Browsing Department of Intercultural Communication and Management (ICM/IKL) by Title
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Krut, Riva; Moretz, Ashley (København, 1999)[More information][Less information]
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An Ethnography of a Juried Ceramic Art Exhibition in JapanMoeran, Brian (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This article discusses the social processes among members of a panel of jurors required to award a major prize to one of the submissions to a national ceramics exhibition in Japan. Uniquely based on participant observation-style fieldwork, the article details the voting procedures and (inconclusive) results, before analysing why one particular potter’s submission was selected for the Princess Chichibu Cup. It shows how social relations, rather than aesthetic taste, influenced the final choice, since jury members operated according to an informal pecking order that depended on pre-existing networks and reputations, themselves determined by seniority and age. The fact that judges did not overtly resort to aesthetic criteria when making their evaluations meant that they considered each submission in relation to other submissions, rather than on their own particular merits. They thus ended up comparing ‘incommensurate flaws’, rather than making a selection according to agreed ‘merit’. And yet ‘meritocratic principles’ seem to prevail in the longer term cumulative recognition of potters who are awarded prizes at such exhibitions. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8510 Files in this item: 1
Brian_Moeran_2012.pdf (266.7Kb) -
The Case of Amnesty InternationalVestergaard, Anne (København, 2006)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The development of corporate communication in recent years has brought about a fading of the division of labor between commercial and non-commercial organizations. While the practices of commercial organizations are becoming increasingly ethicalized, so the practices of non-profit organizations are becoming increasingly commercialized. This paper explores the use of media discourse for the communication of ethical messages by humanitarian organizations, caught, as they are, in a tension between, on the one hand, the commercial strategies of visibility and still greater dependence on the media, and, on the other hand, the public’s skepticism toward mediated morality and what is commonly referred to as compassion fatigue. The issue is investigated through an analysis of a TV spot produced by the Danish section of Amnesty International in 2004. This spot is taken as an example of how the organization’s branding strategies testify to a high degree of reflexivity about the conditions of what Luc Boltanski calls a Crisis of Pity. The analysis illustrates how, in the face of compassion fatigue, the organization manages to carve out a new space for itself in the marketized ethical discourse, and leads to a discussion of the consequences of such rebranding for the construction of morality by the organization. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6965 Files in this item: 1
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Bille, Trine (København, 2007)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Det er helt centralt i Richards Floridas teori om vækst, at kunne tiltrække den kreative klasse, men hvad er det egentlig som tiltrækker den kreative klasse? Formålet med denne artikel er at undersøge hvad det er for kultur- og fritidsaktiviteter den kreative klasse især benytter sig af. Det er dels interessant fra et kulturpolitisk og ikke mindst et regionalt udviklingspolitisk ståsted: hvad er det for kultur- og fritidsaktiviteter den kreative klasse bruger og tiltrækkes af? Dels er det interessant at undersøge, fordi det er punkt, hvor Florida ikke er særlig nuanceret. Den danske kulturvaneundersøgelse indeholder detaljerede data om den danske befolknings brug af de fleste kultur- og fritidstilbud. Ved at koble disse data med data for befolkningens arbejdsstilling opdelt på Richard Floridas klassificering, kan der opnås en helt ny viden om, hvad det er for kultur- og fritidstilbud den kreative klasse benytter, og dermed – må man antage – tiltrækkes af. Resultaterne, som er baseret på multivariate regressionsanalyser, viser nogle markante tendenser. Den kreative klasse er generelt mere aktive end serviceklassen på en række af de mere ”populære” og ”brede” kulturområder. Den kreative kerne adskiller sig for derimod ved at være mere kreative i deres fritid end andre. Herudover er de bl.a. mere interesseret i litteratur og viden, kulturarv og historie samt klassiske kulturformer som klassisk musik og teater. Endelig viser analysen, at der er en række kultur- og fritidsaktiviteter, hvor den kreative klasse ikke synes at adskille sig fra andre grupper. Det gælder først og fremmest en række hverdagskulturelle hjemlige aktiviteter, nogle ”brede” kulturaktiviteter samt mere oplevelsesorienterede familieaktiviteter. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7203 Files in this item: 1
wp04-2007.pdf (454.4Kb) -
Onarheim, Balder; Christensen, Bo T. (Frederiksberg, 2011)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The paper investigates the question of screening ideas in the ‘fuzzy front end’ of engineering design, examining the validity of employee voting schemes and related biases. After an employee-driven innovation project at {Company Name removed for review}, 99 ideas were to be screened for further development. Based on the concept of ‘wisdom of the crowds’, all ideas were individually rated by a broad selection of employees, and their choices of ideas and idea categories compared to those of a small team of senior marketers. The study also tested for two biases: visual complexity and endowment effect/ownership of ideas. The study shows that the crowd wisdom of employees significantly correlates with the preferences of the marketing team: overall, in top 12 selected ideas and in choice of idea categories. This match increases when including only the ratings of the most experienced employees. The experienced employees also proved to be less affected by visual complexity in the ideas presented. The endowment effect was potent in that every employee proved to be more likely to select their own ideas over others, but this effect disappeared when aggregating across the crowd of employees. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8255 Files in this item: 1
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Thoughts from DenmarkBlasco, Maribel; Tackney, Charles T. (, 2009)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Denmark is among the world’s most competitive nations. At the same time it has a strong tradition of citizenship‐oriented tertiary education. Nevertheless, we are currently witnessing the erosion of this tradition, arguably as a result of neoliberal ideologies ushered in by globalization and internationalization processes. These processes have stirred domestic fears, evident in government reports, about the need to improve Danish higher education to ‘meet the challenges of globalisation’. Concrete instances of possible erosion include recent directives to examine and grade group work on an individual basis, the abolition of the ‘13’ grade for individual or group performance, and the introduction of measurable skills via “learning objectives,” for all tertiary education courses. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7921 Files in this item: 1
wp 2009-4.pdf (318.0Kb) -
Christensen, Bo T. (, 2009)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Two studies tested whether introducing images to designers during the design process lead to more useful design solutions as evaluated by the end-users willingness-to-use the final design. It was hypothesized based on theories in cognitive science and design that there were at least two paths from images to usefulness. One path concerns analogically transferring within-domain properties to the design solution. The other path concerns mentally simulating end-user characteristics and preferences and inclusion of the user in the resulting design. Study 1 supported that random images led to increased outcome usefulness, and supported both hypothesized paths, by using withindomain products and end-user images as input. Study 2 showed that the image categories competed for attention, and that the within-domain product stimuli attracted the most attention and was considered the most inspirational to the designers. The practical use of the technique may lead to only marginally original products perhaps limiting its applicability to incremental innovation. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7941 Files in this item: 1
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voluntary versus mandatory approachesChudnovsky, Daniel; López, Andrés (København, 1999)[More information][Less information]
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Abstract: In security, as in other areas, the emergence of transnational private organizations with a central role in governance poses profound challenges to established conceptions of international politics and democracy. This paper discusses one side of this challenge by looking at accountability of private security companies (PSCs). PSCs have become authorities in their own right in the security sphere. This has raised the question of their accountability and also resulted in considerable efforts to improve the accountability of the firms. This paper looks at why these efforts bear so little fruit. It begins by pointing to the tension involved in any effort to hold an authority (private or public) accountable, namely the tension between the centrality of acceptance for authority and accountability measures that necessarily involve contestation. It then proceeds to analyse this tension in the case of PSCs. The paper argues that PSCs’ status as experts on risk and entrepreneurs of security mobilizes a favourable bias, making contestation less likely. The difficulty of seeing and/or admitting that PSCs are independent actors in turn makes contestation of their activities seem ill-directed and unnecessary. The point made in this paper that this, rather than sheer complexity or hidden political agendas, is key for understanding the present rather puzzling lack of (democratic) accountability of PSCs and its likely continuation. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6985 Files in this item: 1
leander_isa07_woc-wp89.pdf (174.0Kb) -
Skov, Lise (, 2009)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Analyser af industrialisme byggede indtil for tyve-tredive år siden på en narrativ figur – ’fra håndværk til industri’. I vores postindustrielle samfund hvor butikkerne ligger tæt, og der er langt til fabrikkerne, må denne analysefigur suppleres med et nyt slutpunkt, så den forløber ’fra håndværk til industri til globaliseret industrinetværk’. Der er opstået et nyt grundlag for en globaliseret industrikultur baseret på en voksende afstand mellem produktion og forbrug. I denne artikel analyseres den danske og europæiske pelsbranche ud fra denne tre-punktsfigur. Pels har aldrig været et skoleeksempel på industrialismens udviklingsparadigme. På grund af pelsbranchens særlige materielle udfordringer – hvert skind er unikt, og det kræver en stor viden at bearbejde det – har det været svært for branchen at følge med industriudviklingen og høste de stordriftsfordele, som andre brancher gjorde i efterkrigstiden. Den fortsatte næsten håndværksmæssige organisering satte branchen så meget udenfor modens og industriens netværk, at den ikke havde mange venner tilbage, da dyrerettighedsbevægelsen i 1980erne lancerede en række anti-pelskampagner. Under efterfølgende krise og omstrukturering er branchens organisation blevet ændret, således at pelsbeklædningsproduktion i dag er koncentreret i Kina, mens distribution og salg er knyttet til internationale designermærker. Denne del af branchens strategiske repositionering kan i høj grad tilskrives markedsføringsorganisationen Saga, der er finansieret af de nordiske pelsdyravlere og beliggende i Danmark. Denne artikels overordnede argumentation er, at denne omstrukturering sammen med den voksende interesse for etik og forbrugerpolitik har været den afgørende forudsætning for pelsens tilbagevenden i modebilledet. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7794 Files in this item: 1
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Strand, Robert Gavin (Frederiksberg, 2012)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: In this dissertation I examine the establishment of corporate social responsibility (CSR) bureaucracies at corporations and I come to consider the CSR bureaucracy as a space for reflection within the corporation. In the face of charges that bureaucracies are inherently unethical and devoid of consideration for humanistic concerns, I argue that within the large bureaucracy that is the corporation, the CSR bureaucracy can create a space in which tensions that arise from conflicting values and purposes can be identified, negotiated, and actions coordinated. I position this dissertation within the field of CSR, to which I introduce the Weberian distinction between formal and substantive rationality as means through which to identify and describe tensions that become apparent with the CSR agenda. This dissertation contains four articles, two of which draw from the engaged scholarship approach. One includes findings from a study I conducted as an action/intervention researcher with a U.S. corporation during the period in which a CSR bureaucracy was established. The other includes findings from a study of CSR focused MBA courses I instruct in which reflection is a primary learning objective. The other two articles include findings from studies I conducted to explore the establishment of a CSR position to the top management teams of U.S. and Scandinavian corporations. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8462 Files in this item: 1
Robert_Strand.pdf (3.503Mb) -
Lessond from East AsiaGammeltoft, Peter (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: While still short of being entirely mainstream there does appear to be a growing recognition in both policy circles and academia that economic development is not brought about by autonomous profitmaximising agents interacting anonymously through equilibrium markets.1 Rather, economic development is an inherently disequilibric process involving interactive and institutionally embedded processes in broader systems of firms, governments, research centres, universities, consultants, and other entities. These systems can tap into stocks of global knowledge and technologies, assimilate and adapt it to local circumstances, and create new knowledge or technologies. Such broader production systems are conceptualised in several different ways in the literature, e.g. Lundvall et al.’s ‘national innovation systems’, Richard Whitley’s ‘business systems’, and Sanjaya Lall’s concept of ‘industrial technology development’. This paper identifies and outlines four different systemic approaches to economic development. All four approaches have primarily been developed to address nationally based institutional systems in advanced economies. Both the ontological premises and the policy implications of these systemic approaches depart distinctly from the conventional orthodoxy on economic development as articulated in the ‘Washington Consensus’ and its later derivatives. The article goes on to explore which policy implications the adoption of such a systemic view might have for the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6982 Files in this item: 1
pga+nepad+wp.pdf (324.2Kb) -
the emergence of a new industry?Schultz, Majken; Ervolder, Lars; Hultén, Jannik (København, 1997)[More information][Less information]
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the case of ChinaGuoming, Xian; Cheng, Zhang; Yangui, Zhang; Shunqi, Ge; Zhan, James X. (København, 1999)[More information][Less information]
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the corporation, the agency, the anthropologist, and their friendsMoeran, Brian (København, 2001)[More information][Less information]
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Evidence from VietnamPham, Ha Thi Van (Frederiksberg, 2009)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The thesis revolves around the internationalization of Vietnamese firms - that is, how the international competitiveness of these firms is enhanced in terms of both upstream and downstream value chain activities and the export performance implications hereof. For Vietnamese firms, as well as for other firms from emerging markets, internationalization trajectories may differ considerably from the internationalization patterns portrayed in classical theories (such as the Uppsala Model) based on observations of the internationalization of firms from Western, developed market economies. Classical theories have primarily focused on firms’ marketing & sales and networking capabilities as levers of internationalization – and less on upstream capabilities, such as manufacturing and auxiliary service competencies. Likewise the situation in other emerging markets many Vietnamese firms are inserted in global value chains (GVCs) governed by multinational buyers. For these firms, manufacturing skills may be of equal - or greater - importance to export performance than the mastering of marketing & sales and networking in foreign markets. The thesis presents various theoretical perspectives on firms’ internationalization – perspectives that vary in terms of their focus on either upstream or downstream activities (or, the interrelationship of these two types of activities). The thesis tries to fill out the knowledge gap as to which of these theoretical perspectives fit best the trajectories of Vietnamese manufacturing firms involved in exports. In doing so, the thesis also draws on GVC models, entrepreneurial literature, and studies of economic as well as strategic export performance. Unique survey data covering 226 Vietnamese manufacturers involved in exporting was collected through face-to-face interviews conducted in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. On the basis of these data a set of hypotheses is tested using structural equation modelling as a statistical tool. The empirical study suggests that Vietnamese firms create international competitiveness in relation to both upstream and downstream activities. Furthermore, the study suggests that upstream competitiveness of the sample firms is significantly more attractive in terms of economic export performance (export sales, profitability and growth) than downstream competitiveness. However, when export performance is measured in more far-sighted, strategic terms, there are no significant differences between the two dimensions of competitiveness. The study also reveals some interesting industry differences: for firms in the “low-tech” textiles & garments industry, upstream competitiveness has greater impact on economic export performance than downstream competitiveness. Conversely, downstream competitiveness results in a higher economic return than upstream competitiveness for firms from the “high-tech” industries of electronics and mechanical manufactures In the last part of the thesis, theoretical, empirical, and managerial implications are discussed along with conclusions and suggestions for future research. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7934 Files in this item: 1
Ha_Thi_Van_Pham.pdf (3.762Mb) -
the case of Danish architectural firms on the german market in the 1990sSkaates, Maria Anne; Tikkanen, Henrikki; Alajoutsijärvi, Kimmo (København, 1999)[More information][Less information]
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conflicts and compabilities in the case of IndiaJah, Veena (København, 1999)[More information][Less information]
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A view from the edgeMoeran, Brian (Frederiksberg, 2010)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This working paper reflects upon the difficulties of being interdisciplinary when studying the creative industries. After outlining the basic premises behind the ©reative Encounters research programme, it brings into play two editing activities in which the author has been involved over the past six months. One of these is a four volume set of readings in the creative industries which shows that, even though most writing on ‘creative’ industries stem from various governments’ national policies promulgated from the end of the 1990s, there is plenty of material ‘out there’ from the late 1940s onwards. The other is an edited book on the role of fairs, festivals and competitive events in the creative industries which also revealed the extent to which history tended to be overlooked in a specific context by contemporary scholars in different disciplines. The paper concludes by asking what enables and what hinders interdisciplinarity, suggesting that institutional structures and the publishing industry in many ways are designed to prevent innovation in intellectual fields. It is these, therefore, that need to be reconsidered if we are to be successful in crossing over from one discipline to another. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8175 Files in this item: 1