From Researching Regions at a Distance to Participatory Network Building: Integrating Action Research and Economic Geography

This paper describes the change in a researcher's practices from one of studying regional industrial development at a distance to one of working closely with a network of agri-food managers. This is accompanied by a discussion of the methodological and theoretical possibilities for an action research inspired economic geography. Some of the core characteristics of a pragmatic conceptualization of action research are revised. It is argued that theoretical developments within economic geography make possible a dialogue between researchers and local actors and that economic geography is challenged to accept that knowledge is generated through such a dialogue. Attempts to create a dialogue between action research and economic geography in a specific Norwegian industrial and geographical context are described. These attempts indicate that the researcher's methodological approach has been transformed from a narrow one relying solely on conventional social science methods to a broader one including participatory action research.     

Enhancing Organisational Innovation Capability Through Systemic Action Research: A Case of a Swiss SME in the Food Industry

This paper presents detailed insights into the nature of innovation dynamics of an SME operating in the food industry. Furthermore, the paper highlights how Action Research has changed and enhanced SME??s capability to innovate. Within the exploratory action research based case study described in this article, the researchers interacted closely with one company with regards to a newly launched innovation process over a time period of more than 18 months. The analysis contributes to the fields of action research and innovation research in three respects: First, it exemplifies how systemic action research as a method can be applied on the organisational level in the private sector. Second, it demonstrates how useful action research can be for fostering the innovativeness and creativity of a company. Lastly, the analysis illustrates the extensive time horizon of an action research project.     

Management Factors Influencing Location Selection Decisions of Independent Filmmakers: An Exploratory Case Study

This is an exploratory case study of a management issue that confronts filmmakers: how do they select locations for their films? The outcome of those decisions can have vast and immediate effects upon the profitability of a film. This is a sometimes shadowy, but significant industry with a major economic impact. For systems theory advocates, students, and explorers, this study demonstrates that investigative, immersive action research techniques can be used to explore what are otherwise hidden, somewhat cloistered business organizations and industry structures that are ordinarily closed to outsiders. The soft-system of this industry that is rooted upon trust, loyalty, alliances, relationships, and other non-financial bonds influence its decisions, and its institutional performance. While this research is focused upon a fragment of the overall film industry worldwide, and is thus limited in the universality of the propositions that subsequently emerge, this study can serve as a springboard for research into other soft systems, from which new knowledge of managerial perspectives can emerge.     

基于Meta分析的吸收能力对企业创新影响问题

在将企业吸收能力划分为吸收投入、知识基础及吸收过程3个维度，将文化差异、企业类型和测量方法作为两者的潜在调节变量，探究吸收能力对企业创新影响的基础上，基于104篇实证文献、162个效应值、45 441个独立样本的Meta分析，得出了更具普适性的研究结论。研究发现：首先，吸收能力与企业创新之间具有显著的中等相关关系，同时，吸收能力的3个维度对企业创新均具有显著的促进作用，其中吸收过程维度对企业创新的促进作用强于吸收投入和知识基础维度；其次，相较于国外企业，中国情境下（文化差异）的国内企业吸收能力对企业创新的影响更大，行业类型作为吸收能力对企业创新影响的重要调节变量，其中，高新技术企业的吸收投入和吸收过程对企业创新的影响更大，而非高新技术企业的吸收知识基础对企业创新的影响更大；最后，相较于非量表数据而言，量表数据对吸收能力与企业创新的影响更大。本文的研究结论能够为企业充分利用各类外部知识高效开展创新活动提供科学的决策参考依据。     

Basic Principles of SSM Modeling: An Examination of CATWOE from a Soft Perspective

This paper examines the SSM technique CATWOE, which focuses on defining necessary elements that together constitute a human activity system from a certain perspective. Despite its recognition within the literature and its numerous uses, there are few studies on how the technique can be improved. This research reflects on each of the elements both from a theoretical and a practical perspective. Findings point to the fact that some of the terms have a meaning in everyday language that differs from its definition within CATWOE. Other concepts are not well-defined. This is unfortunate and may both lead to misunderstandings and limit analysis. The paper points to a number of ways in which the use of CATWOE can be developed in order to further support the process of eliciting novel ideas for future actions. Hence, the overall conclusion is that the elements need to be rethought and some of them renamed.     

An Approach to the Notion of Reflective Teacher and Its Exemplification on Mathematics Education

Within research into the teaching profession, there are two main areas of interest, which have been thoroughly defined and consolidated: teacher’s knowledge and teacher’s professional development. This paper considers the latter area, and specifically sets out to define the concept of the reflective teacher and to show how we have applied this concept in our research. It aims at defining a more precise notion of teachers’ professional development linked to the concept of a reflective teacher, drawing on information from different interdisciplinary sources so as to frame the concept clearly. We discuss the conditions which determine the reflective teacher, and report on how these were put to use in a training course for practising teachers in which participants reflected on challenging episodes from their professional experience. We hope that clarifying this term will enable different educational agents (school teachers, teacher trainers or researchers) to have an informed view that can be interpreted and critiqued, and that it will also be of value to initial teacher training and to in-service courses.     

Impact of Crowdsourcee’s Vertical Fairness Concern on the Crowdsourcing Knowledge Sharing Behavior and Its Incentive Mechanism

This paper examines in detail the impact of the crowdsourcee's vertical fairness concern on the knowledge sharing incentive mechanism in crowdsourcing communities. The conditions for the establishment of the incentive mechanism are analyzed and the impact of fairness concern sensitivity on expected economic revenues of both sides as well as the crowdsourcing project performance is studied by game theory and computer simulation. The results show that the knowledge sharing incentive mechanism can only be established if the ratio between the performance improvement rate and the private cost reduction rate caused by shared knowledge is within a certain range. The degree of the optimal linear incentives, the private solution efforts, and the improvement of knowledge sharing level are positively correlated with the sensitivity of vertical fairness concern. In the non-incentive mode, the ratio between the performance conversion rate of private solution effort and the performance conversion rate of knowledge sharing effort plays an important role in moderating a crowdsourcing project's performance. The authors find that the number of participants is either conducive or nonconducive to the improvement of performance. The implementation of knowledge sharing incentive can achieve a win-win situation for both the crowdsourcer and the crowdsourcee.     

Deliberative Inquiry: Integrated Ways of Working in Children Services

In striving for greater integration of children services across a number of government and non government agencies, this paper examines the effect of drawing on deliberative inquiry as the lever for realising greater alignment across agencies. The paper discusses the need for improvement in UK local government children??s services and then offers a review of the dialogue based inquiry approaches. In so doing, the paper highlights the Socratic mode of inquiry, emphasising the dual strategies of penetrative questioning, elenchus, and the process of founding new knowledge through working through confusion, aporia. This paper then reports how a London borough realised sustained change through the adoption of deliberative inquiry. The study achieved successful integration through the penetrating and contextually sensitive dialogue the inquiry participants generated, allowing them to develop the capability for realising effective organisational change. The paper concludes that deliberative inquiry facilitates individuals to speak their concerns in a manner that prompts ??consensually accepted beliefs?? to emerge through paying equal attention to the motivation of the inquiry participants, as well as to the reality of the contextual demands they need to confront.     

Migration, Ethnicity and Privilege

Representation assumes that those who govern have knowledge of those for whom they govern. It is easy to presume knowledge of the “other”, but as we know this can be based in prejudice, cultural difference, or simply misinformation or simplification. Usually our explorations of this process have focused on populations identified as disadvantaged, disempowered or somehow “non-privileged”. However, the research process outlined here has revealed previously unexplored diversity within a population commonly described as privileged suggesting that good governance requires alertness to presuming to know both the unprivileged and the privileged. The research approach outlined in this paper has used a blend of historical reappraisal and qualitative techniques focusing on a population who have been conceptualized as doubly privileged. This population focus is that of older British; post World War II male migrants in South Australia. These people have been conceptualized as privileged because they are male, and they were part of the preferred ethnic group that Australian politicians and policy makers favoured post WW2. However, review of the historical data and qualitative interviews with some of these men show that the accepted narrative of a homogenous pre-WW2 British origin population is over simplistic. The historical research suggests that the presumption that post WW2 British migrant men were coming into an homogenous, privileging environment in migrating to SA is both ahistorical and crude. Furthermore the belief that post WW2 British migrant men were ethnically homogenous is undermined by the qualitative research, that reveals that their presumed homogeneity is much more fluid and nuanced than dominant conceptualisations have allowed. The impact of core ethnicities that continue to exist and compete in Britain, the social class focus and economic commodification of migrants in the machinations of powerful players in the state of South Australia all confound homogenizing, simplistic knowing of British migrant men in this state. Generically these findings caution social researchers with regard to presuming to know so called “privileged” populations as well as presumed non-privileged groups.     

Communicating Through Theatre: How Organizational Theatre Engages Researchers and Industrial Companies

In this article, we focus on the communicative aspects in action research (AR), and how we as action researchers have been inspired by working with a theatre company in enterprise development. The theatre showed us a different landscape concerning communication in the enterprise development process. We discuss how communication in AR traditionally is handled, and challenge AR by introducing how a theatre company creates engagement and involvement in the development process. Action researchers can enhance their research activity through using communication forms borrowed from theatrical performance in order to inspire and increase participants’ involvement in change processes.

团体贷款中商业银行-中小企业贷款行为的动态博弈仿真分析

为了解决中小企业贷款的担保问题,同一个工业园区或一个产业链条上企业间的担保贷款,即团体贷款就成为解决问题的一种方式.利用动态博弈模型,采用仿真的方法对团体贷款中影响银企贷款行为的因素进行了研究,得出通过企业的动态学习,均衡下的企业策略随着社会惩罚和外部惩罚的变动而变动.当外部惩罚足够严厉时,这时的企业策略选择不仅仅只比较团体内部各参与人收益大小,还要考虑同团体中其他个体进行比较.     

Involved in Praxis and Analytical at a Distance

Lately, society has pressed for more direct societal relevance of social research. The argument of this special issue is that engaged research is an answer to the demand for a social science that matters. We define engaged research as a praxis where researchers actively engage in a social field in the pursuit of solving important local problems, while at the same time combining this with a scientific knowledge generation process. In other words, we discuss the conditions for research when researchers “go native” to solve problems and reflect along with participants. We have been able to find several sources of arguments supporting such a research strategy, but our search for methodological guidance on how to act as an engaged researcher has been in vain. What does it take for a researcher to do engaged research? The set of articles in this special issue all address certain aspects of this challenge. Some discuss the researcher’s path towards deep field engagement, whereas others discover various challenges and skills involved in engagement, and the task of developing scientific knowledge based on engaged research.     

基于探索式创新的知识整合能力对制造企业绩效的影响

探索式创新对制造企业提升其核心竞争力具有重要意义,围绕知识基础理论和协同创新理论,构建了基于探索式创新的知识整合能力对制造企业绩效的影响模型,并分析协作研发广度和深度的调节作用。利用2000~2017年中国制造业1 239家上市高新技术企业为样本进行实证分析。结果表明：混合型和创造型知识整合能力均与制造企业绩效呈倒U型关系;协作研发广度加强创造型知识整合能力与制造企业绩效的正向关系,但对混合型知识整合能力与制造企业绩效关系的调节作用不显著;协作研发深度同时削弱创造型和混合型知识整合能力与制造企业绩效的正向关系。研究结论为分析内部知识整合能力对制造企业绩效的影响提供了新的视角,为调整与外部企业的协作关系给予了借鉴。     

SUPPORTING SALESPERSONS＇ CRM EFFORTS THROUGH LOCATION-BASED MOBILE SUPPORT SYSTEMS

This paper aims at assessing how location-based mobile support systems can support salespersons‘ CRM efforts when they are operating within a highly mobile work environment. After briefly discussing the state-of-the-art issues associated with mobile location technologies, the paper conceptualizes key dimensions for location-based mobile support systems. The paper then discusses the dual role of salespersons in CRM. A fourth section suggests a categorization of salespersons‘ CRM tasks based on both properties of location-based mobile support and the areas of salespersons‘ CRM-related tasks that may be affected by mobile location technologies. Finally, the paper suggests potential mobile location services and applications that can help salespersons perform effectively their everyday CRM tasks and link such applications to the determinant of salespersons““ performance. The paper concludes with a discussion of some critical issues and suggests areas for further research.     

The Pattern-matching Role of Systems Thinking in Improving Research Trustworthiness

This paper seeks to identify a new and useful role for systems thinking in improving qualitative research quality. Firstly, it reflects upon the main characteristics and difficulties of qualitative research. Secondly, it critically reviews some of the techniques suggested to improve research credibility, transferability, dependability and confirmability. Thirdly, it explains the concept of pattern-matching and its role in designing case studies. Based on these, the paper examines the pattern-matching role of systems thinking in enhancing the trustworthiness of qualitative research. Finally, a case study is described to illustrate how pattern-matching is embedded in systems perspective to improve research trustworthiness. The paper highlights that when systems thinking is combined with pattern-matching properly in qualitative research, it can help the investigators to develop a fuller and richer understanding of a phenomenon, and can enable others interested in the research to recover how conclusions have been made and to make informed judgement about the research findings.     

The Role Conundrums of Co-Inquiry Action Research: Lessons from the Field

This paper focuses on the role conundrums that confront action researchers who are engaged in co-inquiry designs for purposes of generating knowledge that is both actionable and makes a robust contribution to a more generalized body of knowledge. Drawing on the lived experience of researchers in such a project in U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, this paper describes the conundrums that confronted the researchers, identifies the central dynamics around which they seem to be organized, and discusses the impact on the subsequent practice of the researchers. Practices that establish reflexivity in the research process are an important part of the role of the researchers. So too is establishing relationships that provide for sensemaking and integrating rigor and relevance.

Playing Dissymmetry in Action Research: The Role of Power and Differences in Promoting Participative Knowledge and Change

This article explores the importance of power and dissymmetry in promoting participative knowledge and change in action research. Based on the analysis of two action research cases, the paper builds its argument by analyzing two key aspects: the construction of the action research setting and its maintenance during the process. It does so by highlighting the decisions assumed with respect to the relationship between researchers and participants and with respect to power issues. The findings indicate that promoting a functional dissymmetry in internal relationships allows distribution of the necessary types of power that make the participants use their authority and knowledge to invest in change. Thus, the distributed leadership is essential every time an organization needs to create a realistic and workable change of roles and responsibilities inside its boundaries. The article discusses some key factors in employing dissymmetry for sustained learning and knowledge-sharing.     

Co-operative Inquiry: Changing Interprofessional Practice

Recent government guidance concerning the welfare of children emphasizes the necessity for change in interprofessional practice. This paper examines how co-operative inquiry enabled a diverse professional group to inquire into how change can be promoted in complex practice systems. It considers the influence of external stakeholders, highlights the consequent tension between task and process, and addresses the implications for the role of facilitators.     

Action Research as Experimentation

This paper suggests that the metaphors of experimentation and the laboratory are applicable when positioning action research vis-à-vis more conventional business school research. Following on from three different action research projects in a large multinational pharmaceutical company, the paper argues that an action researcher can never construct a sheltered environment wherein certain qualities of nature can be isolated, purified, and enhanced, but must always undertake research activities in vivo, in real life organizational setting. Still, the metaphor of the laboratory is applicable because it enables for an understanding of how what Ian Hacking calls interventions in the hard sciences share certain characteristics with the action research activities. When action researchers intervene within organizations, the activities are always experimental in nature, i.e., they can never be fully predicted or anticipated, but are initial steps in an emergent process of organizational change.     

Dilemmas of Confrontation

Practicing action research in workplaces is a choice of letting oneself be closely involved in other peoples’ integrity as working men and women. The encounter between the researcher and the social group in the contract organization is the vital and sometimes only instrument for generating new learning and lasting change, thus it is critical for engaged action researchers to continuously be self-reflective on our praxis and appearance in this encounter. Within the action research literature, this encounter is discussed in relatively broad terms emphasizing preferred roles, values and strategies for organizing collaborative learning processes. Relatively little is reported, however, on the unpleasant sides of this interaction between the researcher and the collaborative group. In line with Greenwood and Levin’s (1998) argument for the action researcher as a friendly outsider who confronts in a supportive way, most researchers practicing action research have experienced how difficult it is to be as confronting as it takes if dysfunctional social routines are to be changed. In this article, I report on my own practice from an action research project, where I gradually developed my skills and confidence in acting more confronting as to bring forward new collaborating working routines among metal workers. I discuss three different forms of confrontation to be of critical necessity. By daring to act more confrontational, I also realized that it made me feel better about myself as a professional engaged researcher as I could reveal my true meanings and perspectives to the workers. I conclude by suggesting that in order for an engaged researcher to be able to develop her role as a confronting practitioner it is important to work closely in a team with fellow researchers, as well as to have the personal capacity to be self-reflexive and self-therapeutic.