Seeing the potentialities at the intersection: A reflection on performativity and processuality mindsets

© 2019 M@n@gement. In this paper, we propose to approach performativity and processuality as mindsets. We suggest that researchers interested by or pursuing performative studies should recognize more explicitly the inherent processuality of performativity. After offering broad overviews on performativity and process thinking, we highlight that both mindsets rest on a similar view of reality as processual, and both share a strong commitment to qualitative empirical work. In spite of the differences that exist between the two mindsets-such as their treatment of agency, the place of socio-materiality and their approach to continuity and change-we contend that acknowledging and engaging more directly with processuality benefits performative studies, as it helps these studies to deal with some of the challenges they often face. In doing so, performative studies could refine their analyses of managerial and organizational phenomena and would also increase their contribution to our field

Transport, health and climate change: Deciding on the optimal policy

Transport generates many externalities, some related to atmospheric pollution. In this paper, we focus on two: greenhouse gases, and local pollution. In the search for optimal transport policies, these two externalities have usually been analysed separately. Here, we study them jointly, in a sequential decision-making model. Our model allows for the irreversibility of the policies undertaken, as well as the possibility of a progressive reduction of uncertainties with the arrival of information. We find that when both sources of externalities are analysed jointly, structural measures enabling private transport requirements to be reduced are identified as being more advantageous economically than technological measures to reduce emissions of pollutants. We illustrate the usefulness of a joint analysis of externalities with two examples: tax measures on cars and housing policy.climate change; model of decision-making under uncertainty; irreversibilities; transport policy

ASP, The Art and Science of Practice: Academia-Industry Interfacing in Operations Research in Montreal

This paper reports on the 40-year experience of academia-industry interfacing in the operations research (OR) field in Montréal. We focus on five spin off companies that academic entrepreneurs from the CIRRELT and the GERAD created between 1976 and 2003: INRO Consultants, GIRO, AD OPT, Omega Optimisation/Planora, and ExPretio. The importance of university spin offs for knowledge transfer is well documented in fields such as biology and nanotechnology; however, few papers have studied university spin offs in OR. Yet, OR has an enormous impact on society, and university spin off firms play a key role in the diffusion of research to the world of practitioners. In this paper, we tell the story of five companies created by academics from two world-renowned OR research centers based in Montréal, and we derive lessons about academia-industry interfacing in the OR field. By so doing, we hope to improve our understanding of the creation of fruitful relationships between academics and OR practitioners

Timing practices and material markers in coordinating collective market patterns

This paper considers the practices of coordination in financial markets that do not rely on a common market device (e.g., trading platform or calculative tool) to organize trading between buyers and sellers. Our case focuses on the coordination of the pricing cycle within the reinsurance sector. Building on social studies of finance, we adopt a practice-theoretical perspective. Our study goes beyond existing work in showing the importance, and inherently strategic nature, of timing practices in financial markets. Specifically, our ethnographic study of coordination in the reinsurance market shows the recursive interplay between four types of timing practices – delaying, readying, rushing and settling – and the various material artifacts that reinsurers (i.e., sellers) create in shaping the unfolding market pricing cycle. We show how market actors shape the temporal flow of the markets by strategically manipulating time, to both position themselves favorably on individual deals and to collectively push the pricing cycle up. In theorizing the interplay between timing practices and material markers in financial markets, our study advance theory on financial market coordination in three ways. First, we bring to the foreground the strategic nature of financial actors’ sociomaterial practices and show how such practices can impact on broader market outcomes, in our case the market cycle. Second, our exploration of material markers extends concepts of materiality in financial markets beyond the technological affordance of a common trading platform or pricing tool. Third, we further our understanding of the complex relationships between the temporality of financial market microstructures and their coordination practices

A Performative Reading of The Work of Communication

The Work of Communication. Relational Perspectives on Working and Organizing in Contemporary Capitalism by Tim Kuhn, Karen Ashcraft, François Cooren , is a welcomed comprehensive and rigorous attempt at theorizing how communication ‘works’ in contemporary capitalism. In this essay, we review what we see as the contributions of this book – as organization scholars interested in performativity – and address the following question: What does this book perform

The Resistible Rise of Bayesian Thinking in Management: Historical Lessons From Decision Analysis

This paper draws from a case study of decision analysis—a discipline rooted in Bayesianism aimed at supporting managerial decision making—to inform the current discussion on the adoption of Bayesian modes of thinking in management research and practice. Relying on concepts from the science, technology, and society field of study and actor-network theory, we approach the production of scientific knowledge as a cultural, practical, and material affair. Specifically, we analyze the activities deployed by decision analysts to overcome the challenges of making a discipline built on Bayes’ legacy scientifically acceptable, managerially relevant, and long lasting. As a novel contribution to the discussion on the “Bayesian revolution,” our study goes beyond institutional accounts of the legitimation of Bayesianism to highlight the role of politics and material artifacts in past and current attempts at importing Bayesianism. Our study also shows the importance of historical continuity in the promotion of Bayesian methods in management

Changing competitive dynamics in the reinsurance industry: implications of changes in buyer behavior for reinsurance executives

This paper explores how reinsurers can meet the rapid changes occurring in their industry, arising from primary industry consolidation, and changes in cedent (insurance firm) buyer behavior toward bundled reinsurance products and alternative sources of capital. The paper makes the following suggestions for reinsurers. Reinsures need to be proactive in responding to changing patterns of premium volume and develop partnerships with global clients. Smaller reinsurers, in particular, will need to look to develop competitive niches and joint-ventures in order to be significant to these large cedents. Furthermore, reinsures need to continue investing in analytical expertise and resources in order to address the complex needs of their clients. Finally, reinsurers will be increasingly required to engage in alternative risk transfer products, and there will be early-mover advantages in doing so meaningfull