Practitioner accounts and knowledge production: an analysis of three marketing discourses

Responding to repeated calls for marketing academicians to connect with marketing actors, we offer an empirically-sourced discourse analysis of the ways in which managers portray their practices. Focusing on the micro-discourses and narratives that marketing actors draw upon to represent their work we argue that dominant representations of marketing knowledge production present a number of critical concerns for marketing theory and marketing education. We also evidence that the often promoted idea of a need to close the gap between theory - as a dominant discourse - and practice, as a way of doing marketing, is problematic to pursue. We suggest that a more fruitful agenda resides in the development of a range of polyphonic and creative micro-discourses of management, promoting context, difference and individual meaning in marketing knowledge production

Biomimetic bone-like apatite coating on anodised titanium in simulated body fluid under UV irradiation

Low temperature deposition techniques of bioceramics coatings are now being researched and developed to avoid deficiencies inherent in high temperature techniques. Biomimetic coatings are a solution-based method conducted at ambient temperature to deposit bioactive coatings on the surface. The current study aims to investigate the effect of ultraviolet (UV) irradiation on the coating of bone-like apatite on the anodised surface. High purity titanium foils were anodised with an applied voltage of 350 V, current density of 70 mA.cm-2 in mixture of 0.04 M β-glycerophosphate disodium salt pentahydrate (β-GP) and 0.4 M calcium acetate (CA) for 10 min. After anodic oxidation, UV light treatment was conducted in pH-adjusted distilled water for 12 h with ultraviolet light A (UVA) irradiation. Subsequently, the UV-treated anodised titanium foils were soaked in SBF for 7 days with/without UVA irradiation. After SBF immersion for 7 days, anodised titanium with combination of UV light treatment and UV irradiation during in vitro testing was fully covered by highly crystalline bone-like apatite at maximal thickness of 2.8 μm. This occurred mainly due to the formation of large amounts of Ti-OH groups which act as nucleation sites for bone-like apatite. This study also revealed that UV irradiation during in vitro testing is superior in promoting growth of bone-like apatite compared to UV light treatment. The suggested mechanism for bone-like apatite formation on anodised titanium under different UV irradiation conditions is illustrated in this article. The findings of this study indicated that biomimetic bone-like apatite coating with assistance of UV irradiation is an effective method in accelerating the formation of bone-like apatite

Capability in the digital: institutional media management and its dis/contents

This paper explores how social media spaces are occupied, utilized and negotiated by the British Military in relation to the Ministry of Defence’s concerns and conceptualizations of risk. It draws on data from the DUN Project to investigate the content and form of social media about defence through the lens of ‘capability’, a term that captures and describes the meaning behind multiple representations of the military institution. But ‘capability’ is also a term that we hijack and extend here, not only in relation to the dominant presence of ‘capability’ as a representational trope and the extent to which it is revealing of a particular management of social media spaces, but also in relation to what our research reveals for the wider digital media landscape and ‘capable’ digital methods. What emerges from our analysis is the existence of powerful, successful and critically long-standing media and reputation management strategies occurring within the techno-economic online structures where the exercising of ‘control’ over the individual – as opposed to the technology – is highly effective. These findings raise critical questions regarding the extent to which ‘control’ and management of social media – both within and beyond the defence sector – may be determined as much by cultural, social, institutional and political influence and infrastructure as the technological economies. At a key moment in social media analysis, then, when attention is turning to the affordances, criticisms and possibilities of data, our research is a pertinent reminder that we should not forget the active management of content that is being similarly, if not equally, effective

A case of mistaken identity: theory, practice and the marketing textbook

PURPOSE One field in business where there is a purported gap between theory and practice is in marketing. This paper examines one area of the debate, the degree of congruence between the established textbook theories of marketing and the practical activity of marketing managers. METHODOLOGY/ APPROACH Phenomenological interviews were carried out with senior marketing managers from a diverse range of organisations. The aim was to establish what types of factors inform manager’s approaches to practice. Meaningful comparisons were made possible, as a range of marketing texts were also examined. FINDINGS Textbook theories represent a flawed view of the practitioner’s world. Many texts are very similar, based on an implicitly systems based paradigm. Universal truths are seen as indispensable modes of representational language. In contrast, the interviews with managers show that marketing is a locally contingent activity, occupying a discursive space separate from textbook theory. RESEARCH IMPLICATIONS Scholars desire to reduce real world activity to over arching explanations has led to the simplification of theory. Textbooks should embrace an approach based on interpretative insights into the realities of marketing practice. Moves away from the `one size fits all’ theory need to occur, to a situation where marketing is recognised as being about a socially mediated, multifaceted approach to business activity. ORGINALITY Substantial attention has been paid to what many commentators regard as an academic practitioner divide in marketing. Most of this concerns the status of research into marketing. Considerable less attention is devoted to the position of the marketing textbook. This paper helps to remedy the situation. Ideas are offered up for the development of marketing knowledge and ways are suggested to help close the theory practice gap in the discipline, through the medium of the textbook

Using digital storytelling to externalise personal knowledge of research processes: The case of a Knowledge Audio repository

Published ArticleWhile articulation gap describes skill deficiencies displayed by university entrants emerging from underperforming schools, the high attrition and articulation gap at postgraduate levels demonstrate inadequacies of the entry-level intervention programmes implemented to address these challenges. Since inadequate socialization into postgraduate research and limited supervisor support contribute to the articulation gap and attrition rates at South African universities, digital storytelling (DST) potentially addresses these challenges. DST tends to foreground rigorous research, script writing, collective engagement and public expression of subdued voices to ensure effective participation in higher education. The research explores the potential of DST to externalize personal knowledge among postgraduate students at a South African university. It employs a Knowledge Audio Repository (KAR) for the generation and archiving of knowledge for future access and reuse. Findings suggest that DST is ideal for information generation, collaborative engagement and tracking of the developmental trajectory of postgraduates involved in cognitively-demanding research activities

Diplomatic style as foreign policy insight : a case study of South Korea

Diplomatic style is problematic. In academic research it is dismissed, misconstrued, treated perfunctorily, or wholly absented. Despite substantial expansion in the field of diplomatic studies, it has attracted scant attention. Yet, practitioners maintain a faith-like confidence in it. They allude to its importance in memoirs and instructional texts, and assume it gives them an advantage over scholars in analyzing foreign policy. For scholars and analysts, this raises the question, does diplomatic style really provide additional insight into foreign policy? This study assesses whether the ability to recognize and comprehend diplomatic style provides additional analytical insight above and beyond that which is available through academic research. I first explore the concept of diplomatic style and present a framework for its analysis. I construct four Weberian ideal types of diplomatic style - purposive-rational, value-rational, traditional, and emotional, which provide a means to contrast and compare concrete examples. Using South Korea as a case study, I elicit experiential narratives of diplomatic style from practicing and retired South Korean diplomats, and practicing and retired members of the Seoul foreign diplomatic corps. I then analyze, contrast, and compare these narratives with the Weberian ideal types. I find a tendency towards emotionalism, and concerns regarding status, generational change, cosmopolitanism, and estrangement, to be characteristics of the South Korean diplomatic style. While these phenomena are featured in academic research, I argue that focusing on diplomatic style highlights their relevance to foreign policy. In particular, the relevance of estrangement is difficult to ascertain from academic research alone. Therefore I also argue that the ability to recognize and comprehend diplomatic style does not provide additional analytical insight into a state's foreign policy, above and beyond that which is normally available through scholarly research, but rather narrows the vast range of information analysts must cover, and thus is an important guide to the factors which are 'policy relevant'. Hence the study makes three core contributions. First, it contributes to the field of diplomatic studies by presenting a comprehensive framework for the conceptualization of style in diplomatic practice. Second, it contributes to the field of Korean studies by highlighting influences on South Korean foreign policy, which were previously disparate and difficult to isolate. And finally, it presents a tangible policy solution to address the scholar-practitioner gap through a focus on diplomatic style

Antecedents of Effective Decision Making: A Cognitive Approach

Decision-making effectiveness has been associated with how well managers adapt their cognitive style to task requirements. In this paper, theories regarding decision-making under uncertainty and the use of judgment and intuition are reviewed and integrated. Cognitive Continuum Theory (CCT), positing a one-dimensional continuum of cognitive styles anchored by intuition and analysis, is extended: Four fundamental decision styles are identified and evaluated for their relative effectiveness under various task conditions. Propositions are developed with respect to the relationships between decision task characteristics and the likelihood of using two cognitive systems, and with respect to potential moderators of decision-making effectiveness. The propositions are integrated into a comprehensive theoretical model. Major contributions of the study are a conceptual clarification of the distinctions between intuition, heuristics and bounded rationality on the one hand, and the assessment of the scope of various cognitive styles as well as the identification of moderators of their effectiveness on the other. Research implications and some suggestions for managerial practice are provided.Economics ;

‘Talent-spotting’ or ‘social magic’? Inequality, cultural sorting and constructions of the ideal graduate in elite professions

Graduate outcomes – including rates of employment and earnings – are marked by persistent inequalities related to social class, as well as gender, ethnicity and institution. Despite national policy agendas related to social mobility and ‘fair access to the professions’, high-status occupations are disproportionately composed of those from socially privileged backgrounds, and evidence suggests that in recent decades many professions have become less socially representative. This article makes an original contribution to sociological studies of inequalities in graduate transitions and elite reproduction through a distinct focus on the ‘pre-hiring’ practices of graduate employers. It does this through a critical analysis of the graduate recruitment material of two popular graduate employers. It shows how, despite espousing commitments to diversity and inclusion, constructions of the ‘ideal’ graduate privilege individuals who can mobilise and embody certain valued capitals. Using Bourdieusian concepts of ‘social magic’ and ‘institutional habitus’, the article argues that more attention must be paid to how graduate employers’ practices constitute tacit processes of social exclusion and thus militate against the achievement of more equitable graduate outcomes and fair access to the ‘top jobs