Kathryn Pavlovich

The evolution and transformation of a tourism destination network: the Waitomo Caves, New Zealand

This paper examines the process of tourism destination evolution and transformation. The focus is on how the relationships between organisations can act as a self-organising mechanism for the destination, with fluidity and change being a critical component in this process. This paper uses network theory to express these dynamics, and it emphasises structural features of architectural density and centrality. Most particularly, the network approach illustrates how groupings of small firms within interdependent systems can be self-governing, and show how this process assists the destination in building tacit knowledge for competitive advantage that resides in the network structure. The case context for this illustration is an icon tourism destination in New Zealand, the Waitomo Caves. This tourism destination has undergone significant transformation over the last 15 years, from its single Glowworm Cave attraction to an interdependent network involving underground adventure caving activities. Because of this transformation, it provides a distinctive context to explore these fluid network processes. r 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

The development of reflective practice through student journals

This paper explores the design and assessment of reflective journals in a course on spirituality and management in a tertiary institution. The purpose of reflection in education is to develop students’ self‐awareness and inner leadership. Yet, such assessment poses challenges in terms of design, content and grading. This paper explores the literature surrounding these issues, and then describes the introduction of such an approach through a case study. Two types of assessment were developed to assist students to explore self‐awareness. The first was through reflective journal entries completed throughout the course, and the second was a report due at the end of the course, describing the journey of the student’s most significant learning. The paper concludes by assessing the effectiveness of such an approach through qualitative measures. The use of student narratives from their journals, with their consent, illustrates the power of the reflective method.

Grounded learning from a strategy case competition

This article describes a case competition that reflects the four elements of a grounded learning exercise. These elements include creating a real-world experience, optimizing learning transfer, integrating theory and practice, and shifting learning responsibility to the students. The authors also provide details on implementing this exercise in an undergraduate capstone strategy course and using a real-time case that brings the competition to life.

Spiritual organizations and connectedness: the Living Nature experience

Definitions of spiritual organization include the notion of connectedness but generally consider only connectedness with respect to employees. We extend the notion of connectedness and thereby the definition of what constitutes spiritual organizations by systematically considering other ways in which organizations can enact connectedness. Classic open systems theory is integrated with the organizational spirituality literature to build a framework that identifies multiple paths to connectedness for a spiritual organization. A case study was chosen for its unusual and distinctive ability to illustrate this framework and reveals connectedness as it relates to functions connectedness (through international suppliers, accreditation, research and development, marketing and education), and to eco‐systems connectedness, where the organization demonstrates explicit awareness of social and environmental connectedness. We suggest that together these different forms of connectedness illustrate an awareness of an interdependent connectedness at a deep ecological level.

Entrepreneurship Research: Follow the Yellow-Brick Road?

tice represent Oz at the culmination of the yellow-brick road, Dorothy and her companions have much company on their journey. For example, one source estimates that 460 million people worldwide either start a new business or become the owners of new businesses annually (Reynolds et al. 2002). Moreover, entrepreneurship is the fastest growing field of study in tertiary education in North America and Europe (Bygrave 2004) and fifteen specialized scholarly journals disseminate research on the topic globally. Within the policy-making arena, the governments of both Australia and New Zealand seek to promote entrepreneurship as an engine of economic growth. This special issue on entrepreneurship thus appears to be timely and can help to take stock of this topic within our Australasian context. It can also serve as a baseline from which to consider directions for future research in this important area of inquiry. Historically, research on entrepreneurship has been informed by multiple disciplines. The influence of economics is seen through the ideas of Schumpeter (1976) and Kirzner (1997) especially. For example, Schumpeter’s notion of creative destruction described how existing product markets are destroyed by entrepreneurs who create new markets from information asymmetries or other market disequilibria. Contributions from psychology have focused on explaining entrepreneurship as a function of core human characteristics including tolerance for ambiguity (Schere 1982) and need for achievement (McCelland 1961). The discipline of sociology identified properties of the broader external environment that appear to influence the likelihood of entrepreneurial activity occurring. These include competence-destroying technological change (Tushman & Anderson 1986), industry dynamics (Hannan & Freeman 1987), and market structures (Acs & Audretsch 1990). Management research has drawn on these interdisciplinary findings to inform its scholarship on the phenomenon of entrepreneurship. Despite several classic contributions, entrepreneurship research is still seen as being in its early stages of development. This ‘early stage’ view is expressed in articles describing the ‘distinctive domain of entrepreneurship research’ (Venkataraman 1997) and the ‘promise of entrepreneurship as a field of research (Shane & Venkataraman 2000). Despite its newness, however; a conceptual framework for this important field of inquiry is emerging within the management discipline. The framework holds that entrepreneurship research: 1) evaluates people who discover, assess, and exploit opportunities; 2) investigates methCopyright

Broken links: Absorptive Capacity and the internationalisation process of high-tech companies

This study develops propositions regarding the impact of Absorptive Capacity (AC) on the internationalisation process. It generates a conceptual model based on the empirical examination of small-to-medium sized agro-technology companies. The paper demonstrates that the extent to which firms capture and exploit new information is highly influenced by their AC. The goal is to determine the type of knowledge which firms need, to exploit new and emerging markets. We suggest that AC in high-tech companies exists as two subsets: technological AC and non-core AC. The two ACs affect the daily activities of firms in different ways and influence their strategies, particularly their international strategies.

Art, 'Knowing' and Management Education

This article explores the concept of knowledge as an internal process of inner knowing. In the educational context, we describe our experiences in using art in the classroom to assist our students in accessing this inner knowing. We describe the design and use of such creative expressions. Our findings indicate that students have to integrate both right- and left-brain thinking to access their inner tuition. This slows down linear thinking in order to access the more affective-based learning process. Further, it encourages students to experiment with non-linear methods of learning. We argue that these findings assist students in accessing more choices in their decision making, which in turn will build managers who energize, revitalize and facilitate the growth of humanity through organizational compassion and understanding.

Management, Spirituality, and Religion (MSR) ways and means: a paper to encourage quality research

Abstract Despite 15 years of functioning as an interest group, our domain of inquiry is relatively young and there are limited theoretical boundaries to support, shape, and assist our efforts. This metaphorical “blank canvas” is both empowering, in that so many inquiries are open for exploration, and yet also limiting. In this document we highlight three critical elements to emphasize their importance in MSR research: (a) delineating and operationalizing the key terms of religion, spirituality, and workplace spirituality; (b) acknowledging the work to date in the MSR corpus around definitions of these terms, and (c) being explicit about how ontological and epistemological assumptions inform our methods. The intention is to encourage growth in the quality and rigor of our individual and collective scholarship.

Entrepreneurial resilience and venture failure

This article explores the emotional and psychological functioning of entrepreneurs after venture failure. Accordingly, it investigates the extent to which entrepreneurs exhibit resilience, defined by psychologists as stability in functioning over time, despite experiencing a traumatic event. Entrepreneurial resilience is rarely investigated in the context of failure despite it being a debilitating experience. Our exploration is critical to venture creation as resilience plays a key role in re-entry into entrepreneurship. A qualitative, narrative research design reveals how 11 entrepreneurs functioned after failure. The majority of entrepreneurs show resilience; that is, they exhibit stable levels of functioning. This stability is different from the disruptions in functioning that psychologists label as ‘recovery’ from a severe event. Our findings, therefore, challenge the assumption that recovery is required after venture failure. Implications for re-entry into entrepreneurship and learning from, and coping with, failure are explored.

Educating for conscious awareness

Conscious awareness implies a connection with all of life. Being conscious means acting with more intention, having greater self‐regulating behaviour, and demonstrating a deeper awareness of the causes and consequences of actions. This paper describes a course design for the development of consciousness awareness in management education. The purpose of the course, Managing with Spirit, is to encourage students to be more aware of their relationships with themselves, their community, and the planet as integrated wisdom. The three sections of the course (inner leadership, spirit at work, and the science of interconnection) all contribute to developing practices of reflection, mindfulness, and presencing for deeper awareness. From this, students can bring significant skills into the organizational context that include improved interpersonal skills, creativity, adaptability, problem‐solving, leadership skills, compassion, and ecological awareness. These skills enable our future managers to be better equipped to deal with the increasingly complex issues that are facing organizations as they understand and appreciate the sacredness of our interconnection with each other and our planet.