Emergent knowledge dynamics in innovation: exploring e-business entrepreneurship after the dotcom crash

This thesis explores emergent knowledge dynamics in innovation in the context of ebusiness entrepreneurship. Based on a critique of the dialectic interpretation of knowledge dynamics, it forwards a perspective that stresses the creative force of emergence that disrupts existent meanings and produces new potentialities for innovation. It suggests ways of using such a perspective in policy-targeted research. The first part elaborates on the traditional uses of concepts of knowledge in explanations of entrepreneurial innovation and on the need to account for a dynamic perspective on emergent knowledge. The thesis employs work by Deleuze and Guattari as meta-theoretical vehicle to expand the conceptual potential of social representations theory beyond its traditional focus on a dialectic ontology of becoming. It highlights a dynamic which does not exclusively assume conceptual difference as the source of the novel and which allows for patterns of becoming other than the triadic continuity of dialectics. Together, this provides new possibilities for an understanding of knowledge dynamics taking into account both adaptive and creative dynamics of emergence. The empirical part combines thematic analysis of interviews and a focus group with Deleuzian analysis of participant observation to facilitate an exploration of emergent conditions for innovation in a particular milieu of e-business entrepreneurship. The exploration shows how changes in shared evaluative dimensions guided – and constrained – the creation of new concepts. Simultaneously, distinct assemblages arising from novel connections of affect and technology in networks created the conditions of fluidity and ambiguity required for new knowledge: in the aftermath of the dotcom crash, new concepts of network leadership and trust in business interaction were emerging. This study forwards new insights on the study of emergent knowledge dynamics as oscillating between rhizomic opening and dialectic closure. It is in the disruptive encounters between the two that new conditions for innovation can assemble

The gold rush for business excellence awards

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonThere has been a proliferation of Business excellence awards (BEAs) in recent times, and the number of businesses entering and winning such awards is on the increase. Embedded in contemporary organising, business excellence awards have evolved to become a useful means to improving recognition in the marketplace, which in turn could facilitate the growth of a firm's customer base and drive it to achieve sustainable competitive advantage over their market rivals. In spite of its current relevance in contemporary organising, scholarly work examining this phenomenon remains scattered with the dominant narrative focusing on the intensive, even obsession with award entry preparation. This study examines how firms compete with each other for BEAs, and how they utilise them as symbolic tokens to achieve competitiveness. Drawing on the practice turn in contemporary social theory as a lens, the study explores how the material, meaning, and competence elements of BEAs, in context, interact and combine to give form and shape to BEAs as a practice in contemporary organizing. Adopting an explorative qualitative research design, the research contribution is developed in the context of a UK regional and national BEAs. Data for the inquiry comes from forty-five (45) semi-structured interviews with managers and owners of firms who won or were nominated for an award at one of the BEAs studied. This was supplemented with publicly available data on the BEAs, and the websites and social media pages of the firms studied. The study presents three main findings. First, emphasising the actions and situated practices that cohere to drive the competition for BEAs, the study identifies the internal and external influences that fuel firms desire to compete for these BEAs, suggesting that the significance of BEAs in achieving market competitiveness and other important organisational outcomes makes it an imperative ritual which firms cannot afford to ignore or boycott. Second, shedding light on why firms are keen on competing for BEAs, even if they cannot justify the value in terms of their balance sheets, the thesis unpacks the motivations and mentalities driving firms to compete for BEAs year in year out. Lastly, offering insight into why firms prioritise a particular BEA or award category, the thesis delineates the choices firms make when it comes to BEAs and identifies the potential value firms frequently capture from BEAs. The contribution of this study is also three-fold. First, the study in adopting the practice turn in contemporary social theory as a lens provides an alternative interpretation of how firms in their everyday organizing come to make sense of BEAs, and how the practice of BEAs in itself has evolved over time to shape the creation and capture of value for competitiveness. Second, it extends our understanding as to why many firms are keen to expend significant amount of their time and limited resources into preparing, entering, and competing for BEAs. Finally, in studying and theorising BEAs in the form of strategizing, the thesis extends our understanding of how firms could potentially turn their business excellence award fortunes into market competitiveness.Government of Ghana through the Ghana Scholarship Secretaria

Expanding Data Imaginaries in Urban Planning:Foregrounding lived experience and community voices in studies of cities with participatory and digital visual methods

“Expanding Data Imaginaries in Urban Planning” synthesizes more than three years of industrial research conducted within Gehl and the Techno–Anthropology Lab at Aalborg University. Through practical experiments with social media images, digital photovoice, and participatory mapmaking, the project explores how visual materials created by citizens can be used within a digital and participatory methodology to reconfigure the empirical ground of data-driven urbanism. Drawing on a data feminist framework, the project uses visual research to elevate community voices and situate urban issues in lived experiences. As a Science and Technology Studies project, the PhD also utilizes its industrial position as an opportunity to study Gehl’s practices up close, unpacking collectively held narratives and visions that form a particular “data imaginary” and contribute to the production and perpetuation of the role of data in urban planning. The dissertation identifies seven epistemological commitments that shape the data imaginary at Gehl and act as discursive closures within their practice. To illustrate how planners might expand on these, the dissertation uses its own data experiments as speculative demonstrations of how to make alternative modes of knowing cities possible through participatory and digital visual methods

A proposal towards better sustainable consumer information to address eco-certification skepticism and sustainability initiatives of adventure tourism companies in Norway

According to the United Nations World Tourism Organization’s Global Report on Adventure Tourism from 2014, there is a growing demand for adventure tourism globally. With Norway abiding by its tourism industry’s slogan— “Powered by Nature—it showcases that Norway’s primary tourism identity rests within nature in the form of adventure tourism. Issues of sustainability in the tourism industry remain paramount as Norway seeks to develop sustainably with tourism. With that, the role of adventure tourism companies in participating in sustainable tourism remains vital. The thesis extends the researchers’ previous internship work of observing how Scandinavia (i.e., Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Iceland) is home to numerous nature-based tour companies that implement sustainable tourism practices without being eco-certified. Booknordics AS provided access to adventure tourism companies. In effect, to further research on the role of adventure tour companies in sustainable tourism, the study conducted a grounded theory approach to investigate Norwegian adventure tourism companies’ sustainable consumer information on websites and their opinions towards the effectiveness of eco-certification in influencing their sustainability practices. Therefore, the researchers used a combination of purposive, convenience, and snowball sampling to find and select adventure tourism companies to be part of the case. With that, 16 interviews and the websites from Norwegian adventure tourism companies contributed to data collection that was analyzed thematically. As a result, the thesis presents two main findings. First, both eco-certified and non-eco-certified adventure tour companies’ skepticism to eco-certifications ability to foster sustainable practices roots in three reasons: a) the insufficiency of eco-certifications in representing their sustainable initiatives; b) the lack of a compatible certification scheme focusing on adventure tourism companies; c) the issue of credibility on data reported by eco-certified companies. Second, regardless of being eco-certified or not, Norwegian tour companies voluntarily implement several types of sustainability initiatives which are being regenerative in design, creating value for local communities, and implementing work practices. However, despite the practice of sustainability initiatives amongst adventure tour companies, they lack using a digestible framework to provide better sustainability consumer information on their websites. Therefore, the thesis proposes the Sustainable Consumer Information Badge System as a potential solution to represent a bottom-up policy building with local operators.M-D

Revisiting image theory: decision styles, temptations and image theory’s compatibility test

This thesis project revisits the compatibility test, Image Theory's screening process to form decision choice sets, and considers its elements and mechanisms in the light of three aspects: first, it investigates how the affect heuristic influences the compatibility screening. In this context, the claim of earlier research that only criteria violations are considered during the option screening process is reconsidered; second, a structural model is evaluated establishing links between a decision-maker's decision styles and the variables defining the compatibility test; and third, a neural network is created and tested to predict even irrational choice of decision-makers for a specific screening situation and based on their compatibility test in- and outputs. 741 participants of two populations were administered three online questionnaires to collect required data. 40 questionnaire items have been used to identify the participants decision styles. The participants were tasked to select companies as potential acquisition targets and, thus, performed a compatibility test based on criteria and their importance weights provided by the researcher. Companies met and failed to meet the criteria to differing extent. Two temptation alternatives that outperformed all other companies in the most important criteria multiple times and failed to meet all others were administered to the participants. Based on what companies were selected, the participants rejection threshold and their inconsistent choices were determined. The research provides evidence that the claim of earlier research that Image Theory's compatibility screening process relies only on criteria violations is untenable. Further, a structural equation model was confirmed establishing links between participants' decision styles and the variables defining their compatibility screenings. Eventually, a neural network was generated, trained and tested that correctly predicted with close to 90% reliability a participant's choices, even the objectively irrational ones. It is recommended that future research further develops the idea of neural networks mimicking human decision behaviour

Social media marketing strategy for an online italian language school

Social media marketing (SMM) is becoming increasingly relevant for all kinds of businesses; in particular it can be fruitful for small and medium enterprises due to its relative cost-effectiveness and opportunities for organic reach. Besides, brand presence and consistency on social media (SM) can raise brand awareness and increase brand trust. The topic of this project is a nascent brand, Allora School, which is an online Italian language school. This project was developed with the aim of creating a SMM strategy for Allora School as it enters the market. There are plenty of different social media platforms (SMPs), however, due to Generation Z being the target audience (TA) of the brand in question, the author chose Instagram and TikTok. The strategy was developed based on a review of the literature regarding branding, SM, peculiarities of marketing to TA and their learning preferences. In this project, the hierarchy of effects model was adapted to modern day SM and used as a key indicator for SMM design. The exploratory part of the project consisted of observation and benchmarking to gather some insights and nuances to implement in a proposed strategy. The practical part included the overall description of the language school, the innovative platform it uses for storing the materials and conducting interactive lessons for Gen Z learners is provided to give a rationale for the chosen TA, the rationale of the brand name and logo. Finally, there is the explanation of the design of a SMM strategy for Allora School that will serve to increase brand awareness and brand trust, and, consequently, lead to sales.O marketing de redes sociais está se tornando cada vez mais relevante para todos os tipos de negócios, em particular pode ser frutífero para pequenas e médias empresas devido à sua relação custo-benefício e oportunidades de alcance orgânico. Além disso, a presença e a consistência da marca nas redes sociais podem levar a aumentar o reconhecimento da marca e aumentar a confiança na marca. O tema deste projeto é uma marca nascente, Allora School, que é uma escola online de italiano. Este projeto foi desenvolvido com o objetivo de criar uma estratégia de marketing nas redes sociais para a Allora School à medida que entra no mercado. Existem muitas plataformas de mídia social diferentes, no entanto, devido à Geração Z ser o público-alvo da marca em questão, o autor escolheu o Instagram e o TikTok. A estratégia foi desenvolvida com base em uma revisão da literatura sobre branding, redes sociais, peculiaridades do marketing para o público-alvo e suas preferências de aprendizagem. Neste projeto, o modelo de hierarquia de efeitos foi adaptado às redes sociais modernas e usado como um indicador-chave para o design da estratégia de marketing nas redes sociais. A parte exploratória do projeto consistiu em observação e benchmarking para reunir alguns insights e nuances para implementar em uma estratégia proposta. A parte prática incluiu a descrição geral da escola de idiomas, a plataforma inovadora que ela usa para armazenar os materiais e conduzir aulas interativas para alunos da Geração Z é fornecida para fornecer uma justificativa para o público-alvo escolhido, a lógica do nome da marca e do logotipo. Por fim, explica-se o desenho de uma estratégia de SMM para a Allora School que servirá para aumentar a notoriedade e a confiança da marca e, consequentemente, levar a vendas