Constructivism and critical realism as alternative approaches to the study of business networks: Convergences and divergences in theory and in research practice

Peters, Linda D.; Pressey, Andrew D.; Vanharanta, Markus; Johnston, Wesley J.

doi:10.1016/j.indmarman.2013.02.003

Cited by 64 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…Both structuration (see for instance Ellis & Mayer, 2001;Nicholson et al, 2009;Nicholson et al, 2013;Peters et al, 2009) and critical realism (see for instance Easton, 2010;Ehret, 2013;Harrison & Easton, 2002;Matthyssens et al, 2013;Peters et al, 2013a;Ryan et al, 2012) have seen limited, but increasing use in industrial marketing scholarship. It is clear that critical realism is gaining most traction, and our concern is that is that IM scholars choose one to the exclusion of the other when so much's stands to be gained by using both structuration and critical realism (and others), we will argue as part of a pluralism of pluralistic perspectives Critical realism and structuration were conceived by their founders (Bhaskar and Giddens) as stratified rather than flat ontologies with reality seen as recursive and emergent.…”

Section: Agency and Structure In Industrial Marketing Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gaining access to agency and structure in industrial marketing theory

2014

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This paper is concerned with gaining greater insight into the interplay between agency and structure in industrial marketing scholarship. The paper's intent is to embed Midgley's notion of critical pluralism within this endeavour. The paper commends the movement towards increased deployment of critical realism, but cautions against the dangers of creating further atomism in marketing theory by creating another paradigm of thought with crenellated boundaries, impervious to outside influence. The paper advances a case for critical pluralism within industrial marketing scholarship and offers a three dimensional, theoretical, methodical and methodological framework to aid such critical pluralism. The discussion demonstrates how such critical pluralism can be deployed to gain revelatory insight into agency and structure using a number of 'integrative' theoretical perspectives.

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Section: Agency and Structure In Industrial Marketing Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gaining access to agency and structure in industrial marketing theory

2014

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“…This research relies on a philosophical standpoint that overlaps between constructivism and critical realism [58,59]. Furthermore, in practice, we apply a qualitative case study for this research where we can collect a rich set of data.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards business ecosystems for connected health

et al. 2017

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Digitalisation is seen as a vehicle for restructuring practices of social and health care in Finland. A conceptual model of connected health has evolved over time focusing on bringing together individuals and health professionals by means of 'eHealth', 'telecare', 'telemedicine' or 'telehealth' services and data connected via the Internet of Things. Digital transformation has triggered the emergence of innovative connected health services, as well as novel business models in the health and healthcare sector. Additionally, current literature emphasises growing importance of ecosystems in advancing the connected health business. The main reason for this, the increased understanding of business ecosystems would allow companies to create coherent services that would be easier for patients and health professionals (e.g. doctors and nurses) to use. This paper aims to develop and present a conceptual model for business ecosystem for connected health by mapping service needs for healthcare in the future. For this research, we conducted 16 meetings/workshops related to business models and business ecosystems. We also involved different end-user groups in our research (seven doctor interviews, four workshops with nurses and digital discussions and workshops with 12 parents with sick children).This qualitative case study illustrates the construct of the Nordic Central Hospital test lab-an innovation ecosystem for connected health service providers. Alongside the broad service map, we demonstrate the logic of value flow between different layers of services in the ecosystem. From an originality perspective, this multidisciplinary paper focuses on the pediatric day surgery to check the scope of connected health, which has not been done before.

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“…First, the paper begins a new line of enquiry in the industrial marketing literature on the role of industrial workshop venue in buyer-seller behaviour (Hingley, 2005a(Hingley, , 2005b and recognizes the significance of discrete, episodic relational institutional arrangements and mechanisms for maintaining power, structures and institutions (Kumar, 2005;Yang & Wang, 2011). The industrial workshop as a unit of analysis opens up an understanding of institutional work that is commensurate with the interaction approach (Håkansson, 1982) and builds on the view of multiple embedded power structures posited by the traditions of the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) Group (Ford, Gadde, Håkansson, Snehota, & Waluszewski, 2003;Meehan & Wright, 2012;Peters, Pressey, Vanharanta, & Johnson, 2013). Second, this study makes an important contribution to Lawrence & Suddaby's (2006) study, and related research in business marketing (Kumar, 2005;Jia, Cai &Xu, 2014;Yang & Wang, 2011) on agentic power by showing how institutional work constituted subjects -the suppliers -transposing and mobilizing them with 'drama' in the sense of fictionalised representation of games, ceremonial awards and new distribution inititatives.…”

Section: Institutional Maintenance Work and Power Preservation In Busmentioning

confidence: 99%

Institutional maintenance work and power preservation in business exchanges: Insights from industrial supplier workshops

Palmer

Simmons

Robinson

et al. 2015

Industrial Marketing Management

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Research Highlights:• Demonstrates how power is a property of institutional maintenance work.• Recognizes the significance of temporary industrial workshop settings for maintaining power.• Provides insights into how the work of institutional maintenance 'bears down' on buyer and seller exchanges.• Elucidates priming work activity and pressure specialist mechanisms for legitimation or relegitimation of roles and expectations.• Shows power intensification in the instituting and normalizing of distinct in-group market rules. 4Institutional maintenance work and power preservation in business exchanges: Insights from industrial supplier workshops Abstract This paper aims to offer new theoretical and empirical insights into power dynamics in an industrial supplier workshop setting. Theoretically, it advances an institutional perspective on supplier workshops as an important venue in managing, preserving and instituting industrial market power. Based on a detailed ethnographic analysis of an industrial workshop setting, this article investigates the institutional maintenance work of Retail Co. in preserving the power dynamics of market dominance in business exchanges and market structures. Our findings revealed three previously unreported insights into the subtle, but nonetheless pervasive power from institutional maintenance work in an industrial workshop setting. First, the institutional workshop work comprised a cultural performance; constituting socialization practice through a performance game, the power of numbers in field comprehension and an award ceremony. Second, the institutional workshop work mobilized projective agency, stipulating, directing and appealing for the instituting of distinct market rules and collective identities. Finally, the institutional workshop work increases supplier docility and utility via the regulative technologies-of-the-self to enhance business planning, operations and market decision-making practice, without necessarily being seen to be disciplinarian.

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Constructivism and critical realism as alternative approaches to the study of business networks: Convergences and divergences in theory and in research practice

Cited by 64 publications

References 31 publications

Gaining access to agency and structure in industrial marketing theory

Gaining access to agency and structure in industrial marketing theory

Towards business ecosystems for connected health

Institutional maintenance work and power preservation in business exchanges: Insights from industrial supplier workshops

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