Algorithmic Food – How “Software is Eating the World”

In this paper, we explore how algorithms have empowered customers and promoted their preferences, while turning the sourcing of food from the purchase of a valuable good into a simple transaction. Focusing on the generative character of algorithms in the organizing of food, we study the changing nature of food retailing in the UK over the last 20 years. Theoretically we focus on the role that algorithms and thus technology have played in the transformation of the organizing of food and shed new light on how the latter has undergone tremendous changes. Our study enhances the current understanding of the impact big data has and will have on many organizational aspects and demonstrates that we need to have a better and more critical understanding of its consequences

We are all pattern makers! : how a flat ontology connects organizational routines and grand challenges

Adopting a flat ontology, we discuss how phenomena of societal concern are connected to organizational routines. We conceptualize grand challenges as large patterns of actions to overcome the micro-macro divide prevalent in existing research. We introduce spatial, temporal, and agentic relations as three interrelated aspects of scale that are of particular interest and demonstrate how social phenomena may be approached through these relations. Focusing on the situated enactment of routines allows us to identify weakening and strengthening between actors and their actions as important processes that reflect the continuous patterning of grand challenges. We contribute to the literature by highlighting the consequentiality of mundane actions and by questioning the dominant approach to change in research on grand challenges. Our insights offer several practical implications for intervening on grand challenges.Academy of Finland Research Fellow Gran

Actor-Network Theory and Routine Dynamics

Actor-network theory has always been an inspiring theoretical and methodological source for Routine Dynamics research. Seeing routines as networks of actants and as a consequence rather than a cause of collective action enabled scholars to move away from a priori assumptions about the world and shift their attention to situated performances, multiplicity, and connections-in action. In this chapter, I provide a brief historical account of actor-network theory highlighting some of its central authors and their work before unravelling how Routine Dynamics scholars have appropriated it—ironically, often as an undercover actor that remains invisible at first sight—and conclude by reflecting on how actor-network theory can continue to be of use for and shape Routine Dynamics research.Peer reviewe

Unpacking the dynamics of ecologies of routines: mediators and their generative effects in routine interactions

Building on an in-depth ethnographic study at a renowned research laboratory, we show how the interactions of organizational routines can be more or less generative by tracing and analyzing how human and nonhuman actors (actants) connect routines. Adopting a performative perspective, we compare the connecting of such actants and study how they are engaged in routine performances. We relate observed differences in the generativity of routine interactions to whether actants become mediators or intermediaries. Whereas intermediaries merely maintain connections between routines, mediators can modify them when performing routine connections. We identify three generative effects mediators can lead to: (1) the creation of innovative outcomes, (2) the adaptation of existing routine performances, and/or (3) the emergence of new routine performances. Similar to the conception of organizational routines as dynamic and generative systems, we show that the way actants operate through their engagement renders routine interactions and thus ecologies of routines more or less generative

Innovation Work and Routine Dynamics

In this chapter we focus on organizational routines for innovation work. We counter the view that routines and innovation are an unlikely couple. Emphasizing that innovation work is characterized by emergence, dispersed collaboration between heterogeneous actors, and novelty, we are beginning to see how mundane actions—as opposed to grand creative acts—and the interplay between routines and standard operating procedures are driving the development of innovations-in-the-making. We review empirical routine dynamic studies of innovation work to point out affordances of the routine dynamic lens and suggest new avenues for studying innovation work to contribute new theoretical insights about organizational routines.Peer reviewe

Media Review: A Routine Dynamics Perspective on the ‘Black Summer’ Bushfires

A review of two documentary films: 'Burning' by Eva Orner and 'A Fire Inside' by Justin Krook and Luke Mazzaferro.Peer reviewe

From Fit to Fitting: A routine dynamics perspective on M&A synergy realization

Many mergers and acquisitions (M&A) fail to achieve anticipated synergistic benefits. The combination of resources and processes is particularly difficult. This paper uses a routine dynamics perspective to study an acquisition in the consultancy sector where the strategy of combining two routines, designed to commercialize a new offer, failed. Zooming in on the micro dynamics of synergy realization, we show how the envisioned design was challenged only once the combined routine was enacted. The joint performance of the routine revealed incompatibilities at three levels: within the combined routine; with adjacent routines; and across the merging organizations. We identify two mechanisms that drive these incompatibilities: conflicting actors’ intentions and conflicting organizational norms. We discuss how synergy realization requires both the converging of intentions and norms and the interweaving of actions, routines, and organizations. Our paper contributes to M&A research by challenging the notion of “fit” as a prerequisite for success and by developing the notion of “fitting” as an unfolding process, i.e., through a design–action loop in which sources of incompatibilities are revealed and adjusted. We elucidate the dynamic and iterative nature of synergy realization and argue for a rethinking of pre- and post-acquisition periods as fundamentally interlinked. We also contribute to research on routine dynamics by enhancing the understanding of routine interdependencies and the intentionality of routines in cross-organizational settings

From Fit to Fitting: A Routine Dynamics Perspective on M&A Synergy Realization

Many mergers and acquisitions (M&A) fail to achieve anticipated synergistic benefits. The combination of resources and processes is particularly difficult. This paper uses a routine dynamics perspective to study an acquisition in the consultancy sector where the strategy of combining two routines, designed to commercialize a new offer, failed. Zooming in on the micro dynamics of synergy realization, we show how the envisioned design was challenged only once the combined routine was enacted. The joint performance of the routine revealed incompatibilities at three levels: within the combined routine; with adjacent routines; and across the merging organizations. We identify two mechanisms that drive these incompatibilities: conflicting actors' intentions and conflicting organizational norms. We discuss how synergy realization requires both the converging of intentions and norms and the interweaving of actions, routines, and organizations. Our paper contributes to M&A research by challenging the notion of ‘fit’ as a prerequisite for success and by developing the notion of ‘fitting’ as an unfolding process, i.e., through a design-action loop in which sources of incompatibilities are revealed and adjusted. We elucidate the dynamic and iterative nature of synergy realization and argue for a rethinking of pre- and post-acquisition periods as fundamentally interlinked. We also contribute to research on routine dynamics by enhancing the understanding of routine interdependencies and the intentionality of routines in cross-organizational settings.Peer reviewe

From Big Data to Rich Theory: Integrating Critical Discourse Analysis with Structural Topic Modeling

https://doi.org/10.1111/emre.12452A growing interest in the study of discourses has spread in management research, but so far, it has mostly relied on in-depth qualitative analyses of textual material. With the increasing availability of large textual data, several challenges arise. This paper offers a mixed-methods approach to integrate critical discourse analysis with structural topic modeling to turn these challenges into valuable opportunities. We argue that combining both approaches overcomes their limitations and provides great potential for exploring phenomena that matter in our mediatized society. Based on an explanatory sequential mixed-methods design, we develop a stepwise model that provides practical and theoretical guidance to conduct a critical analysis of large textual data. Our illustrative example focuses on the discursive legitimation struggles around the tobacco industry. We demonstrate how an integrated mixed-methods approach allows capturing the breadth and depth of discourses used by different actors in the tobacco debates.Peer reviewe