In inter-organizational R&D arrangements leadership is a challenging issue. Normally, such set-tings are very informally organized and their complex tasks are handled by highly educated professionals. Leadership is still demanded but... more
In inter-organizational R&D arrangements leadership is a challenging issue. Normally, such set-tings are very informally organized and their complex tasks are handled by highly educated professionals. Leadership is still demanded but it is seldom a simple part of a bureaucratic structure. Thus, leadership roles are expected to emerge and be shared among project participants. The aim of this longitudinal study is to examine the emergence and sharing of different leadership roles during a technology-intensive innovation project. Data are gathered through 3 years of detailed observation, data retrieval, and interviews of a project on the pervasive positioning technology. Theoretically, the paper draws on recent research on inter-organizational issues and on recent research on emerging and shared leadership. The findings show how several identified leadership roles are shared throughout the project. Some roles are connected to a (minimal) formalized authority and whereas others are based on respect and mutual...
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Expatriate managers play key roles in multinational companies as they deal with cross-cultural problems and uncertainties. They are also expected to bridge the gap between headquarters’ strategies ...
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This chapter analyses factors influencing manufacturers’ adoption and implementation of Internet-based marketing channels, using models based on marketing channel and organizational innovation theory. Survey data from 1,163 Danish,... more
This chapter analyses factors influencing manufacturers’ adoption and implementation of Internet-based marketing channels, using models based on marketing channel and organizational innovation theory. Survey data from 1,163 Danish, Finnish, and Swedish manufacturers form the empirical basis for testing the models using LISREL analysis. The results stress that adoption of Internet-based marketing is influenced by willingness to cannibalize, management support, market pressure, and a firm’s knowledge of information technology. Willingness to cannibalize mediates the effects of future market orientation, ownership, specialised investments, and management support. This is mainly the case in small firms, as the importance of the various drivers and the adoption pattern vary between size categories. Market-pull factors have relatively more explanatory power in medium-sized and large companies.
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A considerable gap is apparent between the rather sophisticated theories of change that analyze how and why change occurs and the practice-oriented focus of the implementation and guidance of actual change processes. This paper attempts... more
A considerable gap is apparent between the rather sophisticated theories of change that analyze how and why change occurs and the practice-oriented focus of the implementation and guidance of actual change processes. This paper attempts partially to close this gap by illustrating how recent developments in change theory may be useful in understanding the actual adoption and implementation of emergent Internet technologies. Empirically, the paper draws on two surveys of Internet-technology adoption by Nordic banks and manufacturers. The point of departure is Van de Ven and Poole’s (1995) identification of four basic types of theories regarding change processes: life cycle, teleological, dialectical, and evolutionary theories. These theories all encapsulate planned change processes in that they can explain actual processes and outcomes. Combined with specific research they may also help to explain why key persons ’ participation in the Internet banking projects is only weakly associat...
The vision of new organizational forms consists of less-organized networks and alliances between organizations, in which collaborative capabilities are assumed to be crucial (Miles et al., 2005). The path to such new forms may go through... more
The vision of new organizational forms consists of less-organized networks and alliances between organizations, in which collaborative capabilities are assumed to be crucial (Miles et al., 2005). The path to such new forms may go through fragile cooperative efforts. Despite the good will of many participants and optimistic plans for cooperation between equals there are still poorly understood barriers, and
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ABSTRACT
Research Interests: Marketing, Information Technology, Economics, Market Research, Customer Orientation, and 11 moreManagement Control, Control system, Information Processing, Competitive advantage, Tourism, Financial Services, Profitability, Customer Relations, Insurance Companies, Service Industries, and Monitoring and control
... Ideally, the customers should be asked, but front-line employees are normally able to accurately describe how customers view the quality of the service they receive ... Due to the new elements in our study the variables are only... more
... Ideally, the customers should be asked, but front-line employees are normally able to accurately describe how customers view the quality of the service they receive ... Due to the new elements in our study the variables are only partially based on constructs whose reliability ...
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Research Interests: Business, Relationship Marketing, Market Orientation, Internet Banking, Customer Relationship Management, and 12 moreTourism, Developing Country, Business and Management, Resource Based View, Organizational Performance, Profitability, Internet technology, Service industry, Structural Equation Model, Empirical Study, Banking Industry, and Customer Relations
In the retail financial sector competitive pressure seems to challenge traditional management accounting systems, which often do not allow the identification of profitable customer relationships. Drawing on a stage model and data from... more
In the retail financial sector competitive pressure seems to challenge traditional management accounting systems, which often do not allow the identification of profitable customer relationships. Drawing on a stage model and data from management accountants, branch managers and frontline employees in Danish financial service companies, this article investigates barriers to the implementation of customer‐oriented management accounting. The article documents how financial institutions are increasingly integrating management accounting systems with customer‐related activities thus enabling customer profitability analyses. However, several barriers related to organization structure, resources and attitudes hamper further customer‐oriented changes. Data gathered at the branch level strongly indicate problems of ownership and project sponsoring, and it is argued that new accounting systems may be less important to customer orientation than empowerment and goal‐oriented participation of th...
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This article examines manufacturers' step to adopt Internet-based communication with their customers. In order to explain the adoption of electronic marketing channels a model is developed. Based on answers from 353 Danish... more
This article examines manufacturers' step to adopt Internet-based communication with their customers. In order to explain the adoption of electronic marketing channels a model is developed. Based on answers from 353 Danish manufacturers the model is tested and ...
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Recent trends in the leadership literature have advanced a relational and processual perspective that sheds light on the way leadership emerges and evolves in dynamic and flexible organizations. However, very few empirical studies have... more
Recent trends in the leadership literature have advanced a relational and processual perspective that sheds light on the way leadership emerges and evolves in dynamic and flexible organizations. However, very few empirical studies have explored these processes over an extended period. To address this lacuna, we report findings from a three-year ethnographic study that explored the emergence and development of leadership in a self-managed interorganizational R&D team. Findings show that in the context of various events that impacted on the team, leadership emerged through interactions, processes and practices that were perceived by team members to develop and advance shared goals and shared identity. Leadership responses to uncertainty surrounding the project were generally legitimated by team members’ background and expertise in relation to this shared identity, while a lack of perceived legitimacy also compromised leadership. These observations are consistent with arguments that le...
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The aim of the study was to describe how often patients seek information about their disease in connection with contact to a hospital and to elucidate how information-seeking behaviour is related to the patients' perception of this... more
The aim of the study was to describe how often patients seek information about their disease in connection with contact to a hospital and to elucidate how information-seeking behaviour is related to the patients' perception of this contact. The study was based on patient surveys from the Danish county of Aarhus from 1999 to 2006 including eight public hospitals. The patients' information-seeking behaviour was related to patient characteristics, organisational context and patient perceptions. Among the 75,769 patients who responded, 33.4% had actively sought information. The frequency of patients seeking information increased from 24.4% in 1999 to 38.3% in 2006 with a variation between organisational units ranging from 7.7% to 81.8%. The share of critical patients among those who actively sought information was 23.7% in 1999 and 18.1% in 2006 compared with 12.9% and 11.3% critical patients, respectively, among those who did not. Having sought information correlated with negat...
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So far, we have only limited knowledge on how the patients' use of the Internet affects consultations. A review of 36 empirically based articles from 1999 to 2009 demonstrates that patients' Internet search for health information... more
So far, we have only limited knowledge on how the patients' use of the Internet affects consultations. A review of 36 empirically based articles from 1999 to 2009 demonstrates that patients' Internet search for health information is widespread. However, there are signs that the impact of Internet searches on consultations is limited as a number of factors reduce the probability of an effect on the dialogue between physician and patient. Results are discussed with reference to three classic consultation models: the paternalistic, the partnership and the consumer model.
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ABSTRACT From a rational perspective, patient surveys should be tools for purposeful planned change. They are feedback on performance and provide input to problem-solving processes. However, in public health care there are well-documented... more
ABSTRACT From a rational perspective, patient surveys should be tools for purposeful planned change. They are feedback on performance and provide input to problem-solving processes. However, in public health care there are well-documented institutional forces, including doctors' and nurses' norms, which might complicate a rational change process. To understand the dynamics, a rational perspective must include the institutional context. From this perspective, the aim of this article is to compare the use of patient surveys in different hospital units in order to understand why some units are able to use the information to change procedures and increase patient satisfaction. Thus, the article analyses the local adoption of semi-customized patient surveys and actor responses to survey results. Patient survey data from 100 Danish wards are related to ex post comments from department heads/hospital managers and to follow-up interviews with key employees and managers in four hospitals. The results indicate that gaining legitimacy of initiatives is crucial and point to three conditions for rational change: (1) key professionals perceiving the surveys to be of sufficient technical quality, (2) ward-specific negatively deviant scores, and (3) obvious actions to deal with the problems.
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ABSTRACT This article illustrates how advanced theories of change are useful in understanding the actual adoption of emergent Internet technologies drawing on surveys of Nordic banks. The point of departure is Van de Ven and... more
ABSTRACT This article illustrates how advanced theories of change are useful in understanding the actual adoption of emergent Internet technologies drawing on surveys of Nordic banks. The point of departure is Van de Ven and Poole's identification of four basic types of theories of change: life cycle, teleological (including planned change), dialectical, and evolutionary theories. These theories are shown to provide a useful framework for examining the adoption and implementation of Internet technology at different stages. Especially, it is shown how participation can be included in the models and how it connects the change motors. The analysis questions the assumption that participation always helps in overcoming resistance to change. Participation often leads to tensions and conflicts, especially when multiple motors and different change efforts are operating simultaneously. Practically, this application of change models can help in the guidance of planned change by enriching traditional diagnostic models.
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The objective was to investigate whether semi-customized patient satisfaction surveys are seen as useful by hospital management, and to explore their possible effects on quality improvement over time at a low organizational level. Data... more
The objective was to investigate whether semi-customized patient satisfaction surveys are seen as useful by hospital management, and to explore their possible effects on quality improvement over time at a low organizational level. Data were collected from three sources: (1) patient surveys administered in eight public hospitals with a total of 2200 beds in a Danish county; (2) questionnaires completed by the hospital and clinical department managers; and (3) data from the county's Management Information System. Patient satisfaction surveys were widely accepted as a tool for change. Bad results seemed to be an incentive for improvement unless hindered by fluctuation in patient turnover. Acceptance of the patient surveys as a way to generate change diminished over time. Patient surveys may be an incentive for change if: (1) they have sufficient validity; (2) feedback is detailed on an organizational level and the units have significantly lower scores than comparable units; and (3) there are obvious actions to address the problems. Both qualitative and quantitative results should be analyzed for small organizational units within hospitals. Perceived usefulness of the surveys may be increased by involving medical professionals in the design and evaluation of the survey system.