Authors:Juha-Antti Lamberg, Kalle Pajunen, Petri Parvinen and Grant T. Savage (2008).Download file: 'Stakeholder management and path dependence in organizational transitions'Management Decision 46:6, 846-863. Open access post-print version.

The abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to offer an explanatory process model of stakeholder management. The model shows how and why path dependence is manifested in stakeholder management issues.

Design/methodology/approach – The paper integrates stakeholder theory with key ideas from path dependence literature. The resulting propositions are examined in the context of a longitudinal case study of the United Airlines and US Airways abandoned merger in 2000-2001

Findings – The paper's analysis demonstrates that initial conditions are accentuated by the sequence of actions, offering a plausible explanation for process outcomes.

Practical implications – On the practical side, the paper provides a problem-solving tool for stakeholder management to analyze the stakeholder linkages during strategic initiatives.

Originality/value – The paper addresses an important research gap, exploring how stakeholder-related path dependencies influence the process of conflict escalation.

Authors:Pajunen, Kalle (2008).Full text: 'The nature of organizational mechanisms'Organization Studies, 29 (11): 1449–1468.

The abstract

One of the basic objectives in organization research is to examine how some organizational occurrence or outcome comes about or, even more fundamentally, to explain how things work. I argue that we can shed more light on these issues by examining the mechanisms driving the organizational processes. In this article I attempt to elucidate the nature of organizational mechanisms, thereby providing a coherent explanatory foundation for process research and processual research strategies. In order to illustrate the nature of mechanisms and explanations by mechanisms, a case study of the organizational decline and failure process of the Finnish conglomerate Tampella is reported.

Authors:Jaakko Aspara (2008).Download file: 'Creating and Capturing Design Value' Note that the article starts on page 28 of the linked volume.

Abstract

Design research, as well as related fields such as consumer and marketing research, have lacked comprehensive conceptualizations of how the use value of the products of an individual company translates into economic value for that company.

Authors:Pajunen, Kalle and Maunula Mari (2008).Download file: 'Internationalisation: a coevolutionary perspective'Scandinavian Journal of Management, 24 (3): 247–258.

The abstract

Earlier research has identified several organisational and contextual factors relating to the internationalisation of the firm. However, the relations between these factors and their interaction over time have not been clearly understood.