Stuart Middleton

The evolution of the international business field: a scientometric investigation of articles published in its premier journal

Macro-environmental trends such as technological changes, declining trade and investment barriers, and globalizing forces impacting both markets and production worldwide point to the heightened importance of international business (IB) and the relevance of IB research today. Despite this, a leading scholar has expressed concerns that the IB research agenda could be ‘running out of steam’ (Buckley, Journal of International Business Studies 33(2):365–373, 2002), prompting on-going introspection within the IB field. We contribute to this debate by investigating the evolution of the IB field through a scientometric examination of articles published in its premier journal, the Journal of International Business Studies (JIBS) from 1970 until 2008. We introduce a new analytical tool, Leximancer, to the fields of international business and scientometry. We show an evolution from an initial and extended emphasis on macro-environmental issues to a more recent focus on micro-economic, firm-level ones with the multinational enterprise (MNE) as an organizational form enduring throughout the entire period. We observe a field that has established a justifiable claim for relevance, participating actively in the interdisciplinary exchange of ideas.

Reputation Management in the Salvation Army: A Narrative Study

Leading theorists of the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm have argued that corporate reputation is an intangible resource for organizations. Despite this, there remains precious little research that documents how organizations manage their corporate reputations. This article presents a case study of Australias most successful charity, The Salvation Army, and asks how it maintained an exemplary reputation despite allegations of sexual, mental, and physical abuse from children in its care during the period from the 1950s to 1970s? A strategy of narrative deconstruction is employed to make the argument that there are powerful underlying themes in The Salvation Armys narrative that protect the organization from reputational attack. It is argued that this narrative approach opens a new avenue for studying and understanding corporate reputations. A model of reputation management in The Salvation Army is developed from this analysis.

Evidence‐Based Management in Practice: Opening Up the Decision Process, Decision‐Maker and Context

Evidence‐based management (EBM) has been subject to a number of persuasive critiques in recent years. Concerns have been raised that: EBM over‐privileges rationality as a basis for decision‐making; ‘scientific’ evidence is insufficient and incomplete as a basis for management practice; understanding of how EBM actually plays out in practice is limited; and, although ideas were originally taken from evidence‐based medicine, individual‐situated expertise has been forgotten in the transfer. To address these concerns, the authors adopted an approach of ‘opening up’ the decision process, the decision‐maker and the context (Langley et al. ([Langley, A., 1995]). ‘Opening up decision making: the view from the black stool’, Organization Science, 6, pp. 260–279). The empirical investigation focuses on an EBM decision process involving an operations management problem in a hospital emergency department in Australia. Based on interview and archival research, it describes how an EBM decision process was enacted by a physician manager. It identifies the role of ‘fit’ between the decision‐maker and the organizational context in enabling an evidence‐based process and develops insights for EBM theory and practice.

Strategies for Teaching Evidence-Based Management What Management Educators Can Learn From Medicine

Evidence-based management (EBMgt) is a growing literature stream in management education which contends that management decision making should be informed by the best available scientific evidence (Rousseau, 2006). Encouraged by the success of evidence-based practice in the field of medicine, advocates of EBMgt have increasingly called for management educators to develop graduates into evidence-based practitioners who—like physicians—value and use evidence in their daily practice in organizations. In this essay, we contribute to these debates by exploring three strategies that are used in medicine to train physicians to engage with evidence: embedding the normative foundation of evidence in problem-solving routines, role modelling being a reflective research consumer, and creating teachable moments through lived experience of research. We consider whether and how these strategies can be adapted to inform teaching the teaching of EBMgt. Drawing on these insights from physician training, we suggest a range of methods and techniques that management educators can implement in their teaching to facilitate student learning about evidence-based practice. We also consider the challenge of developing evidence-based cultures in organizations.

Teaching and learning in an era of time-based access targets: Impact of a new model of care on junior medical officers

UQ Business School, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, Queensland Emergency Medicine Research Foundation, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, UnitingCare Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, Department of Emergency Medicine, Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, School of Medicine, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, Department of Emergency Medicine, Gold Coast University Hospital, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia, and Faculty of Health Sciences and Medicine, Bond University, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia

Getting On With Field Research Using Participant Deconstruction

This article adds to the repertoire of field research methods through developing the technique of “participant deconstruction.” This technique involves research participants challenging and reinterpreting organizational texts through the application of orienting, disorienting, and reorienting deconstructive questions. We show how participant deconstruction complements existing strategies for “getting on” with field research—cultivating relationships, developing outsider knowledge, and mobilizing insider knowledge—by facilitating research participants’ questioning and challenging of organizational texts and thus opening up alternative latent understandings, illuminating concealed meanings, supporting reflexivity for participants and researchers, and suggesting fruitful lines of inquiry. We illustrate the application of the technique with examples drawn from health care research projects. Through gathering further practitioner feedback from a variety of alternative contexts, we go on to demonstrate the potential application of participant deconstruction in a range of field contexts, by different types of practitioners undertaking deconstructive readings of a wide variety of organizational texts. We also offer suggestions for further research to extend the technique.