Paul Haynes

Flying around the globe and bringing business back home

For many managers and professionals today, to work is to travel. Business travel is now so interwoven with doing business that its apparent continued growth is a matter of common sense. Yet paradoxically, these same business travellers are also intensive users of communication technology (phone fax, e-mail, etc), many will use web based technologies to locate information and even do business, while some will use information technologies to work together with colleagues in distant physical locations. Why then the need for physical travel?

The Return of New Public Management

New Public Management emerged in the 1980s and was perceived to be a solution many of the problems that had traditionally beset public administration. It emerged within the context of an ideological shift in the role of, amongst other things, public service provision, the welfare state, employment, new technology and in the role of governments and markets in the provision and management of services. In the early 2000s, the concept seemed to have been replaced by a reemphasis on new ways of stakeholder engagement in the governance process. Since the financial crisis of the late 2000s, many of the central themes of NPM have returned to the political agenda, though in a new guise and reframed in terms of the inclusiveness and empowerment qualities of the third sector rather than the efficiency of the private sector. This paper will reconsider the life cycle of NPM and examine the way the concept can be said to be returning to the public administration agenda.

Theorising the emerging field of social entrepreneurship

Social entrepreneurship, as an emerging academic field, although one still in the very early stage of its development, has been nourished by many of the key concepts developed within the commercial entrepreneurship literature, but this is beginning to change as the social entrepreneurship landscape has become a more fundamental part of the collection of entrepreneurship practices. This paper is concerned with how best to develop a new research paradigm, and considers ways in which this research approach is different from, but complementary to, commercial entrepreneurship research agenda in theory, as well as practice.

Tradition as the New Alternative: Organic Food Consumption and Food Related Lifestyle in China

For European and North American consumers, organic food is typically conceived of as a healthy, ethical and environmental alternative to intensively farmed food. This is unsurprising as it is generally promoted through narratives of sustainable consumption, ethical farming and bodily well being. Such narratives have had some traction where food marketing strategies are designed to reflect ethical and environmental concerns and values found within these societies. China is a huge potential market for organic and other alternative foods, particularly when considering increased per capita disposable income, a growing middle class, new and emerging cultural values of consumption, coupled with the continuing importance of formal food rituals, many of which have a long heritage and great significance in Chinese society. This paper will examine attitudes and perceptions towards organic food within China. Using a tailored Food-Related Lifestyle instrument to observe deeper consumer values, the research found that unlike the established markets for organic food (Europe, North America; Australasia) where ethical, environmental, alternative lifestyle and health concern narratives are typically relied upon to promote organic food consumption, traditional values and standards (Freshness; Traditional Sense of Family; Value Relations; Security; and, Self-fulfilment) presented the most compelling promotional narratives. In this regard, organic food consumption in China represents alternative food consumption, not as an alternative to traditional food production, but as an alternative to recent food production and processing trends perceived of in negative terms, a perception with important implications for policy makers and marketing managers engaged in the food sector in China.

Guilt-free food consumption: one of your five ideologies a day

Purpose Marketing products as guilt-free is not new, especially in the food industry, but what is new is the scope of ethical choice on offer and the variety and complexity of guilt-free narratives sold as part of the consumption package. The purpose of this paper is to present – and test – an innovative framework with which to analyse the key strategies in the creation of guilt-free narratives within the food industry and examine how consumer habits, motivations and attitudes are afforded by these narratives. The trend towards interpassivity, in which a consumer “outsources” moral responsibility to manufacturers, suppliers or retailers, is critically examined. Design/methodology/approach Data collection consisted of a non-probability quota sample of UK residents, administered online. There were three main areas of this study: consumers’ attitudes towards guilt-free products and marketing, consumers’ consumption habits and conscious-motivating factors and insights in unconscious-motivating factors. The questionnaire was designed to provide both qualitative and quantitative insights. It consisted of a variety of open-ended questions, as well as sets of given choices regarding habits and motivations, where the options were designed to encompass as many potential responses as necessary. The survey was shaped using a mini-focus group. Findings The paper demonstrates that consumers are in general willing to pay more for a guilt-free product but not for the reasons normally presented within the marketing literature. The paper shows that while self-accountability and anticipatory guilt are reasons for the effectiveness of guilt-free marketing, they are only minor factors. The paper shows that other motivating factors are more important as many participants buy products they do not entirely trust or have a particular preference for. One motive relates to interpassivity, that is, that guilt and guilt-alleviating actions can be transferred or delegated to the product itself. Research limitations/implications The concept of interpassivity and the idea of transference of actions or emotions to products has potential for new marketing frameworks. There are many different coping mechanisms for guilt or shame, and these could all be packaged into products to arouse a preference with the consumer. The entire area of guilt-free marketing is under-researched but because of the continued growth in consumer guilt-mitigation strategies, it is likely to see a lot of research activity in the near future. The main limitation is the limited statistical analysis afforded by the non-probability nature of the sample. Practical Implications The paper has developed a clearer definition of what constitutes a guilt-free product, that is, a guilt-free product is created when a regular product has any one or more of the three types of guilt (anticipatory, reactive and existential) packaged into it. Using this definition, the paper examined why guilt-free marketing has been effective, identifying that though consumers are willing to pay more for a guilt-free product, self-accountability and anticipatory guilt are only part of the explanation, with guilt and guilt-alleviating actions being transferred or delegated to the product itself a significant factor. Social Implications The paper has impacts for producers and consumers wishing to highlight the social good of a product. The study shows that consumers are sophisticated enough to examine social impact but often express a desire to delegate action to firms. Firms can more clearly frame their activity and contrast their action to the misleading marketing claims of rivals. Originality/value This paper is the first detailed analysis of guilt-free foods of its type. It seeks to create clearer definitions and frameworks with which to examine marketing practices and discourses of guilt in food consumption and marketing. The paper findings suggest that a relatively novel approach to consumption – interpassivity – is a useful explanation for otherwise puzzling consumer behaviour in a newly emerging area of guilt-free food marketing.

The Seductive Powers of Innovation: Steampunk Themes in Rethinking the Concept of Artificial

This paper represents an attempt to exemplify a theoretical approach developed in relation to key concepts developed by Gilles Deleuze and themes from complexity, as applied to innovation. The paper addresses the processes involved in the invention(s) of the computer, particularly focussing on Charles Babbage’s computer, and its innovation as a transformative technology. The paper attempts to develop an assemblage with which to understand the process of experimentation and modification that take place within the creation of new technology. The paper argues that innovation provides a seductive mode of reconfiguring social and technological relationships, which, when combined with complexity paradigms, provide a politics oriented towards a future dominated by hybrid entities.

Sustainable Production, Aid and Assistance: Examples and Cases

The emergence of social media and the immediate dissemination of images depicting the impact of poverty, crises and catastrophes, mean that problems related to resource allocation are visible on a global scale and thus visible to those with the ability to leverage a transfer of resources to address such problems. Foreign aid exists in multiple forms and a variety of strategies have been and are being devised to foresee and address potential problems in order to prevent such crises from occurring or mitigate the more harmful effects when a threat occurs. Among these strategies is the use of foreign aid to provide resources to support local enterprise, sustainable business and develop appropriate innovation practices within communities lacking in such infrastructure. These strategies will be considered under the umbrella term “sustainable production” and this paper will identify and evaluate some of the key strategies with a potential to address problems through foreign aid provision

Is the Best Way to Predict the Future to Invent It

Changes in technology or technique necessarily lead to unexpected consequences. The degree to which these consequences impact on decision-making, interaction, communication, work practices, and a range of other issues relevant to business management, varies considerably. However, with an increase and acceleration of such changes both internally and externally to business organisations, the control of such change is becoming impossible and the issue of managing change, more difficult. In this paper I outline some of the underlying issues for understanding the process of change and the impact of increased innovation and change on issues of management.

A Framework to Address the Key Problems of Social Capital

The concept of social capital emerged as an influential research theme in a number of disciplines in the past twenty years, as measured by the exponential growth in social capital literature throughout the 1990s and the early 2000s. While some of assumptions of social capital theory have been challenged individually, the collective failure of the concept has not been adequately tackled within the academic literature. The first half of the paper is an attempt to address this challenge, identifying eight key problems with the concept. The second half attempts to develop a framework derived from a critical geography approach, with which to reconceptualise the concept of social capital and exemplify its place within a radical geography agenda.

Technology, Complexity and Innovation: The Lift Pump as Boundary Object, Skeuomorph and Assemblage

Technology and social change are interdependent features of our everyday experience. Understanding the relationship between technological innovation and social innovation requires a sophisticated understanding of the many points of contact and feedback mechanisms. Often such relationships are reduced to network narratives which describe, but fail to explain these interdependencies. This paper will attempt to explain key interdependencies and exemplify them through a small number of historical innovations, principally the lift pump, in order to identify the types of assemblages required for innovation to emerge and circulate through social relationships.