Quality, managerialism, market orientation and other matters: exploring strategizing in universities.

The purpose of the paper is to explore university strategizing by means of examining academic managers narratives relate to institutional strategy. This main objective is explored in two parts: theoretically it draws on connections of concepts such as managerialism, governance and market orientation with the way institutional strategies are formulated and implemented in higher education institutions. Empirically, the approach taken is narrative and discursive analysis, based on a case study in a Spanish public university. This analytical scheme is based on a systematic exploration of the main factors considered to be responsible for enabling or constraining strategy implementation.Postprint (published version

Strategy text roles: exploring practices-in-use and academic managers strategizing behaviours

Este estudio se centra en el uso del texto estratégico desde el punto de vista de los directivos académicos. La línea de investigación en estrategia se ha interesado por las prácticas, actividades y comportamientos de los directivos en los diferentes niveles organizacionales durante la formulación de estrategias. Además, las actividades a nivel micro y la pertinencia del texto estratégico en el proceso de implementación se han convertido en un interesante foco de investigación en diferentes contextos organizacionales. A pesar de que la literatura reconoce la importancia de los estrategas y las prácticas estratégicas de las organizaciones, la relación entre los practicantes, las prácticas y los textos estratégicos en la implementación efectiva de la estrategia permanece aún poco explorada. El propósito de este estudio es examinar el rol del texto estratégico en el strategizing, explorando de qué modo las variaciones en las prácticas de implicación y alineamiento del directivo académico y los diferentes usos atribuidos al texto estratégico pueden explicar mejores resultados en la implementación de la estrategia en diferentes universidades. Como tal, las actividades, prácticas y perspectivas involucradas en la construcción e implementación del texto estratégico se estudian a través del análisis de las narrativas de los directivos académicos con respecto a sus puntos de vista y roles dentro del proceso de formulación e implementación de la estrategia. De esta manera, este estudio utiliza un diseño cualitativo, con la aplicación de un estudio de casos múltiple y exploratorio, en donde se han llevado a cabo entrevistas semiestructuradas con 42 directivos académicos (alta dirección y mandos intermedios) en tres tipologías de universidades públicas españolas (tecnológica, de investigación y regional), que constituyen los datos primarios. Los datos complementarios se componen de la documentación oficial de los procesos de la estrategia de las tres instituciones, asimismo, de notas de observación y conversaciones informales. La explotación de estas múltiples fuentes mediante la utilización de la “estrategia como práctica” como lente teórica, la teoría de los enfoques discursivos en la elaboración de estrategias, y el apoyo de la teoría fundamentada, permite la identificación de distintos patrones de narrativas respecto a los roles de los textos estratégicos y las prácticas, así como comportamientos del strategizing y elementos contextuales que caracterizan esta relación. Con base en el análisis de las distintas formas de strategizing y las prácticas utilizadas en las diferentes universidades, se determinan seis roles atribuidos al texto estratégico en la práctica de la estrategia: roles consultivo, conversacional y autoritario, que presentan un mayor potencial facilitador de implicación; roles prescriptivo y contingente, que se asocian a un potencial de mayor restricción de la participación; y el rol ambivalente que presenta una perspectiva ambigua, y que se encuentra en la frontera entre los roles anteriores. Al mostrar de qué modo los directivos académicos (alta dirección y mandos académicos) utilizan textos estratégicos en el desarrollo de estrategias institucionales, este estudio aporta un mayor entendimiento acerca de los elementos que influyen en la implementación de la estrategia y su alineamiento. El estudio sugiere que los diferentes directivos académicos participan en la estrategia y utilizan el texto estratégico de diferentes maneras: de una forma más creativa u otra más restrictiva. Sin embargo, estas diferencias están muy asociadas al contexto específico de las prácticas internas y externas que determinan los diferentes comportamientos presentes en el strategizing, y por lo tanto pueden llevar a restringir o habilitar el uso creativo del texto. El estudio propone un marco dinámico que integra los roles del texto estratégico con los elementos contextuales internos y externos, las prácticas en uso y los patrones de comportamiento de los directivos en la práctica de la estrategia. Además, muestra la importancia de la interacción del texto estratégico con elementos que podrían ser reforzados, cambiados o eliminados en la promoción de las diferentes formas del strategizing interactivo y del consumo creativo del texto. En definitiva, el estudio proporciona al ámbito de investigación de la estrategia nuevos conocimientos acerca del rol de los textos estratégicos en la práctica del strategizingThis study focuses on the use of the strategy text in strategizing from the view point of academic managers. Strategy research has become interested in practices, activities and behaviours of practitioners of different organizational levels in strategizing. Additionally, micro level activities and the relevance of strategy text in implementation process have thus become an interesting focus of research in different organizational settings. Even though the literature have acknowledged the significance of practitioners and practices in organizational strategy, the relationship between practitioners, practices and strategy texts in effective strategy implementation remains still little ascertained. The purpose of this study is to examine the role of the strategy text in strategizing; exploring how variations in practices of academic manager‟s engagement in strategy practices and in strategy text usage can explain enhanced outcomes in strategy implementation in the university setting. As such, the activities, practices and perspectives involved in the construction and implementation of strategy text are studied through narratives of academic managers regarding their views and roles within the strategy process. In this manner, this study uses a qualitative design, with the application of an exploratory multiple case study, where semi-structure interviews with 42 top and middle academic managers in three typology of public Spanish universities were applied (technological, research and regional), which constitutes the primary data. Additional data is comprised of documentation of the official strategy processes of the three institutions, also observation notes, and informal conversations. The exploitation of these multiple sources of data grounded in strategy as practice as theoretical lens, informed by theory of discursive approaches to strategy making, supported by the grounded theory on analyzing the data, allows the identification of distinct patterns of narratives regarding strategy texts roles, strategy practices in use as well as strategizing behaviours and contextual elements driving this relationship. Based on the analysis of distinct forms of strategizing behaviours and practices in use, six roles of strategy text in strategizing are described: consultive, conversational and authoritative roles, which presented higher enabling engagement potential; prescriptive and contingent roles, which were associated with higher constraining engagement potential and the ambivalent role that presented a borderline perspective between the previous roles. By showing how both top and middle academic managers use strategy texts in strategizing, this study adds to our understating of elements that influences in strategy implementation and alignment. The study suggests that different academic managers engage in strategy and use the strategy text in different ways (in a more creative or restrictive form), however these differences are strongly context specific of the internal and external practices that frame strategizing behaviours, which consequently might derive into constraining or enabling text creative uses. The study proposes a dynamic framework that integrates strategy text roles within internal and external contextual elements, practices in use and patterns of strategizing behaviour and shows the relevance of the interaction of strategy text with elements that could be reinforced, changed or withdrawn when promoting the forms of interactive strategizing behaviours and text creative consumptions. Therefore, the study provides strategy research with new understanding of the role of strategy texts in the practice of strategy

Unfolding strategic management practices in leading European technological Universities

This paper explores the study results conducted in the framework of a LLP-European project on the field of university modernization that carried out a survey amongst leading European universities in Science and Technology. The focus of the study was to better understand how strategy is developed within these universities, which tools are mostly used and how the strategic management processes are organized and implemented. The paper is framed to analyze the fundamental questions being examined: how is the strategy definition process in these universities like; what tools and models of strategy development and monitoring are used; how they assure that strategies are implemented and aligned; what supporting instruments are at place and how do universities establish the feedback mechanisms of the strategy development and ensure organizational learning from this process. The paper explores these central questions and sets forth a comprehensive discussion on the main practices trends and perspectives.Postprint (published version

¿ How academic managers talk about strategy process: roles, practices and rationales of strategy engagement

This study focus on strategizing in practice from the viewpoint of academic manager's experiences and practices in strategy implementation. The strategy process of an organization creates and implements strategy. Although this process influences the activities of many members of the organization, strategy research has only recently started to become interested in the activities of practitioners and practices in strategizing. Therefore, studying strategizing entails giving more room to explore how different organizational actors engage in institutional strategy process. Specifically in the context of professional organizations, studying strategizing can result event more complex given the popular concepts like resistance to change, staff understanding and subunits goals or control structures and practices. This study analyzes the strategy implementation in three types of universities and explores variations of implementation practices and its outcomes within and across cases, as well as patterns of behaviours in the use of strategic planning by different academic managers.Preprin

Undergraduate Business Student's Self-Assessment of Meta-Competencies in the Context of the Final Year Projects

While research on competence-based assessment has grown, scholars have conducted fewer studies on an integrative view of competence acquisition, in the context of the final year project, that have particularly addressed the meta- competence approach. This paper examines undergraduate business students' perceived acquisition of competencies during the development of their final year project and tries to determine relevant differences among the set of competencies students' value most. The study gathered quantitative data by using a questionnaire applied to students after their presentation of the final degree project at a Spanish Business School. The findings show the emergence of three profiles of students based on their competencies acquisition. The profiles display an interconnected relation and put forward some shortfalls in competence acquisition as well as propose an emerging profile of the meta-competent student

Motivaciones y barreras en la utilización de estrategias de e-marketing en pymes catalanas y el encaje del consumidor: el caso de la comarca del Alt Empordà

Las respuestas por parte de las pequeñas y medianas empresas (pymes) en diferentes contextos a la hora de adaptar y aplicar las herramientas digitales en sus estrategias de marketing presentan diversos desafíos. El estudio se aplicó en la comarca Alt Empordà, de Cataluña (España) y buscó analizar las estrategias de e-marketing que adoptan las pymes e identificar las principales motivaciones y barreras en su utilización. La investigación también identificó qué estrategias de e-marketing implementadas por las empresas son mejor valoradas por los consumidores. Para ello se llevó a cabo un estudio cualitativo mediante el análisis de un caso en una microempresa, y se implementó una investigación cuantitativa a través de dos cuestionarios estructurados para recopilar información de propietarios y gerentes de 83 pymes y 351 consumidores. Los resultados evidenciaron que las empresas implementan el marketing digital en sus planes de mercadotecnia, más desde una visión operativa que estratégica. Se identificaron como principales barreras el tamaño de las empresas, el tipo de producto o servicio y el tipo de cliente, así como el poco reconocimiento por parte de las empresas de la necesidad de herramientas digitales. Además, se demostró la facilidad de lograr mejor visibilidad y alcance, y que el seguimiento de las tendencias de la sociedad digital emergen como principales motivaciones. Se concluye que hay una tendencia clara en la utilización de e-marketing por parte de las pymes analizadas, aunque también se infiere que los impulsores están enmarcados en el seguimiento de tendencias, en la búsqueda de una mayor visibilidad de las empresas en un entorno online, y no tanto en visualizar claramente los beneficios que este tipo de estrategia aportaría al negocio

Mapping the terrain of social and livestream commerce research through the affordance lens: a bibliometric review and research agenda

Livestream commerce is a form of social commerce that leverages advanced technology for interactivity. Although research is complex due to vast geographical and platform diversity, this domain is ideal for applying affordance theory. We systematically analyze 62 livestreaming and social commerce research papers that have used affordance theory. Our three-step methodology includes performance analysis to identify prolific authors and collaborative patterns; thematic analysis to uncover methodological approaches, contextual themes and focal points of investigation; and science mapping to identify thematic evolution and research frontiers. Through our integrated perspective on affordance theory in social and livestream commerce, we present a typology of key affordances, review prominent works, categorize clusters and topics and identify four research frontiers. We propose an integrated model to explore potential avenues for research on consumer behaviours, holistically integrating actors, context, platform diversity and affordances, and addressing methodological challenges, including use of visual methodologies to investigate real-time interactions

Uso del videomarketing en tiempos de la Covid-19: estrategias del sector de la moda

La consolidación de plataformas con capacidad para desarrollo de contenidos de video ha impulsado de manera significativa la manera cómo las marcas de moda trabajan sus estrategias de comunicación. Este artículo tiene el objetivo de profundizar en el conocimiento de las estrategias de contenido digital desarrollado por las marcas de moda, buscando identificar tres aspectos principales: las plataformas digitales más populares donde las marcas emplean videomarketing, según la categoría de su posicionamiento; qué diferencias existen en tipologías de videos y mensajes; y qué tendencias de contenidos de videos han surgido durante la pandemia de la Covid19. Para esta finalidad, este estudio emplea un análisis de contenido aplicado a las redes sociales de cuatro marcas de moda posicionadas en las categorías de lujo y de moda accesible durante el periodo de confinamiento provocado por la pandemia de la Covid19. El artículo pone en evidencia que los contenidos de marca en formato de vídeo son menos utilizados en comparación con los formatos de texto e imágenes publicados en plataformas online, y discute las principales diferencias en las técnicas de videomarketing utilizadas y las más importantes innovaciones en las respuestas de las marcas

Gestión comunicativa de crisis de las oficinas nacionales de turismo de España e Italia ante la Covid-19 // Crisis communication management by the national tourist organizations of Spain and Italy in the face of Covid-19

This study analyzes how the national tourism organizations (NTOs) of Spain and Italy managed their crisis communication to deal with Covid-19. The study examines the messages published by the Twitter accounts of the NTOs from the beginning or the detection of the first patient until one month after the official declaration of the pandemic by the World Health Organization. The results reveal two different ways of managing crisis communications in the face of Covid-19, both in the treatment of the topics and in the timing of publication, at the same time generating different reactions and engagement among users. The Agenzia Nazionale Italiana del Turismo was faster and more active in the first moments of the health crisis compared with the i>Oficina de Turismo de España. This study can contribute to the development of communication strategies on social media by NTOs during different periods of such crises as well as communication actions to enhance the touristic image of their destinations

Foreign language effect in decision-making: How foreign is it?

It has been shown that decisions and moral judgments differ when made using native languages compared to foreign languages. Cross-linguistic differences appeared in foreign languages that monolinguals typically ac- quired in school and used neither routinely nor extensively. We replicated these differences with two popula- tions of proficient, native bilinguals (Italian-Venetian; Italian-Bergamasque). Venetian and Bergamasque are spoken in households and informal circles, unlike Italian, which is also used in more formal contexts. The findings reported in foreign languages for the Asian Disease Problem and the Footbridge Dilemma were re- produced in Venetian and Bergamasque. Our results show that language effects on decision-making and moral judgments are not restricted to foreign languages. The explanation proposed for foreign languages of cross- linguistic differences in emotion responses does not apply to our proficient, native bilinguals, who showed emotion responses of equal intensity in their languages. We propose that the contexts in which bilinguals use a language \u2013 either native, regional or foreign \u2013 could affect decisions