The Subjective Dimension of a Bipolar Family Education/Support Group: A Sociology of Emotions Approach

This article reports on the predominant emotions experienced by members of an education/support group for the relatives and partners of individuals with bipolar manic-depression. Identified are the specific types of emotions experienced as well as the situational, definitional, and behavioral frameworks in which particular emotions or combinations of emotions were generated, experienced, interpreted, expressed, and managed. Special attention is focused on emotional uncertainty, mixed and fluctuating emotions, the erosion of positive by negative emotions, and emotional stalemates. In addition, the personal and social consequences of members\u27 adopting particular emotion management roles are examined. Finally, the article outlines the education/ support group contexts and processes through which members were able to normalize, alter, or reduce a number of particularly distressful emotions and create or reinforce specific positive emotions

Transformative power of mundane technologies in institutional change

To examine the role of mundane technologies in institutional change, we conduct an inductive longitudinal study of a translation in the field of UK grocery retailing and elucidate a process of bottom-up transformation, where customer data replaced product data as a key determinant in decision-making. Our analysis uncovers that such change develops over time through three phases: (1) triggering change through the costs of the technology, (2) capturing value through the benefits of the technology, and (3) retaining transformative momentum through the ability of the technology to develop. While illustrating the process, we show how mundane technologies do not take on new meaning as a result of their innate features but through their relationality in mutual constitution with the field. Hence our study illustrates the fact that each technology holds the potential for generativity

Sustainability – a new dimension in information systems evaluation

The paper introduces new dimensions of Information Systems evaluation. Sustainability issues have increasing importance and their influence is compared with the Internet revolution. Customers, policymakers and business partners increasingly require the monitoring and reporting of the impact of an organisation on sustainability. However, traditional IS evaluation approaches are not able to capture the impact of IT/IS on sustainability, especially in relation to social and environmental dimensions. In order to stimulate discussion and research, the authors propose a framework that was originally developed to focus on supply chain practices. The framework is built upon three dimensions: economic, social and environmental, which are divided further into three sub-dimensions. It can be used as a staring point to develop a framework for sustainability-oriented IS evaluation. In the paper the sustainability drivers are presented, and the problems related to IT/IS evaluation are discussed using selected examples from IT/IS applications in supply chains. IT/IS solutions used in supply chains are perceived as having both positive and negative effects on sustainability. Moreover some business models supported by IT/IS that are perceived as positive for the supply chain processes, could be considered negative after taking into consideration their external effects on sustainability. Sustainability and its new dimensions create new challenges for Information Systems evaluation. Companies require frameworks and tools that can help to measure and evaluate the organisational impact on sustainability, to create a sustainability-oriented IS evaluation. The researcher’s role is to answer such needs and concentrate on this emerging research topic

Transformative power of mundane technologies in institutional change

To examine the role of mundane technologies in institutional change, we conduct an inductive longitudinal study of a translation in the field of UK grocery retailing and elucidate a process of bottom-up transformation, where customer data replaced product data as a key determinant in decision-making. Our analysis uncovers that such change develops over time through three phases: (1) triggering change through the costs of the technology, (2) capturing value through the benefits of the technology, and (3) retaining transformative momentum through the ability of the technology to develop. While illustrating the process, we show how mundane technologies do not take on new meaning as a result of their innate features but through their relationality in mutual constitution with the field. Hence our study illustrates the fact that each technology holds the potential for generativity

Supply chain best practices – identification and categorisation of measures and benefits

Purpose – This research aims to identify, categorise and compare supply chain measures and benefits listed in literature-based case studies that were named as "best practices". Design/methodology/approach – The research applies iterative triangulation which is a method used to build theories from existing case studies. Selected case studies collected by project partners are used as a source of secondary data. The paper applies various approaches to classifying supply chains as well as identifying the difference between measures proposed in the literature and those used by case companies. Findings – The analysis of the selected sample of cases indicated that the most common measures were related to economic aspects and to operational level activities. There is a lack of shared supply chain measures at the inter-organizational level, while social and environmental aspects are largely ignored. Originality/value – The majority of the measures identified in the collected cases were economic (relating to cost, time, quality and customer). Metrics at an operational level dominate, while supply chain metrics are hardly used. Findings indicate that current performance measurement approaches do not generally include social and environmental issues, which are becoming increasingly important in business

Capturing the uncertainties of retail development: The case of emerging markets

This paper aims to better understand how retail development in emerging markets might occur by carrying out a detailed analysis of Indian retailing and then applying the results to a wider range of emerging markets. The goal is to identify potential patterns of future retail development in emerging economies. The scenarios approach was considered an appropriate methodology for investigating developing economies as it accepts structural uncertainty with multiple interpretations and multiple futures. In fact for retailing, there are countless ‘right’ answers, endless combinations of business models and infinite permutations of key themes and approaches. Conceptualising the evolution of different retail formats taking the scenarios approach is therefore a prudent choice of methodology, especially in wanting to avoid the dangers of over formalising the format development process within the retail context in emerging markets. Four possible visions for retail development in India, each with their own benefits and costs: a Kirana Kingdom, Sanskriti Planets, Sasta World or Mishrit Universe were developed from the primary research conducted and then tested in the context of other emerging markets. A combination of regulatory intervention and the changing cultural disposition of consumers on account of changing socio-economic conditions play a significant role in the development of retailing in emerging markets. The significant role of the politics of retailing in emerging markets has also been highlighted in this paper. Retail development in emerging markets can therefore be aligned more closely to combination theory where the consumer-regulation configuration plays a significant role in how retail evolves and develops in these markets

Scenarios Research and Cognitive Reframing: Implications for Strategy as Practice

This paper makes two contributions to strategic management research. It positions scenarios research as a way to connect micro, meso, and macro level cognitive framing (Cornelissen and Werner, 2014) regarding environmental uncertainties. This extends the boundaries of strategy as practice by involving extra organizational actors in strategy praxis to ascertain macro level uncertainties (Vaara and Whittington, 2012, Floyd, 2011) and by linking the complex connections between the micro, meso and macro praxis (Jarzabowski and Spee 2009). The paper considers the role of a scenarios methodology in strategic management with respect to two unrelated case studies – a real estate firm, and a trade association, with and about whom two of the researchers have a detailed knowledge since 2009. While the findings we report here must be treated as exploratory, they do conform to a pattern of findings that a broader six year old research effort has been producing (Ramirez et al, 2015). The findings also conform to the way sociology has been treating the ‘framing’ of issues since Goffman (1974) popularized the construct. As Cornelissen & Werner’s (2014) recent review of framing suggests, the field includes ‘micro’ (individual) level research concerning the cognitive frame, frame of reference, and the framing effects involved; ‘meso’ organizational) level research about what strategic frame, technological framing, and collective action framing take place; and ‘macro-level’ research at the field level including institutional frames as well as framing contexts. This paper establishes that scenarios research allows management to clearly connect what Pierre Wack (1985) famously called the 'microscope of the mind to the 'macroscope- of the world accessed with scenarios; it does so by respectively reframing roles and relationships at the micro and meso levels. This paper is also a response to the call made by Vaara and Whittington (2012) to broaden the analyses of strategy-making, moving away from a strong emphasis on the ability of individual managers or management teams to steer an organization to instead become more concerned with placing agency in a web of practices. Accordingly, Whittington et al (2003) proposed that strategy be investigated as a field or social system characterised by connections between corporate elites, strategy consultants, financial institutions, state agencies, the business media, and business schools with an emphasis on understanding how these interactions contribute to the production and consumption of particular kinds of strategy discourse. This paper establishes that taking a scenarios approach can help strategists in firms in turbulent environments (Emery and Trist, 1965) to host diverse views without having to reach agreement, and so more readily comprehend the relevance, complexity, and potential impacts of such a web of practices. By having a small set of scenarios that disagree with each other but do so within different futures, the views of “the other” (Habermas, 2000) and the connections between the web of practices can be safely explored within a “safe” transitional space (Amado and Ambrose, 2001)

Refractive Index of Humid Air in the Infrared: Model Fits

The theory of summation of electromagnetic line transitions is used to tabulate the Taylor expansion of the refractive index of humid air over the basic independent parameters (temperature, pressure, humidity, wavelength) in five separate infrared regions from the H to the Q band at a fixed percentage of Carbon Dioxide. These are least-squares fits to raw, highly resolved spectra for a set of temperatures from 10 to 25 C, a set of pressures from 500 to 1023 hPa, and a set of relative humidities from 5 to 60%. These choices reflect the prospective application to characterize ambient air at mountain altitudes of astronomical telescopes.Comment: Corrected exponents of c0ref, c1ref and c1p in Table

Creating urban platforms — opportunities and challenges for innovation in commercial real estate development

Current theories on commercial urban development are dominated by the concept of linearity, which does not adequately take into account the demands of adaptation posed by the pace of change in digital developments, a pace that stands in marked contrast to the pace of change in physical developments. In the hi-tech sector, platform ecosystems have been employed to accommodate innovation and change. This paper explores the potential application of platform ecosystem theory to the commercial urban development process, where there is now great uncertainty regarding the future economic implications and societal requirements of physical commercial space. The boundary conditions for value creation in platform ecosystems are as follows: modularity, standardisation, complementarity and connectivity. Each is explored through a survey of key actors in recently completed commercial urban developments. The analysis identifies significant differences in the capacity of public- and private-sector actors to promote the creation of platform ecosystems, particularly in the complementary actions of development participants. Applying an approach to urban development based on a platform ecosystem might offer great opportunities, but will also be limited by the major challenges identified in this paper