Conceptual Typology Research Articles

Reflexive Management Learning

The scale and reach of the recent global financial has created a fresh wave of interest in exploring more sustainable forms of management. A central thrust behind this trend in the practice of management development and education has been the accentuation of reflexivity. There are many variations in how reflexivity is understood, and this article aims to explore the various philosophical roots and contemporary understandings of reflexive management learning (which we refer to in this article as RML). Rather than assuming that RML is “one thing,” we attempt to integrate disparate understandings of it in classical and contemporary theory and propose a conceptual typology of the various forms of RML as it is studied and practiced. We conclude by reviewing some of the problematic aspects of RML and signpost further avenues of research in the field.

From Invisible to Indigenous-Driven: A Critical Typology of Research in Indigenous Tourism

This article applies a critical, deconstructive lens to examine the assumptions underpinning research in Indigenous tourism. The authors propose a conceptual typology to explore the presence, role and voice of Indigenous people within this body of research. The typology consists of four main positions, namely: invisible, identified, stakeholder, and Indigenous-driven. Examples of Indigenous tourism literature are then used to illustrate this paper's main argument, which is that although Indigenous tourism has been a topic of academic interest for over three decades, it is still predominantly driven by the needs and priorities of non-Indigenous people. Ultimately, it appears that Indigenous voice and presence as scholars and researchers within the Indigenous tourism literature remain elusive.

English

The objective of this study is to develop an operational model for analysing public policy based on the typology of stakeholders. This typology, which categorised stakeholders into seven types on the basis of three stakeholder attributes (power, legitimacy and urgency), provided a useful conceptual definition and categorisation of stakeholders, but it failed to provide a practical framework for subsequent development of public policy, especially in the context of conflicts between various types of stakeholders. The present study therefore utilised the conceptual typology to develop a practical analytical operational model for the development of public policy in the context of potential stakeholder conflict. The operational model involved two stages and two layers in developing a procedure for analysing stakeholder conflict. A five-level evaluation system was developed to specify the level of intensity of stakeholder conflict. To demonstrate how the proposed model works, the paper presented an empirical case study of the construction of Taiwan’s No. 5 National Highway. Key words: Public policy, public management, stakeholder theory.

The development ethics approach to international development

PurposeDevelopment ethics is an important topic which is often neglected in development studies. The purpose of the paper is to analyze international development in an ethical‐based context using the approach of development ethics.Design/methodology/approachThe analysis is mainly based on the pioneering work of the prominent development ethicists and the founder of development ethics as self‐conscious area – Denis Goulet – along with recent development ethics literature. In this context, international development is approached under a holistic ethical manner.FindingsDevelopment ethicists reduce the gap between a conventional perspective of development and the real needs of humankind. In contrast to mainstream economics view, for development ethics the true indicator of development is not growth in a narrow sense of material expansion of wellbeing, but the qualitative enrichment of human beings in all relevant aspects of human life. International development is preserved as an effort to a better life for individuals and to a good global society for nations.Research limitations/implicationsIf research is reported on in the paper, this section must be completed and should include suggestions for future research and any identified limitations in the research process.Social implicationsThe proposed ethical goals and strategies are normative judgments which provide both the notional and practical framework within which international development should be discussed and policy recommendations could be formulated.Originality/valueThe notion of development is redefined on ethical foundations. A conceptual typology of the development ethics goals and strategies to international development is offered. The paper can be perceived as a point of departure that scholars and students of international development and development economics in broad, from both perspectives (orthodox and heterodox), can be incorporated with ethical matters to international development and benefit from it.

Drivers and moderators of business decline

Purpose: Reports of business failure elicit various reactions, while research in this domain often appears to be limited by a lack of access to information about failure and by the negativity that surrounds it. Those who have experienced failure do not readily talk about it, or they disappear from the radar screen of researchers. Yet failure is preceded by decline which, when focused on strategically, can reduce eventual failures if early action is taken. The main purpose of this study is to develop a conceptual framework or typology of the drivers and moderators of business decline. Design/methodology/approach: After applying the "grounded theory" approach to the academic literature on decline and failure, a conceptual framework for the variables that drive and moderate business decline is proposed. Findings: The study proposes that decline has three core drivers, three peripheral drivers and four moderators. The core drivers identified are: resource munificence; leadership as origin; and causality (strategic versus operational origin of decline). The three peripheral drivers are: unique preconditions; continuous decisions impact; and extremes dichotomy. The study describes four moderators of the drivers: life cycle stage; stakeholder perspective; quantitative versus qualitative nature of signs and causes; and finally the age and size effects. Research limitations/implications: The proposed conceptual framework is based on literature only, although it has found support during discussions with practitioners. It is proposed to readers of this journal for scrutiny and validation. Practical implications: Strategists need to understand what drives decline in order to act timeously; practitioners who have an insight into the moderators with their impacts could make better decisions in response to decline in organisations and possibly avoid business failure. Originality/Value: Understanding business decline is still a huge theoretical challenge, which drives turnaround strategies chosen by management. The proposed conceptual framework has this as its focus.

Motivations for and Obstacles to Religious Financial Giving

This paper extends previous findings on religion and generosity by developing and assessing a conceptual typology of potential motivations for and obstacles to religious giving. Specifically, we examine socialized normative and as potential motivators, and wealth insecurity, illiteracy, and comfortable guilt as potential obstacles. To investigate these mechanisms, we then combine behavioral and observational data, linking ethnographic and interview data with church-reported financial giving behavior. Data analyzed are from the Northern Indiana Congregation Study. Based on church-reported giving levels, interview respondents are grouped into high- and low-giving categories, and responses are analyzed for stated motivations for and obstacles to religious giving. Findings reveal how complicated it is to ascertain mechanisms driving or inhibiting people's religious giving, and highlight the need to be wary of relying exclusively on self-reported giving data. The conceptual typology presented here can be developed further in future studies that investigate the prevalence and origins of these types. Understanding such processes underlying religious giving becomes particularly relevant in light of the recent economic recession.

A Typology of Youth Participation and Empowerment for Child and Adolescent Health Promotion

Research suggests that increasing egalitarian relations between young people and adults is optimal for healthy development; however, the empirical assessment of shared control in youth-adult partnerships is emerging, and the field still requires careful observation, identification, categorization and labeling. Thus, our objective is to offer a conceptual typology that identifies degrees of youth-adult participation while considering the development potential within each type. We use an empowerment framework, rooted in evidence-based findings, to identify five types of youth participation: (1) Vessel, (2) Symbolic, (3) Pluralistic, (4) Independent and (5) Autonomous. The typology is constructed as a heuristic device to provide researchers, practitioners and policy-makers with a common language for articulating degrees of youth participation for optimal child and adolescent health promotion.

An Interactive Approach to Classification

Classification, entangled with obscurity and complexity, is not a task performed with ease. The obscurity in differentiating empirical taxonomy from conceptual typology plus the complexity of people’s perceptions as well as the difficulty in developing a versatile approach—all impinge on the path towards settling a classification structure grounded in consensus. This paper reviews the conventional approach and the prevailing approach to dealing with classification, scrutinizes the fundamental structures of classification and puts forward Interactive Management as a mechanism for unfolding the hierarchical structure of classification through a participatory and disciplined way. A case study—relating to structuring the value model of precision grinding machines in a multicriteria decision making context—demonstrates the manifold structures in classification, and demonstrates the establishment of consensus on classification structure from different participants’ perceptions, rather than a single designer’s preference.

Academicus interculturalis? Negotiating interculturality in academic communities of practice

Structure and agency of cultural diversity in (international) higher education have to be addressed with a critical perspective on international mobility and practices of international academic teaching. In order to overcome naïve assumptions about intercultural developments on the individual and the organizational level, sociological analysis should address the intersection of both levels. The concept of academic communities of practice is introduced as an appropriate level for analysing the process of negotiating interculturality in institutions of higher education. Based on this approach, a conceptual typology model is presented to illustrate four different types of intercultural orientations, each one characterizing a prototypical strategy of intercultural organizational development and corresponding social reflectivity.

The dual economy of schooling and teacher morale in South Africa

Low teacher morale, coupled with extremely poor schooling outcomes for students as measured on standardized tests have increasingly been reported in the media in South Africa. As elsewhere, there is growing demand for the reorganisation of teachers' work in order to enhance school performance. The paper investigates the ways in which current market‐led government policies have sustained past inequalities between schools and between teachers. Drawing on Savage's notion of assets, the analysis focuses on how the material and organisational conditions of teachers' work combine to affect teachers' morale. The analysis is based on available sets of data on inequalities – at the societal level, at the level of the homes and communities of the children that attend school, at the level of schooling system and at the level of teachers. It proposes a conceptual typology in relation to the four levels of data we provide, which shows interesting differential effects on teachers' morale and the transformation of teachers' work in South Africa. We argue that the relations between enduring economic inequalities in South Africa, an underspecified new curriculum and the bureaucratization of teachers' work have created an intractable pattern of accumulation of educational disparity among teachers in South Africa. Teacher morale needs to be considered in the context of these structural conditions.

Neighborhood Social Capital as Differential Social Organization

This article treats social capital as a multidimensional phenomenon along which neighborhoods are differentially organized. The authors assess this notion by linking two original surveys carried out in Chicago based on community residents ( N = 8,782) and positional leaders ( N = 2,822) representing six organizational dimensions. These data are used to examine both the dimensionality and structural predictors of neighborhood social organization. Results show that the social capital of Chicago communities encapsulates four distinct dimensions at the residential level and two at the leadership level. Moreover, dimensions of leadership-based social capital are for the most part inversely related to resident-based social capital and differentially predicted by concentrated disadvantage, residential stability, and racial/ethnic diversity. Based on multidimensional scaling and clustering of the communities, the authors derive a conceptual typology highlighted by four distinct groups—Cosmopolitan Efficacy, Urban Villages, Institutional Alienation, and Conduct Norms. The authors discuss implications and suggest new directions for exploration of community differentiation.

Design of experiment techniques for fuel cell characterisation and development

Designs of Experiments (DoE) can be of immediate relevance for various research works conducted in the Fuel Cell (FC) area. DoE techniques allow efficient test definitions for rapid conceptions and well-organised characterisations of FC materials and components, individual cells, stacks or even complete generators. In the DoE method, some statistic-based models can be proposed in pre-stages of physical models. The statistical/numerical relations are used to predict the behaviour of the investigated systems as a function of various operating parameters. Some control strategies can also be developed to optimise relevant criteria like FC voltage, fuel consumption, and maximal electrical power or stack lifetime. A review of various DoE applications in the field of FC research is first proposed in this paper. Then, some examples of works are detailed. A conceptual typology of different possibilities offered by the DoE methodology in the FC domain is given in the conclusion.

Influence of Data Properties on Animated Maps

The effects of media and data properties on different methods of cartographic animation are unclear. This is due partially to the focus of previous research as well as the general lack of a conceptual framework for animation. Many researchers have discussed methods of visualizing 3-D and 4-D spatial data through cartographic animations but have not sufficiently identified the effects that visualization methods and data properties exert on the resulting products. Some results support the use of animations; others are inconclusive or unsupportive. Modality effects do not necessarily function as the primary mediator. As a result, media comparisons alone are not fully informative as so many other factors affect spatial data visualization “effectiveness.” The research presented here is not just media comparison research, although two types of media are included: animation and static representations. This research is grounded in the developing conceptual framework of animation, which includes typologies of animation based on construction and delivery and on data properties (location, time, and attribute). The investigation focused on identifying the potential impact of data properties on subject responses and learning from different visualization methods. The results partially support the conceptual congruence hypothesis that dynamic data are more effectively displayed through dynamic media. However, the results also indicate that the data properties exert their own influence and that influence may be mediated, but not dependent, on the visualization method. Moreover, results support the developing conceptual framework and typology of animation that includes categorization of animation based on data properties or dimensions (location, time, attribute) and their dynamic or static nature.

Experience, Service Operations Strategy, and Services as Destinations: Foundations and Exploratory Investigation

This paper explores the customer experience paradigm as it pertains to service operations strategy and design. First, we operationally define and discuss the concept of customer experience. In this context, we propose a reframing of the strategic role of operations strategy as one of choreographing experience‐centric services. We then introduce the concept of services as destinations as an emerging business model for classifying experiential service strategies. Our conceptual typology of experience‐based strategies uses two dimensions: (1) the depth of use of experience as a source of value creation, ranging from brand experience to the services as a destinations business model, and (2) the degree of integration of experience internally within the firm. Using this conceptual typology, we develop five propositions and use multiple cases to illustrate firms' use of these experience strategies. Laying the groundwork for future research, we highlight insights from the qualitative, multiple‐case data as they pertain to service operations strategy and the business model that employs services as destinations. A number of questions for further research are suggested.

Constructing a typology of H 2 in cities and regions : An international review

This paper primarily develops a seven-fold conceptual typology of place-based hydrogen initiatives. Through an international review of place-based hydrogen initiatives we reveal a plethora of projects, demonstrations, test-beds, ambitions and expectations at a wide range of spatial scales. We ask whether there is anything distinctive about how these different spatial scales attempt to develop the hydrogen economy. In particular, we seek to identify whether patterns emerge around the social interests involved at different scales of activity and the degree to which hydrogen links to different place-based agendas—political and resource autonomy, economy and employment. The paper addresses these questions and draws out a series of three key conclusions. First, there is wide ranging and significant diversity in the motivations for cities and regions to become involved in hydrogen economy developments—wider than conventional energy policy objectives. Second, there are still significant overlaps between different scales of action. Third, there is a tension between the more bounded concepts of using hydrogen to build self-reliance at a particular scale and those initiatives oriented around developing a more systemic technological system which is rolled out elsewhere. Finally, we argue that a key issue for further research is in understanding the social interests and institutions that attempt to both learn from across these activities at different scales and provide some sense of coordinated action between them. In our review the role of corporates—rather than national government—seems to be critical to such attempt to provide coordination across places and needs to be the focus of further research.

Enhancing the empowerment agenda in health promotion through reflective practice

The formal practice of reflection is a relatively unknown concept in health promotion. A reflexive approach to health promotion practice normally resides in debates regarding the theory and practice of health promotion; there have been few formal attempts to develop reflective practice. This paper describes a conceptual typology for reflective practice which focuses on three domains relating to the role of self, the context of practice and the process of programme planning and delivery. These domains are interrogated by a taxonomy of reflective questions tailored to the requirements and timing of the reflection. An exemplar reflective application of the typology in this paper focused on the evaluation of the smoking policy in a large university. Reflection centred on how the empowerment of those working and studying in the institution was affected by the evaluation process.

Toward a typology of new venture creators: Similarities and contrasts between business and social entrepreneurs

This article advances a conceptual typology delineating the differences and similarities between business- and social-sector new venture creators. Our classification scheme differentiates business and social entrepreneurs, considering characteristics of social entrepreneurs in a larger entrepreneurial context.Within a conceptual 2x2 typology based on two dimensions: drive (passion vs. business) and desired return (financial ROI vs. social ROI), we identify and classify 80 examples of new venture creators into one of the quadrants of an enterprise model of entrepreneurs. Preliminary results reveal similarities between social and traditional entrepreneurs and differentiate social entrepreneurs in terms of traits, goals, tendencies, and motivational sources.

Conceptualizing and Measuring the Social Uses of the Internet: The Case of Personal Web Sites

The researchers working on information society measures have recently started to consider how people use the Internet not only as a tool but also as a platform for social relations. As the ultimate objective of information society measures is to provide reliable guidelines for social policy, finding criteria for separating “positive” uses of Internet from “negative” ones is an important task. This article employs the concepts of communicative and strategic action as defined by Habermas for that purpose. A general conceptual typology of three communicative and three strategic social uses of Internet is offered, which can be applied to measure uses of any of the Internet's interactive services. A specific empirical application to social uses of personal web sites demonstrates that the deduced measurement instruments achieve satisfying levels of validity and reliability.

Reflection a neglected art in health promotion

Evaluation and quality assurance have, over time, become the bedrock of health promotion practice in ensuring effectiveness and efficiency of programme planning and delivery. There has been less emphasis, however, on formal recognition of the contribution of the personal characteristics and perspectives of those who plan and deliver programmes and to the more subtle underlying effects of prevailing societal and professional norms. This paper seeks to highlight the neglect of formal reflection as a key professional skill in professional health promotion practice. It outlines key theories underpinning the development of the concepts of reflection and reflective practice. The role of reflection in critical health education as it contributes to critical consciousness raising is highlighted through its contribution to the empowerment of change agents in a societal change context. A conceptual typology of reflective practice is described which provides a flexible structure with which professionals can reflect on the role of self, the context and the process of health promotion programme planning. Its use is illustrated from the author's published work in health promotion which is related to prevention of workplace violence.

Dragon brothers and tiger sisters: A conceptual typology of counter-cultural actors and activities of American Chinatowns, China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan, 1912–2004

In the past 20 years, criminal activities directed by Chinese, Hong Kongese, and/or Taiwanese have increasingly become a mainstream topic in criminology and criminal justice. Despite the fact that many books, reports, articles, and monographs on the Chinese, Hong Kongese, or Taiwanese organized crime enterprises (as well as gangs) have been published, a comprehensive conceptual framework which would assist criminologists and criminal justice professionals in examining the political, religious, social and other aspects of structured counter-cultural activities and major players in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and American Chinatowns seems not to have been proposed yet. The purpose of this paper is to advance a typology that would help academics and law enforcement agents to identify and evaluate the diversities of underworlds of China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and American Chinatowns. This taxonomy consists of three factors: organizational structure, participation in politics or revolutionary movements, and ideology. Each of these variables is further divided into complicated/loose, frequent/infrequent/, and distinctive/indistinctive levels. Based on such a categorization, the counter-cultural elements of China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan during the period of 1912 to 2004 are classified as CFD, LFD, CFI, LID, CID, CII, LFI, and LII types, as can be characterized respectively by Republican Revolution-involved Triads and tongs; ultra-nationalists; the Shanghai Green Gangs of the 1920s and 1930s; modern Green Gangs; organized Chinese refugee gangs; Chinese-controlled pirate groups; jiaotou brothers of Taiwan; and ordinary Chinese/Taiwanese street gangs.