Politics of meaning in categorizing innovation : how chefs advanced molecular gastronomy by resisting the label

This study examines innovators’ efforts to conceptualize and communicate their novel work through categorization. Specifically, we view category formation as a controversial process of meaning making, which we theorize through the concept of ‘politics of meaning’ and operationalize through a social semiotics approach. By analyzing the labelling controversies underlying a new culinary style publicized as ‘molecular gastronomy’, we find that innovators’ efforts at categorization unfold along four consecutive stages: experiment ng with a new style, communicating the new style, contesting the dominant label, and legitimating the category meaning. Our study suggests that a new category’s dominant label can substantially deviate from the innovators’ intended denotations, yet nonetheless bring that category forward by triggering public negotiations around its meaning , which lead to categorical deepening and legitimation. By putting forward a ‘politics of meaning’ view on categorizing innovation, this work advances our understanding of the connection between labeling and category formation in the context of innovation

The interplay of agency, culture and networks in field evolution

We examine organizational field change instigated by activists. Contrary to existing views emphasizing incumbent resistance, we suggest that collaboration between incumbents and challenger movements may emerge when a movement's cultural and relational fabric becomes moderately structured, creating threats and market opportunities but remaining permeable to external influence. We also elucidate how lead incumbents' attempts at movement cooptation may be deflected through distributed brokerage. The resulting confluence of cultural and relational "structuration" between movement and field accelerates the pace but dilutes the radicalness of institutional innovation, ensuring ongoing, incremental field change. Overall, this article contributes to the emergent literature on field dynamics by uncovering the evolution and outcomes of collaborative work at the intersection of social movements and incumbent fields

The Business Model: Recent Developments and Future Research

This article provides a broad and multifaceted review of the received literature on business models in which the authors examine the business model concept through multiple subject-matter lenses. The review reveals that scholars do not agree on what a business model is and that the literature is developing largely in silos, according to the phenomena of interest of the respective researchers. However, the authors also found emerging common themes among scholars of business models. Specifically, (1) the business model is emerging as a new unit of analysis; (2) business models emphasize a system-level, holistic approach to explaining how firms “do business”; (3) firm activities play an important role in the various conceptualizations of business models that have been proposed; and (4) business models seek to explain how value is created, not just how it is captured. These emerging themes could serve as catalysts for a more unified study of business models

Towards an articulation of the material and visual turn in organization studies

International audienceContemporary organizations increasingly rely on images, logos, videos, building materials, graphic andproduct design, and a range of other material and visual artifacts to compete, communicate, form identityand organize their activities. This Special Issue focuses on materiality and visuality in the course of objectifyingand reacting to novel ideas, and, more broadly, contributes to organizational theory by articulating theemergent contours of a material and visual turn in the study of organizations. In this Introduction, weprovide an overview of research on materiality and visuality. Drawing on the articles in the special issue, wefurther explore the affordances and limits of the material and visual dimensions of organizing in relation tonovelty. We conclude by pointing out theoretical avenues for advancing multimodal research, and discusssome of the ethical, pragmatic and identity-related challenges that a material and visual turn could pose fororganizational research

Institutional distance and knowledge acquisition in international buyer–supplier relationships::the moderating role of trust

Institutional distance can generate expanded opportunities for multinational firms to facilitate learning and responsiveness. However, such distance can also create obstacles regarding knowledge transfer and integration. A theoretical puzzle concerns the mechanisms and conditions in which international buyers and suppliers can overcome institutional distance and acquire new knowledge. We develop an integrative moderated-mediation model in which institutional distance prevents parties from accessing knowledge but, when knowledge is obtained and mutual trust is developed, it promotes cross-border knowledge acquisition in international buyer-supplier exchange, particularly between international firms and firms from the Asia Pacific region. These findings indicate that firms can overcome the challenges of regulative and cognitive distance and facilitate access to knowledge and knowledge acquisition when they are able to develop and cultivate relationships of mutual trust with foreign partners. While normative distance may create learning incentives and opportunities in international buyer-supplier relationships, its impacts on knowledge accessibility and acquisition are insignificant.fi=vertaisarvioitu|en=peerReviewed

Las claves del liderazgo creativo

A primera vista, nada parece más alejado del mundo de la empresa que el ámbito de la creación artística. Sin embargo, cuando las organizaciones adoptan las estrategias de los grandes creativos, pueden llegar a descubrimientos inesperados que sirvan como base para innovar, gestionar equipos o materializar proyectos. El análisis de las estrategias de creativos como el chef Ferran Adrià, el artista Christo o la empresa de mobiliario de diseño Kartell arroja luz sobre los motivos del éxito de éstos. Bien sea porque han logrado establecer colaboraciones significativas, o bien porque han hecho de la documentación abierta una costumbre, varias son las claves que se pueden adaptar al mundo corporativo, como la confianza en la creatividad, la experimentación organizada y el fomento de la cultura de la innovación

Auto-tuned and R-squared: Reflecting audience quality evaluations in the creative process in music production and cancer research

While audiences play a key role in the implementation and ultimate success of novel ideas, how audiences are reflected in negotiations about quality within the creative process remains under-theorized. We examine this question through a comparative ethnography of two settings where the use of digital technology magnifies the countless micro-decisions involved in producing a creative output and therefore considerations of audience evaluation throughout the creative process—Nashville music production and systems biology cancer research. We find that actors encounter a fundamental tension between two competing standards of quality: the technically perfect, processed and ideal versus the empirically grounded, unprocessed and real. We show how actors navigate this tension vis-á-vis three different audiences—internal peers, extended community, and external reviewers—and how this manifests differently across audiences and the arts and sciences, depending on the audience’s expertise. Our study illuminates the tension between the “ideal versus real” in creative processes that is brought to the fore when creating with digital technology, extends extant research on audiences and organizing for creativity, and offers unique insights from our comparative ethnography across the arts and sciences