Clarifying the Dominant Logic Construct by Disentangling and Reassembling its Dimensions

Since its introduction, Prahalad and Bettis's concept of dominant logic has informed a variety of scholarly conversations in management and strategy research. However, scholars have interpreted dominant logic in different ways, emphasizing different aspects, such as managerial mindsets, administrative tools and management functions, as defining elements. Similarly, empirical studies have captured various aspects, such as meanings of entrepreneurs, observable strategic decisions and business model similarity, as indicators of dominant logic. Consequently, the concept lacks analytical clarity, and it is difficult to compare or generalize findings from this diverse set of studies. The aim of this review is to improve conceptual clarity by analysing, comparing and evaluating the existing interpretations and assessments of dominant logic in 94 studies. In the first part of the review, by disentangling the interpretations of the concept, we show that dominant logic consists of four defining dimensions: (i) shared mental models; (ii) values and premises; (iii) organizational practices; and (iv) organizing structures. In the second part, we reassemble dominant logic into an integrative model and theorize about how these dimensions operate in concert to produce a firm's dominant logic. Thus, our main contribution is a clarification and synthesis of the literature, which comes with implications on how future research can conceptualize and operationalize dominant logic more consistently

Der Wandel von Praxis, Wissen und Identität in der Industrie 4.0

Oft wird bei der Digitalisierung und Automatisierung von Arbeitsprozessen übersehen, dass dadurch für die Organisation gravierende Veränderungen angestoßen werden. Dieser Beitrag zeigt auf, dass solche Veränderungen zu einer Inkongruenz zwischen dem "was eine Organisation tut" (Praxis), "was sie kann" (Wissen) und "wer sie ist" (Identität) führen können. Um Veränderungen erfolgreich umzusetzen, müssen diese Inkongruenzen überwunden werden. Wenn Manager sich dessen bewusst sind, können viele Probleme wie z. B. der Zusammenbruch bestehender Routinen, Wissenslücken oder der Abgang von wichtigen Mitarbeitern vorhergesehen und gelöst werden

When do threats mobilize managers for organizational change toward sustainability? An Environmental Belief Model

In pursuit of counteracting today's environmental problems, corporate management will have to implement organizational changes factoring in sustainability, which is why it is important to understand exactly what leads managers to initiate these changes. It has been established that managers' personal values are critical for their behavior and that threats to these values can mobilize managers to change their actions. However, when confronted with environment-related threats, managers may face value conflicts and various tensions between their aim to implement sustainable changes and their desire to fulfill business requirements of their job positions. Only recently have researchers begun to investigate the underlying beliefs that may leadmanagers to initiate organizational change toward sustainability. Borrowing theoretical assumptions from the domain of health psychology (from the well-established health belief model), the present conceptual article develops an environmental belief model that specifies when exactly threats lead managers to initiate organizational change. The environmental belief model proposes that environment-related threats trigger change (i) when managers believe that their firms are susceptible to these threats, (ii) the threats are considered as serious for the company, (iii) the perceived benefits of the change outperform (iv) the perceived barriers, and when there is(v) an external cue (e.g., an information campaign). All these propositions are supported with empirical findings from business contexts. Besides theoretical advancement on the role of environmental threats as precipitators of organizational change, the model provides guidance on how to frame environment-related threats that will mobilize managers for organizational change toward sustainability

Collective rumination: When "problem talk" impairs organizational resilience

When adversity strikes, organization members often turn to others in order to vent their negative emotions and re-ceive social support. While social interaction is commonly seen as a major resource for organizational resilience, dysfunctional social interactions and their negative effects on coping with and overcoming adversity are less well understood. This conceptual article develops theory on collective rumination— defined as repetitive and prolonged discussions of adverse events that center on the negative and uncontrollable aspects of the situation— and its detrimental effects on organizational resilience. We elaborate that collective rumination emerges through a vicious circle of a shared negative situational assessment and mutual contagion with highly negative emotions. Based on our theorizing, we propose that collective rumination is negatively related to three core dimensions of organizational resilience: perceptions of control, commitment to joint action, and the acceptance of adversity as a challenge. With our conceptual article, we answer earlier calls to theorize about forms of social interactions that are not valuable but destructive for organizational resilience and elucidate previously neglected social dynamics that are dysfunctional for recovering from adversity

Navigating force conflicts: A case study on strategies of transformative research in the current academic system

Against the backdrop of the increasing calls for scholars, universities and the broader academic system to become more societally relevant and contribute to tackling various sustainability challenges, researchers across all disciplines are themselves moving toward conducting more transformative research. Work to date has focused on challenges in these transitions, obstacles to transformative research, and researchers' resistance to ‘impact strategies’; however, little is known about how those who actually do transformative research ultimately overcome these challenges. Using Lewin's field theory as a theoretical basis, we collected qualitative data and carried out 32 in-depth interviews with ‘transformative’ scholars and policy and support staff at Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR) on the driving and conflicting forces related to transformative research, as well as strategies for dealing with them. An in-depth grounded analysis revealed transformative researchers' identity and goal conflicts and showed how they skillfully navigate those conflicts by choosing between two ideal-typical strategies, ‘transforming through research output’ and ‘transforming through research process’. The constellations of forces identified that actually influence researchers' choices on those strategies need to be taken into account in the designing of effective research policies for leveraging the potential of transformative research to tackle sustainability challenges

Poland, Slovenia, the World : Challenges of present-day education

Publikacja recenzowana / Peer-reviewed publicationTransformations of education in changing Europe are multifaceted. One of the latter is the process of strengthening the cooperation among universities in this part of the world. This cooperation is carried out in many fields – from joint projects and researches – to joint analyses, discourses and publications. This monograph – a collection of reflections, thoughts and polemics deriving from theoretical and empirical researches, carried out as a part of a joint research project simultaneously undertaken at both these universities under the name “Problems and challenges of modern education” – constitutes one of the fruits of the cooperation between Andrzej Frycz Modrzewski Cracow University and the University of Ljubljana

No need to hide: Acknowledging the researcher’s intuition in empirical organizational research

Experts on organizational research methods have begun to highlight the importance of researchers’ intuition (i.e. ‘direct knowing’) and have called for more genuine method sections that acknowledge its use. However, using intuition contradicts established research standards of traceability. Hence, when intuition was involved in the research process, researchers must choose between reporting its role, thereby risking the impression of lacking scholarly rigor, and downplaying its role, thereby writing less-than-honest research reports. This article aims to provide a solution to this dilemma by conceptually exploring how intuition can be integrated in research such that scholarly rigor is maintained. Building on Weick’s distinction of creative imagination and validation, it argues that intuition can be legitimately seized if its functioning principles are taken into account and its outcomes are later validated through analytical procedures. The article synthesizes theoretical assumptions and empirical findings on characteristics of intuition with discussions of organizational research methods to derive implications on (1) points in the research process where researchers’ intuitions may be legitimately included and (2) possible types of intuitive outcomes that may be reported. This may contribute to both more genuine method sections and more rigorous research that systematically validates intuition, instead of hiding it

Lewin's field theory as a lens for understanding incumbent actors’ agency in sustainability transitions

Understanding incumbent actors’ behavior is one of the current key targets in sustainability transitions research. Scholars studying incumbents’ agency have demanded the inclusion of broader social-science theories that bridge different levels (i.e., individual, group) and enable the inclusion of a multitude of actors’ drivers and motives into one coherent framework. The present article suggests that Kurt Lewin's field theory, an influential theory of social and organizational change, may be suited for this purpose. From the perspective of field theory, actors are exposed to various partially conflicting ‘field forces’ (e.g., related to needs, expectations, or roles). The relative strength of these forces determines actors’ decisions and behavior. The paper introduces key concepts of Lewin's field theory and reinterprets incumbents’ responses to sustainability transitions from a field-theoretical perspective. It elaborates on potential theoretical and methodical benefits of Lewin's field theory for studying incumbents’ agency and closes with a discussion of practical implications

Which User Interactions Predict Levels of Expertise in Work-integrated Learning?

Abstract. Predicting knowledge levels from user's implicit interactions with an adaptive system is a difficult task, particularly in learning systems that are used in the context of daily work tasks. We have collected interactions of six persons working with the adaptive work-integrated learning system APOSDLE over a period of two months to find out whether naturally occurring interactions with the system can be used to predict their level of expertise. One set of interactions is based on the tasks they performed, the other on a number of additional Knowledge Indicating Events (KIE). We find that the addition of KIE significantly improves the prediction as compared to using tasks only. Both approaches are superior to a model that uses only the frequencies of events