Murray and Ozanne (1991) provided evidence of paradigmatic approaches in market and consumer research by classifying the field into Positivism, Interpretivism and Critical Theory. We discuss these approaches and celebrate their contribution. We posit, however, that paradigms are symptomatic of an epistemological trap that privileges knowledge to the detriment of other vital virtues. We propose to employ Capra's triadic concept (Capra, 1997) to develop the notion of 'paradigmapping' and demonstrate that this concept can be employed to transcend incommensurability in the field of marketing. We also propose to supplement Alvesson and Skoldberg's (2000) 'triple' hermeneutics of individual reflection, social construction and critical theory with a healthier balance between knowledge and other virtues. We posit a relativist position where we clearly wish to argue the case for considering marketing's potential as a moral art rather than the amoral science we submit it has become.

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Paradigms are sets of prior assumptions that configure ways of seeing. This article employs a notion taken from Web of Life to map how paradigms in marketing have proliferated according to their juxtaposition within three criteria, namely structure, pattern and process. The exercise, termed "paradigmapping", provides a useful picture of the relative positioning of selected contributions to the field. This positions each contribution according to its imposed relation to these three criteria. Each contribution involves preoccupation with one of the criteria, tolerance of a second and denigration of a third. The implications of this are explored.

This article argues that cross cultural management is dominated by the objectivist paradigm of functionalism which is itself embedded in an ethnocentric western culture characterized by amoral rationalism, affective neutrality and orientation to Truth. The discussion uses research into Chinese culture and Chinese management to contextualize the debate. Western culture, it is argued, is an inadequate vehicle for understanding Chinese culture and management. The scientific sub-culture of functionalism is hegemonic within western social scientific paradigms. The paradigm hermeticism and paradigm `wars' characterizing this contested domain prevent integrative and synthetic views. The approaches of Hofstede and Schwartz exacerbate the problem, resulting in avoidance of an agenda to understand the complexities of culture beyond a western mechanistic, quantitative parochialism. The problem is summarized as attributable to the structural obsession of western social science that results in the denigration of understanding of process. Two possible solutions to this problem are outlined; namely `reform' and `radical change'.

This article argues that cross cultural management research is in a crisis of its own making. It is a captive of the delusion that nomothetic theory is progressing towards convergence of an ideal view. Within the context of this fallacy are competing perspectives and paradigms that appear incommensurable. The battle appears to be which paradigm will win. It is our contention that the battle is futile and unnecessary. We reveal how 'paradigmapping' is useful in understanding the manner in which paradigms and incommensurability can be framed in discourse involving culture and organization. Through this work of Frijof Capra we seek to formulate a new perspective on paradigms. This view enables an informative account of where principal contributions can be located within the intellectual space of studies of culture and organizations. It reveals that all knowledge contributions are captive of one privileged view, tolerant of a second marginalized view and denigrative or ignorant of a third view. In other words, all knowledge is captive of blind prejudices. We offer an outline of strategic research options within the field and the potential for transcending potential problems of incommensurability. We conclude that 'anything goes', as long as it involves what Capra has called 'epistemic consciousness'; namely a realization of the prejudices inherent in our epistemologies, a determination to avoid single-paradigm myopia, and encouragement to employ bricolage in the context of local moralities, relationships and actionable outcomes.KEY WORDS • Capra's triad • cross cultural management • epistemology • management theory • paradigms

Purpose: To propose an approach for exploring industrial marketing network environments through a social semiotic lens. Design/methodology/approach: This conceptual paper introduces social semiotic perspectives to the study of business/industrial network interaction. Findings: We describe how structures of meaning derived from a cultural history of signification and interpretive processes of meaning in action are co-determined in social semiosis. We emphasise the meaning of environments using this social semiotic approach, leading us to explore the idea of the 'atmosemiosphere' -the most highly complex business network level, in illustrating how meaning is made through structuration between structures of meaning and their enactments in interactions between actors within living business networks. Practical Implications: Figurative language plays an important role in the structuration of meaning. This facilitates establishing plots and, therefore, in the actors' capability to tell a story, which starts with knowing what kind of story can be told. By implication, the effective networker must be a consummate moving 'picture maker' and to do so, she must have competences in narrative, emplotment, myth-making, storytelling and figuration in more than one discursive repertoire. Originality/Value: In employing a structurational discourse perspective informed by social semiotics, our original contribution is a 'business networks as discursive constructions' approach in that discursive nets, webs of narratives and stories, and labyrinths of tropes are considered just as important in constituting networks as networks of actor relationships and patterns of other activities and resources.

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