Management research and literary criticism

This paper is concerned with analysing the role of rhetoric and literary criticism in research and scholarship. It is argued that critical debate and dialogue are the hub of the process of research and scholarship and that social science and literature have more in common than is normally recognized. Most of these debates are carried out in writing and involve elaborate writing and reading of texts – or literature as we prefer to call it. We argue the case that management researchers may have something to learn from literary criticism. A model of literary criticism comprising four different modes of criticism – mimetic, expressive, pragmatic and objective – is described and the implications for management research are suggested. The paper concludes with a number of reflections on what can be gained from this type of analysis and on the role of reflexivity in the research process

Lament for a market unmade

This paper presents a case study of market making. In addition to contributing to a sparse literature on this process, its primary contribution is to reveal how and why this attempt failed. It particularly relies on the evolutionary understanding of markets and market institutions provided by Loasby (2000) for theoretical insight

Social approaches to the competitive process

Firms are seen as part of a set of interlinked relationships with other entities within any given industry, and the number and density of these relationships differ as the industry develops. Similarly, ‘competition' is seen to extend beyond the stereotype of individual firms, clearly demarcated one from the other, engaged in cut-throat competition. Close, co-operative modes of action can and do co-exist with competitive interactions. Cumulative benefits associated with geographical proximity and infrastructural resources and support reinforce the already disproportionate advantages enjoyed by some regions at the expense of others. Convergence of technologies may be a further facilitating factor. The temperature control industry can be considered as a subset of the process control instrumentation industry which in turn can be defined as comprising firms manufacturing and/or rendering services in the area of instrumentation measuring, controlling and recording the process parameters. © 1989 Arthur Francis and P. K. M. Tharakan