BE267: International Business Environment Second Coursework (2020)

February 2, 2021/in Posts /by admin

BE267: International Business Environment Second Coursework (2020)

Coursework: Second Essay

You are expected to write an essay of 2,000 (±10%) words (including Introduction, Main body and Conclusion; excluding Tables, the Figures, the Bibliography and Appendices) in answer to the question below.

Essay Topic(s)

Please attempt any one of the questions below:

Critically discuss the theories that have been advanced to explain why big machines gave rise to the modern corporation.
Discuss the statement that “Toyota-ism turned Fordism on its head”. Use examples to illustrate your answer.
Outline the three founding principles of GATT, giving appropriate examples to illustrate the principles. Explain how these founding principles gave rise to a juggernaut effect in tariff reductions.
What are the main characteristics of a reserve currency and to what extent does the dollar fulfil this role in the international monetary system? Critically examine the potential of the Euro and the SDR as a future reserve currency.

Submission Details

For deadlines please refer to FASer
Note that late submissions will NOT be accepted unless full details of satisfactory extenuating circumstances are provided. For details of extenuating circumstances please see the undergraduate student handbook. If you have any query about extenuation please contact the Student Services Team (scebsugs@essex.ac.uk).

External Sources for the Essay:

You are required to use the textbook as the primary source of information. The use of secondary data sources such as articles in academic journals, business magazines, newspapers, company reports, and company websites will be beneficial and seen as indicating student initiative and creativity.
Please note that you are not required to undertake any primary research such as interviews.

Essay Guidelines

5.1. Essay Format

Main contents: typed in Times New Roman, 12 Font, one and a half line spacing
Main heading: 14 Font, Bold; Sub-heading: 12 Font, Bold
Numbering of headings and sub-headings where appropriate (e.g., 1…1.1…1.1.1…)
Use diagrams and tables where appropriate
You can use bullet points in some, but not all, instances

5.2. Essay Structure

Title page – (1) The title page must have the module name/number (i.e. BE267: International Business Environment), (2) the name of the module lecturer (3) student registration number, the name of the student and programme title (e.g., Marketing, International Business & Entrepreneurship or Business Administration).
Introduction – Discusses what the essay is about and summarise your main arguments for each part of the question.
Main body – This will include detailed answers for each of the questions asked. You can use subheadings which make sense in the context of your answer. The section headings should reflect the different parts of the question asked. Embed the literature review, or theoretical concepts, approaches and issues in the overall arguments presented in the essay and in the section that most closely corresponds to that literature.
Conclusions – Summarise the main points of your analysis and discuss the recommendations.
References – Use the appropriate sources for referencing (i.e. journal articles, book chapters, newspaper articles, or online sources).

Referencing style – The referencing style should comply with the Harvard Reference Style

Appendices – If it is necessary, secondary information table or summary can be presented as appendix.

5.3 Harvard Referencing Style Examples:

Writing the Bibliography:

Book

Fisher, R., Ury, W. and Patton, B. (1991). Getting to yes: Negotiating an agreement without giving in. 2nd ed. London: Century Business.

Edited Book

Bressler, L. (2010). My girl, Kylie. In: L. Matheson, ed., The Dogs That We Love, 1st ed. Boston: Jacobson Ltd., pp. 78-92.

Journal Article

Dismuke, C. and Egede, L. (2015). The Impact of Cognitive, Social and Physical Limitations on Income in Community Dwelling Adults With Chronic Medical and Mental Disorders. Global Journal of Health Science, 7(5), pp. 183-195.

Articles from Newspapers

Weisman, J. (2015). Deal Reached on Fast-Track Authority for Obama on Trade Accord. The New York Times, p.A1.

Magazines

Davidson, J. (2008). Speak her language. Men’s Health, (23), pp.104-106.

Articles from online resources

Messer, L. (2015). ‘Fancy Nancy’ Optioned by Disney Junior. [online] ABC News. Available at: http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/fancy-nancy-optioned-disney-junior-2017/story?id=29942496#.VRWbWJwmbs0.twitter [Accessed 31 Mar. 2015].
OR
Mms.com, (2015). M&M’S Official Website. [online] Available at: http://www.mms.com/ [Accessed 20 Apr. 2015].

In-Text Citations

In the main text:

One of the main motivations for western firms to go into counter trade is the low-cost sources of production and raw materials for use in the firm’s own production (Okoraofo, 1994).
OR
Okoraofo (1994) suggests that one of the main motivations for western firms to go into counter trade is the low-cost sources of production and raw materials for use in the firm’s own production.

Direct quote from an article or text:

One of the main motivations for western firms to go into counter trade is the “low-cost sources of production and raw materials for use in the firm’s own production” (Okoraofo, 1994: 74).
OR
Okoraofo (1994: 74) suggests that one of the main motivations for western firms to go into counter trade is the “low-cost sources of production and raw materials for use in the firm’s own production”.

If a quotation extends more than one page:

One of the main motivations for western firms to go into counter trade is the “low-cost sources of production and raw materials for use in the firm’s own production” (Okoraofo, 1994: 74-75).

When referring to two or more authors:

According to Knight and Yorke (2003: 10) meta-cognition includes three senses as: “knowing what you know, knowing how it can be used and knowing how you get new knowings”.
OR
Meta-cognition includes three senses including the things we know, knowing how to utilise these things and knowing how we can obtain new knowledge (Knight and Yorke, 2003).

Solomon et al. (2006) state that consumer behaviour includes disposal of purchased products.
OR
Consumer behaviour is defined as “the study of processes involved when individuals or groups select, purchase, use or dispose products, services, ideas or experiences to satisfy needs and desires” (Solomon et al, 2006: 6).

5.4 Using Reference Material for the Theoretical Background:

The essay MUST use a minimum of 2 academic journal articles in developing the theoretical concepts. These journal articles can be either from the list of articles recommended in the essential reading books for lecture topics, or the student can use other journal articles by consulting bibliographic packages such as ABI-INFORM.
In addition, the essay should show evidence of an extensive use of other well established and reputable literature sources such as books, other journal articles or other sources of information from the business newspapers and magazines. LEXIS NEXUS is a good source of articles from newspapers and the business press.

Learning Outcomes

This coursework essay enables the student to develop and understanding of the following concepts and issues related to the course

Role of technological changes, political and economic factors in providing the impetus to increasing economic interdependence
The limits of economic integration
Populist movements and globalisation

Marking Criteria

( see overleaf)

-The End-

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MANAGING AND ORGANIZATIONS IN CHANGING CONTEXTS

February 2, 2021/in Posts /by admin

MANAGING AND ORGANIZATIONS
IN CHANGING CONTEXTS
OPENING, THINKING, CONTEXTUALIZING
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
This chapter is designed to enable you to:

Appreciate the current contexts in which managingand organization occur
Identify the impact that changes in the contemporary world are having on managing
Provide a rough guide to the themes of the book

INTRODUCTION
We all learn to make sense of the situations we are in. However, just like a fast-flowing river, these situations are often changing in imperceptible ways. Before too long we find that the ways we have been using to make sense leave us out of our depth! Managers find that what they took for granted no longer helps them survive as well as it did in the past. Well-established techniques of the past, such as management by rules and instructions, by oversight and surveillance, by command and control, on the part of hierarchical managers, are changing. When everyone can be connected to anyone everywhere, when the value basis of employees is shifting radically, and when the organization laces itself over the globe and employs many of the diverse peoples that the globe has to offer, the old certainties are harder to hold. Today, more indirect techniques, such as managing in and through vision, mission, culture, and values, leading to a lot less imperative instruction and command and a great deal more dialogue and discussion, are fashionable: the switch is from ‘hard power’ in the form of imperative commands to ‘soft power’ in the form of getting people to do what we want them to do through indirect methods, such as induction into an organizational culture, training and strategy workshops, or leadership courses.
We often refer to different paradigms when discussing systematic approaches to some practice. The term derives from its use in the history of science, where different paradigms or models for analysis have been identified at different periods (Kuhn, 1962). The term can have broader application, however, having spread to fields such as management (Clarke and Clegg, 1998). Academic paradigms are ways of theorizing about an activity such as physics; in business the idea of there being different paradigms applies to the spheres of business practice, such as management. For something to be a paradigm it must be accepted as an ideal example and exemplar, something that shows people how to practice something. Hence, there is an element of fashion to management paradigms – they frame what is thought of as legitimate ways to conduct business at any given time.
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CHANGING PARADIGMS
ORGANIZATIONS AND TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGES
The shift to a world in which digital capabilities enable elements of organizational practices to be moved offshore has led to the spectacular rise of Bangalore in India, as well as other places, as an IT and call centre ‘district’. Often when you phone the help desk of an organization that you are dealing with you will be speaking to someone from a region of the global economy in which English-language skilled graduates are available to work at rates much lower than in the country in which the organization is headquartered. Since it is much cheaper to live somewhere with a much lower standard of living, employers are able to pay far less. They outsource work to third-party organizations in cheaper labour zones.
Outsourcing involves contracting the provision of certain services to a third-party specialist service provider rather than seeking to deliver the service from within one’s own organization. Usually, outsourcing is entered into to save costs and to deliver efficiencies and productivity benefits. By not concentrating on services and tasks that are peripheral to the main business, an organization can better focus on those things it needs to do well while leaving the peripheral tasks to organizations that specialize in the delivery of those services. Often, areas such as HRM, catering, IT, and equipment and facilities maintenance are outsourced. Outsourcing may not necessarily entail moving some subset of operations to another country. Instead, it may be that some elements of what an organization regards as non-core business are hived off to a specialist contractor that concentrates on doing the outsourced activity efficiently, at the lowest costs, and to a contracted standard. Outsourcing is not a new phenomenon: in major production industries such as automotives, the outsourcing of initially non-core and latterly core functions and services has been progressively used since the 1930s (Macaulay, 1966).
The development of outsourcing, burrowing away at the innards of organizations, hollowing them out, and networking them into other organizations’ capabilities and competencies, has accelerated in organizations since the late twentieth century. The imperative to outsource – as distinct from the opportunity to do so – was a result of globalization and increased competition, leading to a continual need to improve efficiency and to increase service levels. Thus, vertically integrated services were no longer seen as the best organizational arrangements for gaining competitive advantage. Extending the organization’s capabilities, whether core or non-core, to a third party, became synonymous with efficient and effective management. Outsourcing became fashionable.
Many new industries have developed on the back of the digital revolution, often referred to as knowledge-intensive industries, those which we find at the forefront of contemporary global competition, such as Google, IBM, Microsoft, and Dell. In these organizations we find new organizational forms that challenge the older, more bureaucratic structures of the past, structures that we will explore in Chapter 15.
Digital capabilities have transformed the world – some journalists such as Friedman (2005), of the New York Times, suggest that digital capabilities have made the world ‘flat’ – by which he means that advances in technology and communications now link people all over the globe. In part this explains the rapid development of India and China, and the growth of global businesses that exploit the opportunities of the Internet to create and design goods and services on a 24/7 cycle – globally – taking advantage of different time zones to work on accounts, data, and designs seamlessly. The world has sped up to a state of immediacy: any reader of this book would know how to find its authors’ email addresses in a matter of seconds.
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MANAGING TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGES
Shorter life cycles, virtual connectivity, and disaggregation spell many changes in ways of managing. The dominant trend is an increasing separation of routine processes from more essential work, which is often reflected in a spatial division of labour. Thus, for instance, as we will see in Chapter 16, in call centres the work is as routine and scripted as in any work process designed in an early twentieth-century bureaucracy by one of F. W. Taylor’s scientific managers (see Chapters 14 and 15). The means for storing the rules may have shifted from paper to software and the nature of the work may be less physical, but there are still essential similarities.
There are consequences for other jobs when much of the routine is extracted and repositioned elsewhere. The remaining core staff – rather than those that are peripheral – will need to be more skilled than before. They will be working in technological environments subject to rapid and radical change. New competencies and skills will be required. Managing will mean more developmental work oriented to renewing staff’s specific skills and general competencies rather than seeing that they follow the rules, issuing imperative commands, and generally exercising authority. Managing will mean negotiating the use and understanding of new technologies, contexts, and capabilities, and facilitating the understanding of those who will be operating with the new tools and environments. Changing technological paradigms mean that managers must be able to make sense of the new technology for all those who will use it. Sandberg and Targama (2007: 4) note, citing Orlikowski’s (1993) influential work on Japanese, European and US firms, that many technology implementation projects fail because of what the employees do – or do not – understand.
Traditionally, organizations were neither very responsive nor flexible because of their bureaucratic nature, as we will see in Chapter 14. They had tall hierarchical structures, relatively impermeable departmental silos, and many rules. Such organizations offered little incentive for innovation and, typically, innovation was frowned on because precedents went against the rules. Such organizations could hardly be responsive – they were not designed to be.
More responsive organizations should have employees who are capable of problem solving rather than having to refer any problem, deviation, or precedent to a higher authority. Such people need to be trained and engaged in styles of managing and being managed that reinforce empowerment, using far more positive than negative approaches to power, as we will see in Chapter 9.
New technologies attach a premium to a flexible, timely approach to customer requirements. In order that such flexibility can exist in an organization it has to be premised on ways of managing employees that allow them to be responsive to customer requirements in developing products and services. As we will see in Chapters 14 and 15, the critique of bureaucracy has been particularly acute in the areas of public sector management. Especially in the Anglo-Saxon countries, from the 1980s onwards, the extensive adoption of strategies of deregulation, privatization, and contracting out, often on the back of significant changes in technology, have led to profound changes in the nature of public sector work. Something known as new public management (Osborne and Gaebler, 1992) has had a profound impact on the public sector, in the public (or civil) service, education, universities, and health care, especially. The clarion call has been for more entrepreneurial managers and less rule following. Whether this is a good or bad thing has been the subject of lively debate, which we discuss in Chapter 15.
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CHANGING RELATIONS OF SERVICE AND PRODUCTION
Look at your computer; check the clothes you are wearing; what about your shoes? Where do your things come from? Bet they were made in several countries and none of them may be where you live. Bet also that China was one of the countries. Today, ‘Made in China’ is a ubiquitous label – we find it on virtually any manufactured product that we are likely to wear or use in the office or home.
Supermarkets such as Walmart represent the end of a supply chain that invariably starts somewhere in China. The concentration of much global manufacturing in China is a relatively recent phenomenon, which really gathered pace in the 1990s. Just as much of service work has been disaggregated into lower value-adding elements such as call centres that can be located anywhere, much of what was once produced by a domestic blue-collar labour force in the heartlands of Europe or the USA, is now produced globally, often in China.
One consequence of the shifting international division of labour is that employment and organizations in the developed world are increasingly based on the production of services rather than goods. Material things – such as computers, clothes, and household goods – are being produced in the developing world while the most developed parts of the world economy switch to services, such as financial services. One consequence is that the nature of work and organizations is changing rapidly in both worlds. In the developing world peasants are rapidly becoming factory workers; in the developed world there has been an explosive growth in what is referred to as knowledge work, done by knowledge workers in knowledge-intensive firms. Chief among these are IT firms (Alvesson, 1995; Starbuck, 1992), global consultancy, law, and accounting firms, as well as the universities, technical colleges, and schools that produce the new knowledge workers.
SHIFTING LOCATIONS; SHIFTING MANAGING
An increase in knowledge-intensive work means that organizations have to employ – and manage – different kinds of employees. Brains not brawn, mental rather than manual labour, are the order of the day. Employees need to be capable of working with sophisticated databases, software, and knowledge management systems. These have to be related to customer requirements often on a unique and tailored basis that deploys a common platform while customizing it for specific requirements. Thus, technical and relational skills will be at a premium.
Knowledge-intensive work, according to Alvesson’s (2004) research, depends on much subtle tacit knowledge as well as explicit mastery. In such a situation, working according to instruction and command will not be an effective way of managing or being managed, especially where the employee is involved in design and other forms of creative work on a team basis, often organized in projects. In such situations, increasingly common in contemporary work, ‘because of the high degree of independence and discretion to use their own judgment, knowledge workers and other professionals often require a leadership based on informal peer interaction rather than hierarchical authority’ (Sandberg and Targama, 2007: 4). As we will explore in Chapters 5 and 6, some of the old theories and approaches to leadership and project work need updating.
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GOING GLOBAL
Digital technologies and a growing international division of labour between economies specialized in services and production make the world economy increasingly globalized. Competition is based less on traditional comparative advantage as a result of what economists call ‘factor endowments’, such as being close to raw materials, and more on competitive advantages that arise from innovation and enterprise. IT means that enterprise and innovation can now be globally organized. No industry is more indicative of this than the financial services industry, where firms such as American Express, Citicorp, and HSBC span the globe. These multinational behemoths operate as integrated financial services providers almost everywhere. Global competition goes hand in hand with outsourcing in industries such as these, as such firms exploit technology to disaggregate ‘back-office’ routine functions and locate them in cheaper labour markets, as we discuss in Chapter 17.
The rise of India and especially China has seen a major restructuring of the global economy. As Martin Jacques said in 2010 in a TED Talk on ‘Understanding the rise of China’:
The world is changing with really remarkable speed … in 2025 … Goldman Sachs projections suggest that the Chinese economy will be almost the same size as the American economy … [By] … 2050, it’s projected that the Chinese economy will be twice the size of the American economy, and the Indian economy will be almost the same size as the American economy. And we should bear in mind here that these projections were drawn up before the Western financial crisis.
Jacques makes the point that for 200 years Europe and North America dominated the global world but that now, with the awakening into capitalist development of countries such as China and India, who between them have over one third of the global population, as well as other newly emerging states such as Indonesia and Brazil, civilizations and cultures that have for the past 200 years been marginal and minor players on the world stage are now at its centre. If the future managers reading this book want to have stimulating and successful careers in the future they are as likely to be forged in these countries as in Europe or North America. The managers that you will become will have to be truly global in experience and outlook.
MANAGING GLOBALLY
Doing business internationally in real time, enabled digitally, produces ample opportunity for cultural faux pas and misunderstanding. Work groups may be working in serial or in parallel with each other on projects that are networked globally. Global organization means managing diversity: it means developing appropriate ways of managing people who may be very different from each other – from different national, ethnic, religious, age cohort, educational achievement levels, social status, and gender backgrounds (Ashkenasy et al., 2002). One consequence of globalization and diversity is that HRM must be both increasingly international and equipped to deal with diversity, as we will see in Chapter 6.
Diversity is increasingly seen as an asset for organizations: people with diverse experiences can contribute more varied insights, knowledge, and experience than can a more homogeneous workforce. (In the terms that we use in Chapter 10 we can say that it is a good thing to introduce more polyphony into organizations but it can also introduce more conflict: see Chapter 8.) An evident reason is that if a business wishes to sell globally it must understand all the specificities of the local markets into which it seeks to trade. One good way of doing this is to ensure that the organization has employees that understand that market. Moreover, in certain markets, such as the Middle East, where etiquette and rituals are of considerable importance in everyday interactions, it is enormously beneficial to have employees who do not have to learn through making costly mistakes because they have an intuitive understanding. Moreover, as we will see in Chapter 14, organizations whose members are not representative of the populations the organizations draw on and serve risk being seen as discriminatory in their recruitment policies. There are ethical issues concerned in managing diversity as well.
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CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF TIME AND SPACE
Technological developments such as the Internet and other telecommunications seem to make the whole world something that can be present here and now – as users of Google Earth no doubt know. Email can fly around the world in seconds, as quite a few people can testify who have pressed the send button inadvertently on something they might have preferred not to share globally.
While time and space are two fundamental coordinates of the way we relate to the world, the ways in which we make this representation are not fundamental but socially constructed. The earliest concerns of modern global management were with the centrality of clock time in the time and motion studies of F. W. Taylor. Indeed, in these studies the central motif was that of time–space relations, as we will see in Chapter 14. Stopwatches measured in terms of microseconds to prescribe ways of doing tasks. Space was rigidly defined in order to maximize the speed of work. These notions of space and time as phenomena under strict organizational control are hardly relevant in the age of the Internet. With a computer, camera, and broadband connection any organization member can simulate immediacy with anyone anywhere in the world similarly equipped. In such a situation time and space are eclipsed. Organizations can be global, navigating anywhere.
MANAGING TIME AND SPACE
Immediacy through the eclipse of space presents problems. Work is much more accountable and transparent as others can be online anytime, anywhere, challenging the understandings that the other has developed. Often these understandings will be embedded in a sense made in a cultural, linguistic, religious, ethnic, and age and gendered context that is simply foreign to partners elsewhere. Great cultural sensitivity, as well as a capacity to handle circadian rhythms, is needed in the interest of global business. In such contexts there will be a great deal of doing by learning as managers seek to make sense of others whose cues are not only unfamiliar but often mediated by the limitations of Internet communication. Managing communication in these circumstances poses especial challenges, as we will see in Chapter 10.
CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS, CHANGING VALUES
The era from the 1960s onwards has been dominated by the ‘boomer’ generation, who are now slowly moving out of the workforce, to be replaced with people drawn from Generation X and Y. Generation X, broadly defined, includes anyone born from 1961 to 1981. In the West, Generation X grew up with the Cold War as an ever-present backdrop. During their childhood they saw the dismantling of the post-war settlement and the advent of neo-liberal economics (such as Thatcherism) and the collapse of communism. They often grew up in single-parent households, without a single clear or guiding moral compass. They had to negotiate the hard years of global industrial restructuring when they were seeking their first jobs; they experienced the economic depression of the 1980s and early 1990s; and saw the decline of traditional permanent job contracts offering clear career structures. Instead of careers they were invited to accept insecure short-term contracts, unemployment, or junk jobs in McDonaldized organizations, or get educated. Many of them ended up overeducated and underemployed, with a deep sense of insecurity. Not expecting that organizations will show them much commitment, they offer little themselves.
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Generation Y includes anyone born in the late 1980s and 1990s, sometimes to professional boomer couples who left childrearing later than previous generations or, as a result of boomer males mating with much younger women, maybe procreating with a new partner for the second or third time, celebrating the attraction of old money for young flesh. Young people born in this bracket are the first digital generation for whom the computer, Internet, mobile, iPods, DVDs, and the Xbox were a part of what they took for granted growing up. While Generation X was shaped by de-industrialization in the West and the fall of communism globally, Generation Y developed into maturity during the War on Terror, grew up reading Harry Potter, and has enjoyed relatively prosperous economic times, in part because of the success – for the West – of globalization. If you want to know more about the generations and the differences they are inscribed in you could talk to your parents or grandparents – if they haven’t already talked to you about these things!
MANAGING CHANGING VALUES
The employment of Generation X members offers real challenges for managers seeking to motivate and gain commitment from employees. As we will see in Chapter 3, the issues of commitment and motivation are increasingly central to managing. The X generation will be more cynical than its predecessors and less likely to accept rhetoric from management that is not backed up by actions. For Generations X and Y, according to Sennett (1998: 25), there is a predisposition towards high uncertainty and risk-taking as defining features of the challenges they want from work because they do not expect commitment. In part this is because they do not expect anything solid or permanent: they have seen casino capitalism at close quarters as brands they grew up with moved offshore or were taken over, or radically changed by new ownership, and so tend to distrust prospects of long-term or predictable futures.
Using traditional management control and command devices to manage people who desire to explore is not appropriate. Instead, the emphasis will have to be on creativity and innovation, as we explore in Chapter 12.
If there is one value that binds these disparate generations together it is the sense that the previous generations have really made a mess of the planet; green values are very strongly held, and saving the environment through sustainability is high on the list of value preferences. Consequently, as we discuss in Chapter 13, issues of corporate social responsibility, especially those addressed to sustainability, are high on the values agenda. Such changes pose major implications for how organizations attract, select, retain, and treat employees, as we see in Chapter 6 on HRM.
CHANGING CONCEPTIONS OF THEORY AND PRACTICE
One of the trends that readers of the book may not be so well aware of as the people who set it as a text is the changing nature of the relation between what academics do, funding arrangements from government, and conceptions of the usefulness of academic work. Academics do research. This is what defines them as academics. In the past, they worked in circles that were largely self-referencing: if successful, they published a book or two, some academic papers and, if they were really successful, others would read them and cite them in their research. Times are changing. Academic researchers in all fields are increasingly expected not just to produce outputs in the way of publications but also to have an impact.
p.14
Impact is usually defined in terms of having a positive effect on a specific sphere of practice beyond academia, including being able to demonstrate the contribution made to society and the economy (see Nutley et al., 2007). It is generally agreed that there are three main ways of making such an impact. Academic research can have an instrumental impact, influencing changes in policy, practices, and behaviour; it can have a conceptual impact, changing people’s knowledge, understanding, and attitudes towards social issues; or it can have an impact through capacity building where involvement in research develops the skills of those involved. The debates about impact are quite generic and are found in many OECD nations in recent years, as the costs of higher education and research funding have grown, so the clamour for demonstrations of relevance and impact have grown from politicians and the public. In the following article you can find an interesting account of how this debate has been addressed in the field of management, the field in which the work considered in this book seeks to make its impact.
EXTEND YOUR KNOWLEDGE
In Jean Marie Bartunek and Sara Lynn Rynes’ (2014) ‘Academics and practitioners are alike and unlike: the paradoxes of academic–practitioner relationships’, Journal of Management, 40 (5): 1181–1201, which is available at the companion website https://edge.sagepub.com/managingandorganizations4e, rather than seeing the academic–practitioner gap as essentially dichotomous they identify and suggest ways of working with the divide that foster research and theory building. Several different tensions are associated with the gap, including differing logics, time dimensions, communication styles, rigour and relevance, as well as interests and incentives. Initiatives of national governments, ranking systems, and special issues of journals have exacerbated these gaps, which they suggest ways of bridging.
USING MANAGING AND ORGANIZATIONS
The basic themes of this text are now established. In this book, as we have foreshadowed, we will introduce you to the main lines of management and organization theory, and we will situate these in the major changes marking the present-day world. These, we will argue, make the ideal of the wholly rationalistic organization evermore difficult to believe in principle and secure in practice. However, most of what you will learn as a management student makes assumptions about the rationality of organizations and management. Organizations go to great lengths to try and ensure that stocks of knowledge are shared as widely as possible within the organization, as we will see in subsequent chapters, and do so in ways that are reflected in each of the subsequent chapters:

Managing the most basic organizational and managerial capability – how to achieve common sensemaking (Chapter 2).
Creating induction programmes that socialize individuals into an organizational frame of reference (Chapter 3).

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Training individuals in teamwork and groupwork (Chapter 4).
Hosting leadership development, coaching, and training for common understanding (Chapter 5).
Building highly rationalistic HRM plans and seeking to implement them (Chapter 6).
Emphasizing strong, common cultures (Chapter 7).
Designing lots of rules to frame everyday behaviour in the organization and manage conflicts (Chapter 7).
Managing organizational conflicts, so that the goal-oriented elements of organization can come to fruition, despite countervailing tendencies, schisms, and frictions in an organization (Chapter 8).
Managing power, politics, and decision-making so that plans are implemented, not resisted, and so sectional and specific interests are well aligned with rational plans (Chapter 9).
Communicating these rational plans, their culture, and other messages to organization members (Chapter 10).
Capturing all of what their members know and embedding it in management systems as they try and practise organizational learning (Chapter 11).
Managing change, introducing and effectively using new technologies, and ensuring innovation (Chapter 12).
Incorporating new mandates arising from social issues and concerns articulated by new stakeholders and influential social voices, such as sustainability, ethics, and corporate social responsibility (Chapter 13).
Implementing global management principles in the organization (Chapter 14).
Adjusting the structure of their organization to fit the contingencies it has to deal with, be they size, technology, or environment (Chapters 15).
Designing the organization in ways that seem best fit for purpose (Chapter 16).
Managing to manage globally, to manage globalization, and to deal with the added complexities that managing in a global world entails (Chapter 17).

SUMMARY
In this chapter we have staked out the territory that the book covers. We have dealt with nothing in depth – the rest of the book does that – but we have provided an indicative guide to the topics that we shall address subsequently. Managing and organizing is very dynamic – its world never stays still – so innovation, change, and tension are often characteristic of the way that events pan out.
EXERCISES

Having read this chapter you should be able to say in your own words what each of the following key terms means. Test yourself or ask a colleague to test you.

p.16
Paradigms
Outsourcing
‘Flat’ paradigm
Supply chains
Globalization
Digitalization
Organizations
Theory–practice gap
Generation X and Y
Values

Why do organizations become globalized?
What do you think are the major changes that are shaping the contemporary world and what do you think their impact is on management?

TEST YOURSELF
Review what you have learned by visiting:
https://edge.sagepub.com/managingandorganizations4e or your eBook

Test yourself with
multiple-choice questions
Revise key terms with the interactive flashcards
CASE STUDY
This is a very simple case study to get you started. Think about the last organization that you were a member of for some time. It might have been a school, a church, or an employing organization. What were its main routines? How were these organized in terms of some of the factors that might frame organizations? Think about factors such as how standardized, timetabled, or ritualized the flows of time and organizational effort were in the organization in question. What were the characteristic markers of identity of the different people and groups in the organization? What were the goals of the organization?
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
If you want to know more about the major changes shaping the contemporary world of business you could take a look at Clarke and Clegg’s (1998) Changing Paradigms. It is dated now, but still has several interesting points to make about globalization, digitalization, and so on. This book is not too difficult for the introductor

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Title: Identifying and engaging audiences through online conversational discourse: An analysis of social media usage within small medium enterprises (SMEs).

February 2, 2021/in Posts /by admin

PhD Research Proposal

Identifying and engaging audiences through online conversational discourse: An analysis of social media usage within small medium enterprises (SMEs)

Contents Page

The broad field within which my MPhD topic falls                                            Page 3
An outline of the subject matter of my proposed thesis (Abstract)                   Page 3
Reasons for interest in this field                                                                       Page 4
The main theorists                                                                                            Page 5
The framework upon which my research will be based                                    Page 10
How my thesis will extend their work                                                                Page 11
Methodology                                                                                                     Page 12
Carrying out the research – the specific techniques                                        Page 13
Timescale                                                                                                         Page 16
An explanation of the original contribution to knowledge                                 Page 16
References                                                                                                       Page 18
Bibliography                                                                                                      Page 23

The broad field within which my MPhD topic falls
Title: Identifying and engaging audiences through online conversational discourse: An analysis of social media usage within small medium enterprises (SMEs).
An outline of the subject matter of my proposed thesis
Abstract
With an increasing body of literature (Fill, 2009, Kozinets et al, 2010, Jobber, 2010) highlighting the importance and influence of word of mouth communications and how it can assist and enrich the communications process; it may be argued identifying and engaging audiences through online conversational discourse is now just another facet of the ‘day job’ for many organisations, including SMEs. Woodside and Delozier (1976, p.12) for example link WoM with consumer risk, while others establish links with complaining behaviour (Blodgett et al, 1995: 32) product judgements (Bone, 1995, p.214) consumer attitudes (Bickart and Schindler, 2001, p.31) and as an integral aspect of the customer relationship (Wangenheim, 2005, p.154). Furthermore, as Goldenberg et al (2001, p.212) suggests the increasing use of the internet, enables surfers to communicate quickly with relative ease, establishing the contemporary version of this phenomenon, known as electronic word of mouth (eWoW) as an intrinsic marketing communication channel. However for many SMEs, as Bulearca, (2010, p.298) suggests using social media and especially micro-blogging sites such as Twitter is only a recent phenomenon, as it is mainly since 2008 that social networking sites ‘exploded’ in user numbers and marketing applications. It may therefore be considered that there is limited academic research into this area (Zhao and Rossen, 2009; Jansen et al, 2009) and much of it is focussed on the user side, with little known from the companies’ perspective. What is evident from recent studies (Singh et al, 2008, Harris et al, 2008, Dwyer, 2007, Young at al, 2007) as Sashi (2012, p.267) confirms is that new technologies and tools spawned by social media have altered the roles of buyers and sellers; unlike traditional market exchanges in which the seller largely controlled marketing mix decisions relating to product, price, promotion, place and developed strategies to meet the needs of customers, social media helps shift control of some of these decisions directly to customers (Sashi, 2012).Not only that but social media enables customers to participate in value adding and marketing decisions as Sashi, 2012, p,.267 intimates by connecting and interacting not only with sellers but also with other customers as well as non-customers, an important facet of eWoM.
The objectives of this research will therefore focus on mapping how far SMEs can and are adapting their practices to identify and engage audiences through conversational discourse, utilising social media channels and networks, and with what implications for the future of marketing strategies. In order to expand the expediency of current literature one strand of future research will include a broader analysis of social media practice among business professionals, (aged 35-45) in order to establish how this may influence the identification and engagement of audiences (prosumers) through social media networks. An analysis of views and experiences from industry experts is also proposed, as well as a more detailed case study evaluation of SMEs, specifically in terms of eWoM on Twitter and blogs, as well as how they may be used to meet strategic objectives, as compared with traditional marketing methods.
Reasons for interest in this field
As a marketing communications professional working for more than 15 years – I have worked both from a consultancy basis and within SMEs, so I can definitely relate to the challenges and opportunities available through social media and specifically how to manage electronic word of mouth (eWoM) communications. A specific difficulty, evident in working practice is the ability to engage, develop and maintain conversational discourse effectively with business to business groups via social media. I am also interested within a broader spectrum as to how social media is effecting and influencing interpersonal relationships outside of the work environment which will also be explored expediently as part of this study, together with the experiences of other marketing communications professionals to inform recommendations. I am particularly enthusiastic about having the opportunity to analyse the influence and impact of social media within SMEs, as marketing communications, specifically word of mouth, social media and the impact on
customer engagement and reputational management in the UK and Internationally are areas which I hope to continue research and teaching within. Also, within the context of the current financial crisis and continuously emerging social network sites, it can be argued that there is a need to redefine models of eWoM communications, in order to more effectively target stakeholders so as to better serve the needs of managers, entrepreneurs, firms and society.
The main theorists who have made a contribution to this area of research
Identification of the relevant literature
An increasing body of literature has highlighted the importance and influence of word-of-mouth (WoM) communications and how it can assist and enrich the communications process (Fill, 2009, p.51/52). WoM has been related to many aspects of marketing. For example, Woodside and Delozier (1976, p.12) link WoM with consumer risk, while others establish links with complaining behaviour (Blodgett et al, 1995: 32) product judgements (Bone, 1995, p.214) consumer attitudes (Bickart and Schindler, 2001, p.31) and as an integral aspect of the customer relationship (Wangenheim, 2005, p.154). Historical definitions such as Helm and Schlei (1998, p.42) define WoM as: “Verbal communications (either positive or negative) between groups such as the product provider, independent experts, family, friends and the actual or personal consumer.’ As Fill (2009, p.52) highlights organisations now use WoM techniques commercially in order to generate a point of differentiation. Mazzarol et al (2007, as cited in Fill, 2009, p.52) identify the ‘richness of the message’ and the ‘strength of the implied or explicit advocacy’ as important triggers for WoM.
Latterly, organisations such as Stanomedia (2011) have developed this argument a stage further to suggest that when people communicate with each other by many more means than just orally “word of mouth” no longer fits in such a small definition, at least not for marketing purposes. Furthermore, as Goldenberg et al (2001, p.212) establishes the increasing use of the internet, enabling surfers to communicate quickly with relative ease, has established the contemporary version of this phenomenon, known as ‘Internet WoM or ‘word of mouse’, as an important

marketing communication channel. In what is sometimes labelled as ‘viral marketing’ as Goldenberg et al (2001,p.212) suggests, companies are currently investing considerable efforts to trigger an electronic word of mouth process and accelerate its distribution (Schwartz 1998; Oberndorf, 2000). And because channels like email, Facebook, Twitter or text messages most likely communicate information from ‘trusted’ sources the person receiving them is very likely to believe them and a situation is created in which the customer takes on the role of a type of ‘consumer-marketer hybrid’ (Kozinets, 2010, p.83). In this instance other participating customers have the power to approve “the communicator” or the people voluntarily sign up to listen, which means they already trust the organisation to some degree, (Stanomedia, 2011).
As Goldenburg et al (2001, p.212) suggests social media is able to foster the exchange of word of mouth messages, by creating a virtual community for consumers to interact with each other. When compared with the effect of external marketing efforts (e.g advertising) in this study, information dissemination is notably dominated by eWoM paths. Trusov, Bucklin and Pauwels (2009) also compared eWoM to ‘traditional marketing efforts’ when analysing methods to increase the quantity of users on a particular social networking site. On the whole it can be ascertained from this paper that eWoM referrals have a strong effect on new customer acquisition, influencing more individuals and lasting over a longer period than more ‘traditional marketing.’ Importantly, this study also offers managers a tool to improve the metrics they use for assessing the effectiveness of traditional marketing when WoM effects are present, while also offering a mechanism to quantify eWoM through outgoing messages. As a technique to measure the transition of conversational discourse, this methodology should prove advantageous to SMEs. Plus there is the opportunity to build on some of the ‘limitations’ from this data, including the analysis of more than just one large social networking site, which in this instance has prevented analysis of the effects of WoM for – and marketing actions by – competing sites. Modelling heterogeneity in order to clarify segmentation or specific audiences, is also an important aspect, to identify more detailed engagement strategies, pertinent for SMEs, particularly those operating within the business to business typology, which are primarily focussed on attracting, engaging with and building long-term relationships with specific interest groups, including ‘networked narratives’ (Kozinets et al, 2010) rather than ‘customers’ per se.
While the main concerns of SMEs in relation to the identifying and engaging of audiences through social media are likely to be related to the generic characteristics of limited time/resources and expertise, the e-marketplace provides a favourable environment, including; lower operating and marketing costs, better opportunities to promote their products/services, and enrich their overall marketing communications mix, (Chong et al 2010, p.5). Overall, the principle benefits of the SME e-marketplace as reported by many academics and practitioners are cited in Chong et al (2010, p.6) including: reducing search costs by facilitating comparison of price, products, and services (Kandampully, 2003; Bakos, 1998; Kaplan and Sawhney, 2000); improving production and supply capability (Barua et al., 1997; Albrecht et al., 2005); improving personalisation and customisation of product offerings (Bakos, 1998); enhancing relationships with customers (Kierzkowski et al., 1996); reducing marketing costs as compared to traditional marketing media (Sculley and Woods, 2001); reducing numbers of marketing staff (Gloor, 2000); operating 24/7 and around the clock over 365 days per year (Ngai, 2003); facilitating global presence (Laudon and Laudon, 2002); exploring new market segments (Murtaza et al., 2004); and interactive conversational discourse is more effective in terms of services marketing communication (Petersen et al, 2007).
SMEs are often categorised as having fewer resources, as Centeno (2012, p.253) confirms, which may include not only financial, but also marketing knowledge (Gilmore et al, 2001, Mount et al, 1993) as well as marketing communications personnel to undertake the day to day implementation. Centeno (2012, p.253) acknowledges, paradoxically that SMEs may also have a short-term focus with flat and informal organisational structures, which may also be suitable for a more dynamic and innovative responses to the market (Gilmore et al, 2001, McGaughey, 1998). Importantly, one shift facilitated by social media channels for the benefit of SMEs as Qualman (2011, p.193) outlines is financial, in that the money previously dispersed to ‘middlemen’ is now being redistributed to the companies themselves and direct to consumers.
However for many SMEs, as Bulearca, (2010, p.298) suggests using social media and especially micro-blogging sites such as Twitter is only a recent phenomenon, as it is mainly since 2008 that social networking sites ‘exploded’ in user numbers and marketing applications. It may therefore be argued that there is limited academic research into this area (Zhao and Rossen, 2009; Jansen et al, 2009) and much of it is focussed on the user side, with little known from the companies’ perspective. Despite this, as Israel (2009, p.147) states a new business located in a spare bedroom or less-than-prime former industrial space can build a network of customers at little or no cost. However, as an interviewee from an SME within a recent study (Bulearca, 2010) reiterates ‘Twitter needs consistency and commitment, a clear understanding of its purpose, functionalities and tools, and a strategic implementation if it is to yield the best results. ‘Return-on-investment (or value) is also difficult to quantify as results are ‘more people orientated than financial’ and the tools provided by Twitter are still perceived as ‘very basic’, (Bulearca, 2010, p.304).
Chua, (2009, p.119) also outlines growing evidence that Social media mechanisms are being used by business as part of their customer relationship management strategies (Singh et al, 2008, Dwyer, 2007) as well as managing reputation and trust (Gordon, 2006, Gray, 2006), niche marketing (Singh et al, 2008) and gathering market intelligence (Habermann, 2005, O’Flaherty, 2008). Schoble and Israel (2006, p.232) take this a stage further in their analysis when they highlight that in their view blogging is vital for companies, not just in terms of outbound communications, but inbound as well, describing their role as multifaceted in terms of; a crisis firefighter, a superior research aggregator, a tool for recruiting, a product builder and customer service and support enhancement. In addition, blogging, it is argued by Schoble and Israel (2006, p.232) will help companies to ‘win’ not just by talking to people but also by listening. Recent examples of studies as cited by Chua (2009, p.120) includes; a 2007 Forrester survey of 119 chief information officers working in SMEs and larger companies in the USA (Young et al, 2007) in which 89% declared that they had adopted at least one Web 2.0 tool (out of blogs, wikis, podcasts, RSS, social networking and content tagging).
While, Harris et al (2008) conducted a telephone survey of 400 SMEs in the UK concerning their use of Web 2.0 tools, including 30 case studies of small firms which were early adopters of blogs, although the study did not explore specifically how blogs could be used to support marketing objectives. Singh et al (2008, as cited in Chua, 2009, p.120) presents a general discussion of the marketing potential of blogs for businesses primarily focused on large firms, which includes a couple of anecdotal examples of small businesses which have made effective use of blogs for marketing.
What is evident from these studies as Sashi (2012, p.267) confirms is that new technologies and tools spawned by social media have altered the roles of buyers and sellers; unlike traditional market exchanges in which the seller largely controlled marketing mix decisions relating to product, price, promotion, place and developed strategies to meet the needs of customers, social media helps shift control of some of these decisions directly to customers (Sashi, 2012).Not only that but social media enables customers to participate in value adding and marketing mix decisions as Sashi, 2012, p,.267 intimates by connecting and interacting not only with sellers but also with other customers as well as non-customers, an important facet of eWoM.
Chua et al (2009, p.119) makes a significant point in relation to future research paradigms with SMEs, as it is argued that much of the existing eBusiness research tends to treat them as a homogeneous group (Parker and Castleman, 2007, Castleman, 2004 and Martin and Matlay, 2001). Part of the challenge in investigating social media usage in SMEs is therefore to at least in the first instance form a better understanding of the complex internal and external SME contexts governing whether or not the adoption of social media makes sense for specific types of SMEs, and for specific purposes such as facilitating and mapping eWoM conversational discourse and whether this is more appropriate for certain purposes such as establishing and maintaining customer engagement in predominantly B2B SMEs.
It is suggested that in order to expand the expediency of current literature that one strand of future research could include a broader analysis of social media practice among business professionals, ‘prosumers’ (aged 35-45) in order to establish how this may influence the identification and engagement of audiences through social media networks. An analysis of views and experiences from industry experts is also proposed, as well as a more detailed case study analysis of current engagement levels with online conversational discourse in SMEs, specifically in terms of eWoM on Twitter and via blogs and how they may be used to meet strategic objectives, as compared with traditional marketing methods.
The conceptual/theoretical framework or approach upon which my research is based
In summary this research is intended to analyse and develop a new model for SMEs in terms of approaches to identifying and engaging audiences through online conversational discourse that considers the suitability of specific social media mechanisms i.e micro-blogging sites such as Twitter and blogs. Due consideration will be given to the importance of eWoM in terms of attracting and retaining customers, as well as return on investment measurements. As Jones (2010, p.150) suggests the Web 2.0 world poses a number of challenges to small businesses and the ways in which they communicate; how best to operate successfully in this new landscape is an issue that small businesses have to address at an individual level, from experience and on a ‘need to manage’ basis. It is concluded by Jones, (2010, p.150) that a more grounded, empirically informed, evidence-based case-study analysis of specific small business practice of using Web 2.0 is the best way forward for impact assessment and further research areas are recommended as: ‘real-world’ small business practice of Web 2.0 use, via in-depth case study analysis; the role of Web 2.0 in the co-creation of value for small businesses; evaluating consumers and prosumers views of small business Web 2.0 marketing activities. It is the intention of this research to investigate and analyse these areas, as well as understanding current practice withn SMEs as informed by marketing communications ‘experts’, which will add a third analytical dimension in order to deliver a detailed overview of this subject matter.
An outline of how my thesis will extend, elaborate upon or provide a critique of their work
Key research questions
The research questions will be refined after the full literature review and (baseline study), from the following:

What are the challenges and opportunities for SMEs in terms of identifying and engaging audiences through online conversational discourse, in light of the concept of the ‘participative web’ (OECD, 2007) that empowers users to contribute to developing, rating, collaborating and distributing internet content and customising internet applications?
What factors create successful online conversational discourse through social media usage/networks?; Understanding: current practice and future developments from the perspective of marketing communications professionals
How can eWoM be effectively harnessed by SMEs to help promote their business offerings, in terms of differentiation from competitors; communicating with publics and stakeholders to co-create value, raise their profile, build trust and enhance reputation, research and better understand the markets in which they operate; generate trade with other businesses and overall develop and grow their business as compared with traditional marketing materials and in order to meet marketing objectives?
How can SMEs better understand the role of prosumers in entrepreneurial marketing? Evaluating prosumers’ views of small business social media activities, including the influence of ‘participative web’ activity in the co-creation of value for SMEs, but also considering the impact on social outcomes, orchestrated by a mutual dependence on social networks
What are the implications for the future of social media usage by SMEs? What deters SMEs from adopting eWoM techniques? What factors create successful eWoM social media programmes? What is the process of audience engagement and SME implementation and monitoring? What is defined as an effective return on investment and how does this contribute to meeting overall marketing objectives? This could include: analysis and development of a new business model that supports SMEs in the planning and development stages of any social media strategies in order that they can effectively map participation, outcomes and value propositions as a way of building international competitive advantage and generating economic dynamism, growth and jobs to support the knowledge economy.

Methodology
At this point, the working title: ‘Identifying and engaging audiences through online conversational discourse: An analysis of social media usage within small medium enterprises (SMEs)’ is not in the form of a research hypothesis. The questions outlined earlier do, however, help to identify key areas for further analysis and investigation.
In order to put the influence of SMEs on the UK economy into perspective the latest statistics from the Federation of Small Businesses (2011) are included below:

There are 4.5 million small businesses in the UK
SMEs account for 99 per cent of all enterprise in the UK, 58.8 per cent of private sector employment and 48.8 per cent of private sector turnover
SMEs employed an estimated 13.8 million people and had an estimated combined annual turnover of £1,500 billion
Businesses with employees account for a quarter of all enterprises – a fall of 29,000 since 2010
There are 876,000 businesses in construction – a fifth of all UK enterprises
London has 748,000 enterprises – more than any other region
The South East has the second largest number of enterprises with 745,000. Combined with London, a third of all businesses are based here
45.3 per cent of businesses are registered for VAT and/or PAYE
The number of sole proprietorships increased by 87,000 in 2010 and the number of companies, 6,000

Micro: 0-9 employees, small: 10-50 employees, medium: 50-249 employees (updated November, 2011).
Carrying out the research – the specific techniques of investigation and analysis I plan to use
The utilisation of qualitative and quantitative data, a ‘sequential mixed methods’* (Cresswell and Plano Clark, 2007, cited in Creswell, 2009, p. 14) approach to research will be utilised throughout the compilation of this study. As Jogulu and Pansiri (2011, p.688) state the mixed methods research approach, also referred to as the third path (Gorard and Taylor, 2004, as cited in Jogulu and Pansiri, 2011, p.688), or the third research paradigm (Johnson and Onwuegbuzie, 2004, p14) is widely used and recognised by management scholars.
Cresswell and Plano Clark (2007, p.5) define mixed methods as: a research design with philosophical assumptions as well as methods of inquiry. Further substantiating this vision, by stating: “As a methodology, it involves philosophical assumptions that guide the direction of the collection and analysis of data and the mixture of qualitative and quantitative data in a single study or series of studies” (Creswell and Plano Clark (2007, p.5). Its central premise as cited by Creswell and Plano (2007, p.5) is that the use of quantitative and qualitative approaches in combination provides a better understanding of research problems than either approach alone.
In addition, it is argued by Jogulu and Pansiri (2011, p.688) that a mixed methods approach, advocates the use of both inductive and deductive research logic, which is a great strength in itself, as having an inductive-deductive cycle allows the equal undertaking of theory generation and hypothesis testing in a single study, without compromising one for the other.
It is also expected given the relatively new concept of social media usage in SMEs that any methodology will be to some extent exploratory and inductive. Initial analysis will focus on the implementation and analysis of online questionnaires based on a standard format (e.g. Likert scale model) to obtain mainly quantitative responses, which will be complimented by a qualitative approach in the form of case-study analysis which will include in-depth interviews and observation, as detailed in the provisional diagram below.
The first stage of this research paradigm is to collect primary quantitative survey data via two different online questionnaires aimed at: marketing communications professionals (chartered institute of public relations members) and prosumers (aged 35-45) as a sample segment of ‘participative’ social media users. According to Easterby-Smith et al (2009, p.90) there are three main types of survey: factual, inferential and exploratory. Inferential surveys as Easterby-Smith et al (2009, p.91) confirms are aimed at establishing relationships between variables and concepts whether there are prior assumptions and hypotheses regarding the nature of these relationships.
For the purposes of this study SMEs in South East England, including the following counties: Suffolk, Essex, Norfolk, Kent, Sussex, Surrey, Berkshire and Cambridgeshire will be targeted in order to provide a targeted analysis of case-studies.
Eisenhardt (1989, p.534) defined case study ‘as a research strategy that focuses on the dynamics present within a single setting.’ According to Eisenhardt (1989) there are three ways case studies could be used to accomplish the researcher’s aims – case studies provide description whilst testing and/or generating theory. Case study data can also come from a variety of sources. Stake (1995) identified six sources from which qualitative research data are collected for case studies. First, the nature of the case, particularly its activity and functioning, second, its historical background, third, its physical setting, fourth, other contexts, such as economic, political, legal, and aesthetic; fifth, other cases through which the case is recognised; and sixth, those informants through whom the case can be known. Interviewing ‘experts’ in the subject, such as senior managers, marketing/PR and communications managers, as well as observation at various intervals, will form a key element of the case-study preparation.
Collecting primary data as a priority is suggested as there is unlikely to be a large volume of published statistics or texts available that encompasses a detailed picture of how SMEs have adapted their practices and priorities to encompass social media activity, as well as the monitoring of its effectiveness as compared with traditional marketing materials as a means of meeting strategic objectives.

Timescale

Activity	Words	Duration
Literature review	20,000	6 months
Methodology	15,000	8 months
Data gathering		12 months (overlapping with methodology)
Data analysis	20,000	8 months
Conclusion, implications and recommendations for further research	15,000	5 months
Introduction and abstract	5,000	2 months
Amendments and revisions		2 months
Total	75,000 (200 pages approx.)	36 months (3 years)

What specifically do you hope this thesis will discover or explain that will make it an original contribution to knowledge?
Social media as a research paradigm, with its many facets is still very much in its infancy. As McQuail, (2000, as cited in Daugherty et al, 2008, p.16) highlights ‘consumers are active and in charge of their media experiences, making it more important than ever to understand motivational factors’ in this instance that drive consumption and interaction with organisations and individuals. This power shift as Severin and Tankard (1992, as cited in Daugherty et al, 2008, p.16) describes, challenges media theorists (and organisations, specifically SMEs) to change the way they traditionally have identified (and engaged with) audiences, with a lesser focus on examining the theoretical effects of media and a greater focus on understanding why and how consumers use media. From the SME’s perspective, engaging
audiences through online conversational discourse, deploying the tools of Web 2.0, will facilitate communications in new ways with their varied stakeholders. As Jones (2010, p.149) states communication methodology has changed significantly to promote mutual value between the organisation and their ‘audience’: ‘Where once businesses communicated to their customers and other stakeholders, they now communicate in partnership with them.’ The views, experiences and recommendations of marketing communications experts will also be considered in order to inform current and future practice.
In light of this, this study is designed to examine and analyse the opportunities, challenges and barriers to utilising social media channels effectively by SMEs, within the B2B context primarily, by testing existing implementation and quantifying the outcomes from the perspective of senior internal employees and marketing communications experts. An important element of this analysis is to explain the influence and expedience of eWoM as a means of influencing engagement and the distribution of messages via a primary framework analysis, utilising the case-study examples. Plus, to underpin this study a broader investigation of social media usage by professionals aged 35-45 will be undertaken to ascertain attitudes, motivations, objectives and outcomes to inform engagement and eWoW behavioural traits as well as the impact on wider social relationships. This approach is intended to broaden understanding and primary data related to the use of social media specifically within the B2B context to better inform future implementation and practice.

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The Audit Expectations Gap in the Public Sector of Turkey

February 2, 2021/in Posts /by admin

University of Essex
Essex Business School

The Audit Expectations Gap in the Public Sector of Turkey

December 2014

BE951-7-AU: RESEARCH METHODS AND METHODOLOGIES IN ACCOUNTING AND MANAGEMENT
COURSEWORK 2

Summary:

The concept of audit expectations gap has been widely used in private sector studies. However, in the public sector, it has not been received much attention. Until now, only a very limited number of researches on the audit expectations gap in the public sector have been carried out. Similarly, in Turkey, researches on audit expectations gap generally focus on the private sector. With regard to the public sector of Turkey, research on audit expectations gap has not been undertaken at all. This study aims to identify the existence of the audit expectations gap in the Turkish public sector in terms of performance audit by providing answer to the following questions: Whether or not the audit expectations gap exist in the Turkish public sector relating to performance auditing? If it exists, what is the nature of audit expectations gap?

Background:

Liggio (1974, p.27) first used the term of audit expectations gap in the literature and
defined it as the difference between ‘the levels of expected performance as envisioned both by the independent accountant and by the user of financial statements’. In 1978, Cohen Commission Report (1978, p.xi) broadened the definition as ‘a gap between the performance of auditors and the expectations of the users of financial statements’. However, Porter (1993) criticized previous definitions as they were too limited and did not consider inadequate performance, and made a definition as ‘the gap between the public’s expectations of auditors and auditors’ perceived performance’ (p.50). Although these definitions are private sector oriented, in a broader sense, they could also be used in the context of public sector as the nature of audit is apparently similar.
In general, to examine the audit expectations gap, two approaches are available. In the first approach, based on private sector auditing, Porter (1993) specially investigated opinions of auditors and public, regarding the roles and duties of auditors. In the second approach (Chowdhury and Innes, 1998), based on the public sector auditing, the audit expectations gap is investigated in the context of accountability. In this approach, accountability is regarded as fulfilment of standards in the process of auditing and reporting. Since this approach aimed to investigate the perceptions of auditors, seven concepts were chosen in the context of accountability: auditor accountability, auditor independence, auditor competence, audit materiality and audit evidence, truth and fairness, and performance audit (p.247).
As mentioned earlier, unlike the literature on private sector auditing, research on audit expectations gap was very limited in the context of public sector. Until now, only Pendlebury and Shreim (1990; 1991), Chowdhury and Innes (1998), and Chowdhury et al. (2005) have conducted research on the audit expectations gap in the public sector of different countries.

Aims and Objectives:

In Turkey, researches on audit expectations gap in the public sector have not been carried out at all. This study will attempt to fill this research gap in the auditing literature. In order to establish a sound research framework, an approach based on ‘accountability’ has been employed for this research. This study will be concerned with the TCA[1] auditors’ accountability to the PBC[2] and the auditees in the context of performance audit. The following objectives are set in order to achieve the aim of the research:

To evaluate TCA auditors’ and the report users’ opinions about the performance audit function and the performance audit reports in the context of accountability,
To assess performance audit reports produced by TCA in the context of accountability.

Methods:

This study aims to investigate the presence and the characteristics of the audit expectations gap in the public sector of Turkey. It also seeks to understand participants’ perspectives, perceptions, and interpretations. This study, therefore, has an explorative approach. For these reasons, interpretivist paradigm will be employed. To accomplish the aim of this study, a qualitative methodology will be selected owing to its connection with the research paradigm and appropriateness in identifying objectives of the study. The researcher will choose two different methods to accomplish the objectives of the study. The first method will be composed of semi-structured interviews with the auditors of the TCA and two groups of users: PBC, as the recipient of the TCA audit, and the auditees. The purpose is to explore the perceptions of auditors and other users which may cause expectations gap and to identify the characteristics of the gap. The second method will be the analysis of performance audit reports of TCA as a secondary source. The purpose is to support the findings gathered from the interviews in respect to the reasons and components of the gap. A software will be used in order to analyse both interview transcripts and audit reports.

References:

Chowdhury, R., and Innes, J., 1998. A qualitative analysis of the audit expectations gap in the public sector of Bangladesh. International Journal of Auditing, 2(3), pp.247-261.
Chowdhury, R. R., Innes, J., and Kouhy, R., 2005. The public sector audit expectations gap in Bangladesh. Managerial Auditing Journal, 20(8), pp.893-908.
Cohen Commission, 1978. AICPA Reports, Conclusions, and Recommendations of the
Commission on Auditors’ Responsibilities. New York: American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. Available at: http://documents.routledge-interactive.s3. amazonaws.com/9780415508117/articles/commission.pdf [Accessed 05 December 2014]
Liggio, C. D., 1974. The expectation gap: The accountant’s legal Waterloo? Journal of
Contemporary Business, 3(3), pp.27-44
Pendlebury, M., & Shreim, O., 1990. UK auditors’ attitudes to effectiveness auditing. Financial Accountability & Management, 6(3), pp.177-189.
Pendlebury, M., & Shreim, O., 1991. Attitudes to effectiveness auditing: Some further evidence. Financial Accountability & Management, 7(1), pp.57-63.

[1] Turkish Court of Accounts, Supreme Audit Institution of Turkey.
[2] Plan and Budget Committee of Turkish Grand National Assembly.

BE267: International Business Environment Second Coursework (2020)

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The Audit Expectations Gap in the Public Sector of Turkey

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Background:

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Summary:

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