Kristian J. Sund

Global strategy and practice of e-governance : examples from around the world

Over the past decade, there has been continual development and renewal of strategies and practices surrounding e-governance. Governments around the world have embraced new information and communication technologies to increase the efficiency of internal processes, deliver better and more integrated services to citizens and businesses, invite citizen and stakeholder participation in planning decisions, improve communication, and sometimes even enhance democratic processes. This book provides readers with an overview of relevant strategy and policy-level theoretical frameworks and examples, as well as up-to-date implementations from around the world. This book offers valuable insights into best practices, as well as some of the issues and challenges surrounding the governance of and with information and communication technologies in a globalized, knowledge-based world.

Political discourse on higher education in Denmark: from enlightened citizen to homo economicus

The literature on higher education policy points to changes in the dominant discourse over the years. In particular, the ascendance of a discourse marked by concepts of new public management, using language inspired by neoclassical economic theory which characterizes education as a marketplace where students are customers, has led scholars to critically question the foundations of modern higher education policy. This paper uses critical discourse analysis to trace the development of higher education policy discourse in Denmark from the late 1970s until today. The authors find that the discourse has moved from a pluralistic one embracing not only the economic benefits of education, but also emphasizing on democracy, citizenship, and equality, towards a predominantly economic one, focused squarely on notions of globalization and competitiveness in a knowledge society.

A Conversation on Uncertainty in Managerial and Organizational Cognition

Abstract This book on uncertainty comprises the initial volume in a series titled “New Horizons in Managerial and Organizational Cognition”. We asked Frances Milliken and Gerard P. Hodgkinson, two well-known scholars who have made important contributions to our understanding of uncertainty to join us in this opening chapter to introduce this project. The brief bios found at the end of this volume cannot do justice to the broad range of their contributions, but our conversation gives a flavor of the kind of insights they have brought to managerial and organizational cognition (MOC). The editors thank them for helping launch the series with a decisive exploration of what defining uncertainty involves, how that might be done, why it is important, and how the task is changing. We were interested to discover that all five of us are currently involved in research that considers the nature and impact of uncertainty, and we hope that readers similarly find that paying attention to uncertainty contributes to their current projects. Working together, we can advance understanding of organizational settings and effective action, both for researchers and practitioners.

Revisiting organizational interpretation and three types of uncertainty

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to move toward a holistic model of organizational interpretation under uncertainty. This paper makes a series of novel conceptual propositions regarding the associations between state, effect and response uncertainty and the organizational interpretation process. Design/methodology/approach – This conceptual paper extends existing conceptual work by distinguishing between general and issue-specific scanning and linking the interpretation process to three different types of perceived uncertainty: state, effect and response uncertainty. Findings – It is proposed that environmental scanning leads to lower state and effect uncertainty, i.e. less uncertainty regarding the estimation of probabilities of events occurring in the external environment of the organization and of their consequences. It is further proposed that scanning leads to higher levels of perceived control over events and that the actual interpretation of events, in opportunity/threat terms, drives irregular i...

Organizational Aspects of Business Model Innovation: The Case of the European Postal Industry

Organizations are often challenged to find new ways of creating and capturing value to compete with new entrants and disruptive technologies. Several studies have addressed some of the organizational barriers that incumbents face when developing new business models, but our understanding of the organizational (re)design aspects inherent to business model innovation is still very incomplete. In this study, we investigate the organizational (re)design challenges for incumbent organizations in mature industries when they need to reinvent their business model in reaction to disruptive changes in their environment. Our empirical setting focuses on national postal operators in the European postal industry. Using an inductive case study we distinguish between two stages within business model innovation: namely, business model exploration and business model exploitation. Focusing on the former, our findings shed new light on the existence of four key organizational issues: (1) organizational conflicts for scarce ...

The Journey of Business Model Innovation in Media Agencies: Towards A Three-Stage Process Model

ABSTRACT Digital entrants have changed the competitive landscape for advertisers and media. Over the past decade, media agencies have grown more rapidly than the media market as a whole, securing a larger share of the value generated in the advertising industry. We develop a process model describing how these agencies have altered their business models over a decade. We discuss three separate stages in this innovation process, labelled business model innovation (BMI) awareness, business model exploration, and business model exploitation. We find and document how different building blocks of the business model are a focal point of innovation in each stage of the BMI process. Our findings offer a way for the media industry to understand the transformation of media agencies.

Exploring Methods in Managerial and Organizational Cognition: Advances, Controversies, and Contributions

This book comprises the second volume in the recently launched New Horizons in Managerial and Organizational Cognition book series. Volume 1 (Sund, Galavan, & Huff, 2016), addressed the topic of strategic uncertainty. This second volume comprises a collection of contributions that variously report new methodological developments in managerial and organizational cognition, reflect critically on those developments, and consider the challenges that have yet to be confronted in order to further advance this exciting and dynamic interdisciplinary field. Contextualizing within an overarching framework the various contributions selected for inclusion in the present volume, in this opening chapter we reflect more broadly on what we consider the most significant developments that have occurred over recent years and the most significant challenges that lie ahead.

The Implications of Programmatic Advertising on the Business Model of TV Broadcasters

Technological changes produced by the digital convergence are driving a paradigm shift in advertising and mass communication, and resulting in the emergence of a new market. Programmatic advertising is, in this context, an emergent technology that has the potential to disrupt and change the business model of incumbent media companies, such as television broadcasters. As the technology is new, we know little about the effects it will have on actors in the sector, and the definition of the programmatic TV construct is still evolving. We present the results of a predictive study of the business model implications of this new technology. Based on a combination of interviews, documentary content analysis, and the Delphi method, involving a range of industry executives, we identify 13 implications for the business model of TV broadcasters. Our findings offer a way for academia and actors in the media industry to understand the coming disruption from programmatic TV.

A Test of Perceptual Accuracy and Overconfidence in a Strategic Issue Context

There is growing evidence that managers perceive the general environment inaccurately, but very few studies have looked at the accuracy of specific strategic issue probability estimates, and at whether or not managers are aware of the accuracy or inaccuracy of their perceptions, something referred to as knowledge miscalibration. I explore perceptual inaccuracy and knowledge miscalibration in the form of overconfidence, in the context of demographic ageing, an issue currently affecting the tourism and hospitality industry. Using data from a survey of hotel managers, I find a high prevalence of perceptual error and evidence of a relatively large minority of respondents displaying knowledge overconfidence. Furthermore, I find a link between accurate environmental perceptions and strategic issue importance, suggesting that managers are better at accurately perceiving an issue when it is strategically important for their business. The same link does not exist with overconfidence, lending support to scholars arguing that overconfidence may be a trait, rather than being question-specific.

The Adjunct Faculty Handbook by Lorri Cooper and Bryan Booth (Eds.)

The rise in the number of adjunct faculty over recent decades has been widely documented and discussed, with an increasing literature on the motivations, work conditions, and challenges faced by such faculty. Whether we refer to adjunct faculty as part-time, contingent, or temporary, the fact remains that in the United States alone, close to 50% of all faculty are now adjunct (Cooper & Booth, 2011, p. xi). In many cases adjunct faculty have fullor part-time employment outside the field of higher education, and bring to the university their professional experiences and practical know-how. However, entering the field of higher education on a part-time basis can be somewhat overwhelming, with a lot of information to take onboard in a short period of time. This is not helped by the fact that often universities staff courses a relatively short time before they start. The second edition of The Adjunct Faculty Handbook is a book all three of us wish we had had access to when we initially decided to work for an academic institution. It provides a wealth of practical, useful information, in a short, concise format. We found The Adjunct Faculty Handbook well written and a delight to read. Each chapter provided the right amount of detail to keep us interested, and each of us actually came across new pieces of information that we could use in our own practice. The handbook contains seven chapters. These chapters cover, in sufficient detail, what an adjunct faculty member should bear in mind when working in higher education. The first chapter provides an overview and introduction to preparing for the teaching role. This overview includes the first steps and administrative issues, such as getting a contract, setting up an e-mail account, and so forth, and goes on to more academic matters, including how to prepare a syllabus. The second chapter discusses the role of technology in today’s teaching environment. As such, this chapter could be of interest to both the new and more seasoned educator. The third chapter focuses on how one may enhance the student’s learning experience,