccessible, to those who are trying to improve organisational outcomes through KM practices. The authors have conducted independent research within a new discourse on knowledge work in the context of modem complex organisations, the results of which are converging to a common understanding of this critical phenomenon. Their two theoretical frameworks, one task-based and one activity-based, are described here as eminently suited to this research. Two sets of …

A Cultural-Historical Activity Theory Approach To Users, Usability And Usefulness, Helen M. Hasan

Helen Hasan

This paper takes an historical overview of the field of Human-Computer Interaction. Itdescribes how the cognitive psychology emphasis on user involvement in systemsdevelopment of the 1980s reached its limit by the early 1990s. At this point the focus shifted onto support for the tasks of users using computer-based systems in real contexts, a focus that ideally suits the mobile, ubiquitous and social technologies of the new millennium. The Cultural-Historical Activity Theory provides an appropriate framework for understanding this phenomenon and is adopted in this paper to present the work, over a seven year period, of a usability laboratory grounded in …

Deregulation In Theory And Practice, Robert Castle

Robert G. Castle

No abstract provided.

Enhancing Industry Association Theory: A Comparative Business History Contribution, James Reveley, Simon Ville

Simon Ville

Our comparative business historical examination of industry associations aims to enrich the under-theorized study of this distinctive type of meta-organization. We compare two New Zealand industry associations operating in the same supply chain but with differing degrees of associative capacity and types of external architecture. Our analysis of these associations builds on two strands of theory that rarely communicate with each other: New Institutional Economics (NIE) and Organizational–Institutional Theory (OIT). We demonstrate how NIE describes the structural potentialities for associational strength, while OIT addresses the relational context within associations. In turn, NIE’s examination of external influences reinforces OIT suggestions that …

The Unit Of Analysis In Is Theory: The Case For Activity, Helen Hasan, Sumayya Banna

Sumayya a Banna

In the field of IS, researchers use and adapt existing theories to make sense of their data. They also build new theory from their research findings. The way theory is used, adapted or created usually assumes a certain unit of analysis, which could be the artefact, the system, the organisation, the user, the developer, the team or something else. In this paper we propose that ‘activity’ should also be considered as a suitable unit of analysis for theory in IS since the purpose of any information systems is to facilitate activities of use. To support this proposition, we describe tenets …

The Unit Of Analysis In Is Theory: The Case For Activity, Helen Hasan, Sumayya Banna

Helen Hasan

In the field of IS, researchers use and adapt existing theories to make sense of their data. They also build new theory from their research findings. The way theory is used, adapted or created usually assumes a certain unit of analysis, which could be the artefact, the system, the organisation, the user, the developer, the team or something else. In this paper we propose that ‘activity’ should also be considered as a suitable unit of analysis for theory in IS since the purpose of any information systems is to facilitate activities of use. To support this proposition, we describe tenets …

The Darker Side Of Travel: The Theory And Practice Of Dark Tourism, Philip R. Stone

Dr Philip Stone

Emergent Negotiations: Stability And Shifts In Process Dynamics, Mara Olekalns, Laurie Weingart

Mara Olekalns

Negotiation is a dynamic process in which negotiators change their strategies in response to each other. We believe mutual adaptation is best conceptualized as an emergent process and is a critical determinant of negotiators’ abilities to identify mutually beneficial solutions. We argue that two factors drive the process of negotiation and influence the quality of agreements: alignment of negotiators’ strategies across individuals (strategy sequences) and with the negotiation-wide dynamic (phases) and congruence of negotiators’ goals.