Managing identity at the crossroads of the national highroad and the corporate lowroad

Paper presented at the 1st ICCIS Symposium, held Glasgow (GB), 11 Jun 1999SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre-DSC:9350.21485(1999/13) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Does ontology influence technological projects? The case of Irish electronic voting.

Abstract. This paper discusses the relationship between ontology, seen as the doctrine concerned with the nature of reality, and the management of technology. It introduces two ontological positions: realism and constructivism. Realism is the position that holds that reality is objectively given and independent of the observer. Constructivism stands for the belief that reality is constructed by the observer. The implications of this ontological debate are explored using the example of the Irish attempt to introduce e-voting. In order to understand the mistakes made during the Irish e-voting project, it is helpful to consider the ontological position taken by the responsible decision makers. It is argued that only a realist conception of technology can give rise to the sort of mismanagement that was observed in the case study. In conclusion, the paper suggests that following a constructivist ontology would have helped avoid some of the serious mistakes that were made.

Relationship marketing and university-industry linkages: A conceptual framework

Copyright © 2005 by SAGE PublicationsRelationship marketing (RM) is a prolific area of current marketing theory development. While RM principles are relevant to a range of business-to-consumer and business-to-business contexts, their theoretical foundations have principally emerged in reference to the private sector. By contrast, this exploratory study examines RM opportunities between entities operating in different sectors, namely university and industry in Australia. Using a qualitative approach, findings led to the development of a conceptual framework of university-industry relationships, integrating variables of organizational environment difference, relationship and value. Overall, this exploratory study broadens RM theory and application to relationships involving parties from fundamentally different organizational environments and suggest opportunities for the implementation of RM in this context. The article concludes with recommendations for academics and practitioners and provides several directions for future research.Carolin Plewa, Pascale Quester and Thomas Baake

Recognising the interactive space: Marketing for social transformation

How can the positive power of a marketing ethos and techniques solve social problems? We propose a deepened understanding of social marketing in response to the sustainability imperative, applying systems theory to elaborate the impact of social marketing campaigns and to advance our understanding of viable practices. A meta-framework reveals the complexities of human behaviour that influences the aims and outcomes of social marketing. We clarify the ontological status of the social marketing field and recognise the world view within which marketing has expanded into the public realm of social problems. We identify the problem of ontological misconception stemming from the denial of nonrational forms of human behaviour. While complicated mechanism is assumed in the problem of long-term health and prosperity for citizens and society, organic complexity is the condition faced. Conventional social marketing has provided a ‘partial’ gesture towards a solution. We outline an alternative understanding grounded in a human-centred world view of socio-economic advancement