Sid Lowe

The fourth hermeneutic in marketing theory

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.

Small Business and Entrepreneurship Research The Way Through Paradigm Incommensurability

There have been a number of debates recently around the development of paradigms and research methodologies in the field of small business and entrepreneurship research. This article focuses on paradigm commensurability by demonstrating how an interpretive framework can be used that, unlike Burrell and Morgan’s (1979) framework, eliminates walls between paradigms and enables paradigms to interpret other paradigms. The authors draw upon Capra’s (1997) conceptual triad to illustrate how a framework based on wisdom rather than knowledge alone provides strategic options for paradigm development in the field. The article acknowledges the systematic analysis of paradigms undertaken by Grant and Perren (2002) and indeed uses their thorough review of the literature as a basis to illustrate how the interpretive framework can be applied, but rejects their use of Burrell and Morgan’s framework for this purpose because it has the undesired effect of introducing paradigm incommensurability to the field.

Paradigmapping marketing theory

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.

From “taking” network pictures to “making” network pictures: A new metaphorical manifesto for industrial marketing research

Purpose – An earlier researcher, Wood, proposed that cinema is the most appropriate metaphor for interpretation of contemporary life and organizations. The paper adopts the enthusiasm for the cinema metaphor and explores the implications for industrial marketing and business networks, with particular reference to the Industrial Marketing and Purchasing (IMP) Group research.Design/methodology/approach – The paper outlines the Cartesian picture theory of the early Wittgenstein, the comparable “pictures agenda” within the IMP, then the post‐Cartesian “language gaming” approach adopted by the later Wittgenstein, and associates it with an agenda to introduce a more “cinematographic” approach, introducing issues within the “linguistic turn” to the study of business networks.Findings – The transformation of the contemporary “post‐Cartesian” culture from “written” to “visual” was not fully appreciated until the invention and mass appeal of cinema and the concomitants of a visual culture became more apparent. In t...

Sensemaking and sojourner adjustment among Korean entrepreneurs in London (UK)

This paper takes a new look at the role of narrative construction in sojourner adjustment through a case study of two female Korean entrepreneurs (selected from interviews with 10 Korean sojourners) to best differentiate their cultural adjustment from ‘culture shock’ in the UK. We review the literature on culture shock, beginning with Oberg’s classic modernist/foundational ‘transformational’ model. The limitations of this model are shown in terms of the restricted focus upon individualistic, universal cognitive stages of change experienced by the sojourner. Then the benefits afforded by applying Goffman’s dramaturgy and Weick’s sensemaking approach are discussed. These approaches, informed by relationalist metatheory and metamethods, focus upon persons and interaction. They provide more collective, particularistic, social constructivist lenses that incorporate emotional, symbolic, communicative and linguistic viewpoints to complement cognitive explanations. The narrative methodology employed is that of Barbara Czarniawska whose work is heavily influenced by Goffman and Weick.

Understanding structures and practices of meaning-making in industrial networks

Purpose This paper aims 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 This paper describes how structures of meaning derived from a cultural history of signification and interpretive processes of meaning in action are co-determined in social semiosis. The meaning of environments using this social semiotic approach is emphasised, 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 competence in narrative, emplotment, myth-making, storytelling and figuration in more than one discursive repertoire. Originality/value In using 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.