New games, new rules: big data and the changing context of strategy

Big data and the mechanisms by which it is produced and disseminated introduce important changes in the ways information is generated and made relevant for organizations. Big data often represents miscellaneous records of the whereabouts of large and shifting online crowds. It is frequently agnostic, in the sense of being produced for generic purposes or purposes different from those sought by big data crunching. It is based on varying formats and modes of communication (e.g., texts, image and sound), raising severe problems of semiotic translation and meaning compatibility. Crucially, the usefulness of big data rests on their steady updatability, a condition that reduces the time span within which this data is useful or relevant. Jointly, these attributes challenge established rules of strategy making as these are manifested in the canons of procuring structured information of lasting value that addresses specific and long-term organizational objectives. The developments underlying big data thus seem to carry important implications for strategy making, and the data and information practices with which strategy has been associated. We conclude by placing the understanding of these changes within the wider social and institutional context of longstanding data practices and the significance they carry for management and organizations

The construction of marketing measures: the case of viewability

This study seeks to develop a critical understanding of marketing measures. Marketing measures inform a variety of marketing practices and have been subject to ethical, discursive and epistemological critique. Informed by a range of theoretical work, this study sheds light on the construction of a key marketing measure in digital advertising: viewability. It shows how a range of competing interests can be mobilized and aligned; how an object of interest can be stabilized; and how standards for measurement can be reconciled. Across this account, we can see how issues of accuracy, ideology and ethics are bracketed off as participants agree on which things matter and which things count

General practitioners’ classification of patients with medically unexplained symptoms

In encounters between general practitioners (GPs) and patients with medically unexplained symptoms (MUS), the negotiation of the sick role is a social process. In this process, GPs not only use traditional biomedical diagnostic tools but also rely on their own opinions and evaluations of a patient’s particular circumstances in deciding whether that patient is legitimately sick. The doctor is thus a gatekeeper of legitimacy. This article presents results from a qualitative interview study conducted in Denmark with GPs concerning their approach to patients with MUS. We employ a symbolic interaction approach that pays special attention to the external validation of the sick role, making GPs’ accounts of such patients particularly relevant. One of the article’s main findings is that GPs’ criteria for judging the legitimacy of claims by those patients that present with MUS are influenced by the extent to which GPs are able to constitute these patients as people with social problems and problematic personality traits

The logic of domains

Contains fulltext : 209511.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)23 mei 201

Re-thinking bookmark management – Less choice is more efficient

This research investigates the role of a Controlled Vocabulary (CV) in next generation bookmark management systems. The search for a more efficient graphical user interface solution to deal with the massive information overload situation faced by most computer users today is a pressing problem. CVs allow categorization of title words and phrases into the appropriate location recognized by the user, so as to facilitate easier information storage and retrieval. The results of this user study involving 152 individuals indicated that there is potential for a well-defined two-tier controlled vocabulary system to assist user categorization, information storage and retrieval in personal information management systems