Browsing Working Papers (IOA) by Title
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Houman Andersen, Poul; Norus, Jesper (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: There is a continuing focus on the conditions for and processes of establishing new businesses and the role played by the external resource context in doing so. Using sociological concepts such as network bricolage and structuration some studies point to the supporting role as well as the restraining role of networks in this process. However, most research focuses on the innovative role of entrepreneurs in linking together dispersed resources in forming a concerted business enterprise. Far less focus has been on the de facto quality of these resources in forming the entrepreneurial role. Rather, the image of the Knightian or Kriznian entreprenur is left unchallenged, even in the "new" literature on entrepreneurship. However, if the concept of network bricolage or structuration as contexts institutionalising specific practices and sorting away others is taken seriously, the preexistence of patterned work practices shared among business actors, and how the ability to utilise these patterned practices in generating new business ideas affects the business start up process becomes important. Entrepreneurial processes may not only be influenced but also internally constituted by the wider environment. One may therefore question whether the impetus for starting up a new business vests entirely with the entrepreneur or what role the context plays in patterning the work of the entrepreneur with respect to firm creation. As pointed out by Gartner (1988) asking "who is the entrepreneur?" is the wrong question. For that purpose, we believe that the context of the entrepreneur, networks and embedded routines, provides an opportunity to understand how the context contributes in shaping the entrepreneurial act. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6717 Files in this item: 1
dokument 10.pdf (212.1Kb) -
Boxenbaum, Eva (København, 2004)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This paper investigates the bringing into existence of a proto-institution, that is, a new practice, rule or technology that diffuses beyond the innovative setting, but which is not yet taken-for-granted in a field. A case study, conducted real-time, shows how a collaborative group of business actors deliberately develop a proto-institution. They transpose an institutional logic from another field and combine it with an institutional logic in the focal field to resolve a field-level problem. Enabling factors include a high level of institutional heterogeneity in the focal field, the use of inter-organizational networks, and actors embedded in multiple fields. The making of the proto-institution is intentional, yet the institutional building blocks and the apparent interests of actors are institutionally embedded. The results from this micro-dynamic analysis suggest revisions to current conceptualizations of institutional change processes. Keywords: Institutional change, proto-institution, cognition, institutional entrepreneurship, innovation, collaborative networks. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6726 Files in this item: 1
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Georg, Susse (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
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Knudsen, Morten (, 2009)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Workingpaperet er en guide til litteratur om metode, analysestrategi og videnskabsteori med relevans for problemorienteret samfundsvidenskabeligt projektarbejde på videregående uddannelsesinstitutioner. En række temaer præsenteres og relevant litteratur angives. Temaerne er ordnet under tre overskrifter: I. Genstand, II. Analyse og metode III. Proces, kvalitet og formalia. Guiden er skrevet specifikt til brug på masteruddannelsen Master of Health Management på CBS, men vil også kunne finde bredere anvendelse. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/7786 Files in this item: 1
WP2009-001.pdf (193.1Kb) -
Traveling ideas for providing transparency and trust?Georg, Susse (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
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"feelings are the motive power, reason is the rudder"Ry Nielsen, J.C.; Ry, Morten (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: In this essay we will demonstrate that the role of project management in organisational change processes is a mixture of rational and non-rational features. It is also colourful, difficult, interesting, and messy. We have named the paper "An Essay on". An essay means treating a topic freely from different angles, although not forgetting the sources you used. The implication of this is that we are not able or willing to make an encompassing study of the literature on project management3. We thus know that many angles will not be covered. Furthermore we do not intend a make a negative delineation, indicating what we are not dealing with. We prefer to make a positive delineation, emphasising what we are going to take up in our essay. Positively phrased we are inspired by 3 sources that will make the foundation for our different angles: 1. Decision making theory (Enderud,1976)4. One of the authors has previously with success applied decision-making theory as an approach for analysing organisation change processes 5. Both authors have followed the same line in analysing organisational changes in the Danish public sector6. That success has inspired us to re-use the distinction between rational, political and anarchic processes in this essay 7. Enderud (1976:21-22) excludes explicitly the role of the actors’ participation in his presentation of decision models. We find, however this aspect so important that we have decided to include it 2. Buchanan and Boddy´s analysis of the character of change8: The authors characterise the change project in to dimensions. One pertains to the activities concerned: Are we dealing with peripheral or core activities of the organisation. The second dimension deals with the magnitude of the change. Buchanan and Boddy use the scale: incremental - radical9. Furthermore Buchanan and Boddy makes a useful distinction between "public performance" (on stage) of rationally considered and logically phased and visibly participative change and "backstage activity" in the recruitment and maintenance of support and in seeking and blocking resistance (ibid p.27) 3. We will apply data from our own case studies. We will use a format that we call an illustration, thereby indicating that we "only" illustrate a point. We do not prove it10. Our cases are almost all from the public sector or from trade unions. Most of them have been published elsewhere. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6711 Files in this item: 1
dokument 9.pdf (272.6Kb) -
An Interview with David J. TeeceAugier, Mie (København, 2004)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: In this paper, Mie Augier provides a rich description of the intellectual traditions, the signifi-cant people and academic institutions that in some way or another made a difference to Davis Teece’s own intellectual development. In this sense, it is a dynamic account of the emerging career of a distinguished scholar - but not only that. It is also a description of the co-development of three major disciplinary fields; organization theory, economics and strategic management during three decades or so. David Teece has made several important contribu-tions, perhaps most notably to economics (on the theory of the firm and transaction cost eco-nomics) and strategic management (on dynamic capabilities) while drawing upon organization theory and notions such as organizational routines and bounded rationality. In addition, Augier also provides an interview with David Teece, a true scholar still unsettled with what has been achieved so far - in all three fields: "Maybe I’m wrong; and maybe technology is a special case and maybe technology and organization do not belong at the core of the theory of the firm. My intuition tells me otherwise." (David Teece, quoted in this issue). URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6686 Files in this item: 1
2004-51.pdf (238.3Kb) -
Forms and facades in formation of the biotechnology firmsNorus, Jesper (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: In the recent years the successful collaborative arrangements and relationships between university, industry and public institutions have become a mantra in transforming new scientific knowledge into new innovations and business ventures. The fit between these very different actor groups has been treated as a contingent factor. However only little attention have been giving to a specific focus on the strategies that new business ventures have obtained to establish the fit between small firms, university research, and public policies such as regulatory policies and R&D policies. The emergence of the new biotechnologies and these techniques predominately coming from the university sector make the new biotechnology organizations an interesting object for studying these relationships both on a regional and a national level. From the perspective of the small biotechnology firms (SBFs) the paper explores four different strategies for dealing with network relations; the research oriented strategy, the incubator strategy, the industrial partnering strategy, and the policy-oriented strategy. The research-oriented strategy is narrowly focusing on how a biotechnology firm transforms their scientific results into promising technologies, services or products. The incubator strategy is concerned with localization and how to come about specific types of managerial problem in the initial stage of forming a business venture. The industrial partnering strategy concerns how to overcome the problem of bringing the technologies from an experimental stage at a research lab to be able handle industrial processes and full-scale production. Last but not least the policy oriented strategy focus on problem of having products approved by the public authorities. Theoretically the article draws upon network theories and a dynamic view of network relations. That is done in order to capture the nature of the relationships between different types of actors, but also in order to emphasize the informal nature of some of these relationships. The article has a dual purpose; 1) From a corporate point of view to emphasize multiple conditions for developing and forming interorganizational relationships, 2) From a research perspective to point to the diversity and heterogeneity of these relations and thereby emphasizes the evolutionary nature of these relations and their relatedness to the overall strategies obtained by the biotechnology entrepreneurs. The paper is structured so it will start out by stating its methodological foundations. Thereafter the theoretical positioning of the network approach will seek to argue that we have multiple network relationships are at play. Not only do these networks differ but also the institutional and organizational origins are to be touched upon to come to understand the nature of the biotechnology environment and the actors involved. The positioning of the SBFs as the focal point of the analysis leads to a discussion on entrepreneurial business strategies in biotechnology industry and how these business strategies in a very distinct mode is correlated with interorganizational relationships. The empirical evidence will be fleshed out in four cases representing each of the four suggested strategies. The conclusion discusses three implications of network partnering analysis. First, it discusses the theoretical contributions on the diversity, heterogeneity between the four partnering strategies. Second, it will point to future directions in the research. Third, the conclusion will point to the managerial challenges that can be foreseen. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6669 Files in this item: 1
working paper 2003 no.12.pdf (372.5Kb) -
generationsskifte sætter værdier og praksis på spilChristensen, Søren (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
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A Study of a New Economy Firm’s Powers of PersuasionElgaard Jensen, Torben (København, 2005)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The article is an empirical analysis of how a Scandinavian new economy firm was able to persuade a number of business journalists that it represented ‘the future’. It analyses how visitors to the firm were met with a specific and persuasive combination of rhetorical and material ressources. It suggests that the persuasive power of the firm was based on its ability to evoke and articulate a series of pointed contrasts between the attractive working life within the firm and the ordinary and problematic work life elsewhere. The article suggests that this strategy of drawing contrasts together differs from the mode of persuasion usually described by STS. Keywords: Sociology of expectations, Sociology of futures, Sociology of anticipation, New Economy, dot-com, persuasion, power, actor-network theory, materialised contrast argument. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6690 Files in this item: 1
future and furniture - berlin.pdf (288.3Kb) -
On the strategification of time in organisationsFrankel, Christian (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
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Borum, Finn (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
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Toward an Alternative Epistemology for Gender Research in OrganizationsEllehave, Camilla Funck (København, 2004)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: "How becoming!" we say (though often with a subtle ironic twist) when someone says or does something that we find is suitable or appropriate for him- or her or the situation in which he or she is. And while it may be old-fashioned, the phrase is also used when the clothes people are wearing make them look attractive. By pronouncing: ‘how becoming!’ we condone the appearance, the saying or the doing by making a reference to the appropriateness of somebody’s attire, words and deeds. However, the appropriateness is situated in that it is based on cultural conventions of a particular time and space, and simultaneously produces culturally accepted boundaries around what denotes culturally intelligible identities or subject positions (parallel to suggesting that something is "for the likes of you/us" versus "not for the likes of you/us" (Bourdieu, 1990:55-56)). URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6679 Files in this item: 1
forside 200406+working paper.pdf (257.5Kb) -
Bramming, Pia (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: What has power to do with Human Resource Management (HRM)? Perusing HRMtextbooks one will find, that power as a concept, only seldom is approached explicitly. When the subject of power is addressed directly, it is primarily as a question of bargaining power between organisation and labour market institutions, the power of a leader or person in terms of the right to execute punishment and the duty to obedience or empowerment, as a countermove to the effects of bureaucratic workplace routines "... where initiative is stifled and workers become alienated"1. Indirectly one can identify power as interesting in the HRM-literature, as a question of influence or status of HRM as a function in business. Does or does HRM not play a central role in business? Is HR part of top management? That is questions concerned with how power is distributed as a commodity in reality. This paper is taking up the concept of power as a distributing force of reality, as opposed to a distribution of commodities in reality. In this way the position on power adopted is similar to the in Deleuzes words very simple definition of power by Foucault: "Power is a relation between forces, or rather every relation between forces is a ‘power relation." (Deleuze 1999: 70). This way of conceptualising power has as a consequence, that power always has several sides: Power is not essentially repressive Power is not unilateral, but requires both "masters and mastered" Power is practiced more than it is possessed. The first point is serving as both the way in and the way out of this paper. The paper will pry at the workings of power in order to unfold power as a positive as well as repressing force using HRM as the practice where power is working. "The exercise of power is a "conduct of conducts" and a management of possibilities" (Foucault, 2000: 341) Consequently, the way to study power is not to try to "find it", but to see, how it is practiced. (Deleuze, 1999: 71) Studying power in HRM therefore becomes a question on grasping the power relations and force fields emerging from HRM-practice. One could therefore ask the question: "What is HR about – and what is HR practice?" Barbara Townley (1994, 1998, 1999) has done this extensively and demonstrates how a foucauldian analysis focuses on practices, which structure social relations. (Townley, 1998: 194) Townley conceptualizes HRM as the medium through which the employment relationship may be organized or disciplined through technologies of the self. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6677 Files in this item: 1
dokument 15.pdf (269.4Kb) -
Westenholz, Ann (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
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Duguid, Paul (København, 2003)[More information][Less information]
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A Reconstruction of Corporate Social ResponsibilityBoxenbaum, Eva; Battilana, Julie (København, 2004)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: The notion of institutional entrepreneur (DiMaggio, 1988) has given rise to a controversy in neo-institutional theory around the ability of actors to distance themselves from institutional pressures, envision alternative institutional patterns, and act strategically to change institutions in which they are embedded. This paper empirically examines the ability of embedded actors to envision alternative institutional patterns, that is, their innovative capacity. We analyze the role that an individual played in the development of a new institutional logic of corporate social responsibility in Denmark between 2001 and 2002. Based on our empirical findings on the innovative capacity of this individual, we propose a new definition of institutional entrepreneurs that is more compatible with the premises of neo-institutional theory than the one proposed by DiMaggio (1988). We propose that institutional entrepreneurs are institutionally bounded agents who a) transpose an institutional logic across fields and introduce it as a deliberate alternative to the institutional logic in the focal field, or b) deliberately seek to diffuse an alternative logic within a field. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6719 Files in this item: 1
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The Emergence of Environmental Management AccountingGeorg, Susse (København, 2004)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Based on a study of the emergence of EMA as a new managerial domain and of how EMA costs the environment, the paper examines the institutionalisation of EMA. This is accomplished by linking EMA to the broader discourse of economic efficiency. Moreover, the paper contends that the institutionalisation of EMA is supported through the legitimacy it produces for individuals (notably environmental managers) and organizations. Through the use of different metrics, EMA frames the environment in terms of the well known – money – and establishes equivalence between the actions to protect the environment and changes in the bottom line. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6688 Files in this item: 1
wp200415.pdf (54.37Kb) -
Kreiner, Kristian (København, 2004)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: This article explores the case of product development for insights into the potential role of knowledge management. Current literature on knowledge management entertains the notion that knowledge management is a specific set of practices – separate enough to allow specialization of responsibility. By common standard, the proclaimed responsibility of knowledge management is shared knowledge, saved learning costs and coordinated action in an organization. The significance of the practices of knowledge management is the intention of shared knowledge, saved learning costs and coordinated action. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6682 Files in this item: 1
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Westenholz, Ann (København, 2007)[More information][Less information]
Abstract: Rapporten beskæftiger sig med udviklingen af kommercialisering af open source i Dan-mark ud fra den antagelse, at når open source software i dag i stigende grad bliver taget alvorligt af forretningsverdenen, er det ikke kun fordi IT virksomheder gennem open source udviklingsmodeller har udviklet konkurrencedygtige softwareprodukter, men også fordi der er lavet et stykke samfundsmæssigt institutionelt arbejde, som har normaliseret (om end ikke gjort det problemfrit), at IT virksomheder indgår i udviklingsmodeller, hvor alle har ret-ten til at kopiere, distribuere og modificere kildekoder i et stykke software. Fokus i rappor-ten er på sådanne ’institutionelle entreprenører’, som på trods af den hidtidige copyright institution i forretningsverdenen har fået sat en anden dagsorden, hvor det i stigende grad er blevet naturligt at tænke i open source software, som et produkt, man kan skabe en for-retning omkring. URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10398/6695 Files in this item: 1
wp2007-003.pdf (345.9Kb)