Micki Eisenman | The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (original) (raw)
Papers by Micki Eisenman
In this essay, we argue that economic inequality is reproduced because business students uncritic... more In this essay, we argue that economic inequality is reproduced because business students uncritically accept the neoliberal myth of meritocracy. This myth advances values and beliefs suggesting that hard work and innate talent lead to equally accessible opportunities and corresponding rewards. These ideas are embedded in the narratives (e.g., stories, exercises, cases, or guest speakers) prevalent throughout the business school but remain "hidden" to students because they are implicit rather than surfaced. We explain that these narratives are attractive to students and, because they are implicit within the curriculum, they limit business students' abilities to make the systemic changes needed to address economic inequality. In our call to action, we propose a set of tools-literary analysis, plural vocality, and historical learning-that can disrupt this attraction and enable students to critically engage with the myth of neoliberal meritocracy. It is our opinion that a more critical outlook will raise students' awareness to economic inequality and encourage them to ameliorate this type of inequality as they move through their professional lives.
We show how technology and its temporal instantiations act as material-relational mnemonic device... more We show how technology and its temporal instantiations act as material-relational mnemonic devices that provide temporal anchors for collective remembering in occupations and form the basis of what we call an 'occupational mnemonic community'. This is important because how the past is remembered shapes politics, the definition of membership and boundaries within occupations. Empirically, we focus on the occupation of DJing, an occupation that has witnessed major technological transformation. Utilizing interviews, archival research, and auto-ethnographic data, we show how DJs' engagement with material mnemonic devices, here, DJing technology, aligns group members' interpretations of the past, and forms the basis of an 'occupational mnemonic community'. In our analysis, we uncover that imagined perceptions regarding how existing group members assess the material choices of newcomers, as well as, the performative behaviours exhibiting these choices, play pivotal roles in sustaining mnemonic communities. We conclude with a discussion on occupational mnemonic processes and their effect on establishing boundaries within occupations. Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the sociomaterial aspects of collective memory and its significance in understanding the politics of memory in work communities and organizations.
Proceedings - Academy of Management, Aug 1, 2024
Proceedings - Academy of Management, Aug 1, 2023
Academy of Management Proceedings
Advances in Strategic Management, 2020
This paper highlights that the strategic use of design, a competitive pattern typically associate... more This paper highlights that the strategic use of design, a competitive pattern typically associated with creative industries, those creating and trading meanings, also characterizes industries that produce functional or utilitarian goods not typically considered creative. The paper explores the origins of this phenomenon in the context of three industry settings: cars, specialty coffee, and personal computers. The analysis theorizes three distinct strategic paths that explain how design may become an institutionalized aspect of competition in industries that are not creative. We explain how firms link their products to the identities of their users, how design is linked to stakeholders’ emotions and visceral reactions to products, and how intermediaries are relevant to enhancing attention to design. Illuminating these strategic paths allows harnessing some of the well-established understandings about competition in creative industries toward understanding competition in non-creative industries.
Far from being an oxymoron, we propose that the design of emergence is a central process in organ... more Far from being an oxymoron, we propose that the design of emergence is a central process in organization design. The formal structure of an organization is designed by those with the formal authority to do so and refers to the desired pattern of behavior and interactions among agents. However, incomplete specification and imperfect enforcement of designs implies that the realized organizational structure can diverge significantly from the specified formal structure. These divergent elements of the realized structure constitute the informal structure. These are the emergent patterns of individual behavior and interactions between individuals, as well as the norms, values, and beliefs that underlie such behaviors and interactions (Roethlisberger and Dickson 1939; Smith-Doerr and Powell 2005). Given the inevitable divergence between the formal and informal structure, some scholars have argued that an emphasis on the formal structure may be misleading (Granovetter 1985: 487). Others hav...
Academy of Management Proceedings
Organization Theory, 2021
In this paper, we develop a material–relational approach to understanding organizational memory. ... more In this paper, we develop a material–relational approach to understanding organizational memory. We focus on the inherent materiality of mnemonic devices—material artifacts that anchor shared memories of the past. Mnemonic devices work to constitute social groups of organizational stakeholders bound together by mutual affinities to these devices, known as mnemonic communities. While we know that the materiality of mnemonic devices represents information about the past that is interpreted by members of the mnemonic community as a narrative that is important in the present, our approach focuses on how engagement with the material aspects of mnemonic devices can create relationships of affinity among people remembering together. To develop our conceptualization, we first apply insights from the literature on materiality and its emphasis on how materiality is the basis for non-verbal and relational communication. From this, we theorize four material attributes that affect how mnemonic d...
Advances in Strategic Management, 2020
This paper highlights that the strategic use of design, a competitive pattern typically associate... more This paper highlights that the strategic use of design, a competitive pattern typically associated with creative industries, those creating and trading meanings, also characterizes industries that ...
Academy of Management Proceedings, 2015
Over the last two decades, a large body of organizational and strategy research has focused on th... more Over the last two decades, a large body of organizational and strategy research has focused on the importance of a firm’s ability to innovate. Using a behavioral strategy lens, our panel discussion will argue that to fully understand the innovation process, one must investigate the complex social context in which innovation develops. Through our exchange, we hope to understand innovation from a resource-based and social constructivist framework and extend the conversation to theoretically map how innovation embodies human and environmental factors. Some of the questions that will be addressed during the panel discussion to engender understanding, dialogue, and novel insights include: (1) How do environmental stimuli influence decision making in terms of innovation, (2) Are all innovations equally subjected to the influence of social forces, and (3) Where do our beliefs about the value and quality of innovation originate?
Journal of Management Studies, 2012
Taking a cue from a recently evolving stream that calls for exploring the microfoundations of cap... more Taking a cue from a recently evolving stream that calls for exploring the microfoundations of capabilities, we focus on inventor networks to examine how the activities underlying firms' R&D change in the aftermath of a merger. We view mergers as events that cause anxiety and impede inventors' abilities to process research knowledge. Employing the notion of an intra-firm inventor collaboration network, we hypothesize that in the aftermath of a merger, the impact of knowledge that is prominent and widely available in the intra-firm network will increase but that the impact of knowledge that, albeit richer, is less easily accessible, will decrease. Our empirical study of the merger of Bristol-Myers and Squibb supports our hypotheses. The findings enhance our understanding not only of mergers and acquisitions, but also of the microfoundations of a firm's R&D activities.
Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship, 2008
This paper contributes to our understanding of minority entrepreneurs in the US by showing that e... more This paper contributes to our understanding of minority entrepreneurs in the US by showing that ethnicity alone should not be used to describe or categorize small business owners. We examine a sample of 508 entrepreneurs from three minority groups (African, Mexican, and Korean Americans) and a white group using cluster analysis to explore a categorization pattern that best describes the differences among these entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest that minority entrepreneurs are in fact a very heterogeneous group on a multitude of dimensions such as motivations for entry, satisfaction with the business, nature of problems experienced, and demographics of the business such as its size and gross income. Based on our findings, we recommend that educational and support programs targeting minority entrepreneurs should consider other variables rather than focusing on ethnicity alone.
Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship, 2009
In this study, we seek to understand the key differences between the entrepreneurial experience f... more In this study, we seek to understand the key differences between the entrepreneurial experience for Mexican immigrant and US-born Mexican entrepreneurs. We focus on differences in motivation for start-up, reliance on ethnic enclaves and business management practices. Using data from the 2005 National Minority Business Owner Survey, our sample consisted of 156 Mexican American entrepreneurs (55 immigrants and 101 US-born). Results suggest that even within a particular minority group, there are key distinctions between immigrant and US-born entrepreneurs. For example, US-born Mexican entrepreneurs are more motivated by the individualistic financial benefits of being an entrepreneur, while Mexican immigrant entrepreneurs are more motivated by serving society and their co-ethnic community. Implications are discussed.
Administrative Science Quarterly, 2008
In this theory development case study, we focus on the relations across recurrent waves in the am... more In this theory development case study, we focus on the relations across recurrent waves in the amount and kind of language promoting and diffusing, and then demoting and rejecting, management techniques—techniques for transforming the input of organizational labor into organizational outputs. We suggest that rather than manifesting themselves as independent, transitory, and un-cumulative fads, the language of repeated waves cumulates into what we call management fashion trends. These trends are protracted and major transformations in what managers read, think, express, and enact that result from the accumulation of the language of these consecutive waves. For the language of five waves in employee-management techniques—management by objectives, job enrichment, quality circles, total quality management, and business process reengineering—we measure rational and normative language suggesting, respectively, that managers can induce labor financially or psychologically. The results reve...
Long Range Planning, 2019
We study firms' abilities to increase the generative appropriability of their knowledge by studyi... more We study firms' abilities to increase the generative appropriability of their knowledge by studying the knowledge recombination patterns of inventors in the context of a merger between two equally sized pharmaceutical firms. Specifically, we study inventors' choices to recombine knowledge originating in the firm with which they merge. We hypothesize that mergers focus inventors' attention to units of knowledge originating in the other firm and that therefore, inventors will choose to recombine more of this knowledge, which exists in their intra-firm network, following a merger. We also hypothesize that inventors vary in terms of their recombination choices following a merger. We explore these differences by linking inventors' network positions with their abilities and motivations to recombine knowledge originating in the other firm. Specifically, we hypothesize an inverted-U shaped relationship between centrality and knowledge recombination from the other firm and a linear relationship between brokerage and knowledge recombination from the other firm. We test our hypotheses using patent data from the merger between Bristol-Myers and Squibb and find support for our hypotheses. The paper contributes to knowledge recombination research by exploring changes in knowledge recombination dynamics following a merger and by understanding how mergers affect firms' generative research trajectories. Practically, we suggest that managers should identify and nurture certain types of inventors following a merger to be able to better leverage the knowledge bases of merging firms.
This paper focuses on aesthetic communication-communication based on aesthetic attributes-color, ... more This paper focuses on aesthetic communication-communication based on aesthetic attributes-color, size, shape, ornamentation, or texture, for example -in the context of organizational communication. We argue that aesthetic communication is potent because, when done effectively, it leads message receivers, such as the organization’s various stakeholders, employees, customers, etc., to accept an organization’s message as natural and obvious. Our paper theorizes the conditions that render aesthetic communication effective in this regard. To develop our theory, we highlight that aesthetic communication consists of three distinct modes: one linked to the associations the aesthetic attributes evoke, one linked to the habitual bodily responses the attributes form, and one linked to the linguistic communication articulating the effect of the aesthetic attributes. We suggest that aesthetic communication is more effective when there is a high degree of internal consistency among these modes. A...
The study applies a multimodal approach to position aesthetic innovation, i.e., the strategic use... more The study applies a multimodal approach to position aesthetic innovation, i.e., the strategic use of aesthetic design attributes, such as color and shape, as an institutionalized aspect of competition, rather than as a firm-specific differentiation strategy, in settings that favor the symbolic meanings of products. Empirically, the study offers a detailed case study of the personal computer (PC) industry to examine the institutionalization of aesthetic innovation as a dimension of competition across industrial firms. The study examines the color and shape of PCs over the 1992–2003 period and situates changes to these attributes in the competitive conditions that characterized the industry, paying particular attention to the introduction of the Apple iMac in 1998. Furthermore, it examines the discursive manifestations of aesthetic innovation by content analysis of reviews of PCs and interviews with industry executives. Findings demonstrate that, in a period coinciding with a decline ...
We advance current understandings about the nature of interpretative processes unique to design-b... more We advance current understandings about the nature of interpretative processes unique to design-based cues—elements in the organizational environment, such as colors or textures—that affect institutional processes by shaping behaviors and emotions. The implicit assumption in extant work is that because these cues are salient, they are tightly coupled with distinct meanings. We argue, however, that interpretation in the context of these cues is processual rather than linear or finite. We explain this argument by exploring the interpretation of design-based cues given tensions along three planes: tensions between individual and intersubjective levels of interpretations; tensions among the multiple cues that co-exist in organizational workspaces, whose interpretations may reinforce or contradict each other; and tensions emanating from the ways the design-based cues themselves transform over time due to deliberate and natural change. On the basis of these arguments, we reveal the inhere...
Organization Theory, 2021
In this paper, we develop a material-relational approach to understanding organizational memory. ... more In this paper, we develop a material-relational approach to understanding organizational memory. We focus on the inherent materiality of mnemonic devices-material artifacts that anchor shared memories of the past. Mnemonic devices work to constitute social groups of organizational stakeholders bound together by mutual affinities to these devices, known as mnemonic communities. While we know that the materiality of mnemonic devices represents information about the past that is interpreted by members of the mnemonic community as a narrative that is important in the present, our approach focuses on how engagement with the material aspects of mnemonic devices can create relationships of affinity among people remembering together. To develop our conceptualization, we first apply insights from the literature on materiality and its emphasis on how materiality is the basis for non-verbal and relational communication. From this, we theorize four material attributes that affect how mnemonic devices constitute relational connections that create embodied, cartographic, and temporal boundaries for organizational mnemonic communities. We then conceptualize how these distinct material attributes accumulate, intersect, and interact with each other and with the narrative representations of mnemonic devices and how in turn these interactions may bind stakeholders together. By emphasizing the material-relational aspect of mnemonic devices, our paper theorizes a broader and potentially more powerful set of affinities between stakeholders and organizations and, on this basis, enhances extant research by articulating different paths to the emergence of mnemonic communities.
In this essay, we argue that economic inequality is reproduced because business students uncritic... more In this essay, we argue that economic inequality is reproduced because business students uncritically accept the neoliberal myth of meritocracy. This myth advances values and beliefs suggesting that hard work and innate talent lead to equally accessible opportunities and corresponding rewards. These ideas are embedded in the narratives (e.g., stories, exercises, cases, or guest speakers) prevalent throughout the business school but remain "hidden" to students because they are implicit rather than surfaced. We explain that these narratives are attractive to students and, because they are implicit within the curriculum, they limit business students' abilities to make the systemic changes needed to address economic inequality. In our call to action, we propose a set of tools-literary analysis, plural vocality, and historical learning-that can disrupt this attraction and enable students to critically engage with the myth of neoliberal meritocracy. It is our opinion that a more critical outlook will raise students' awareness to economic inequality and encourage them to ameliorate this type of inequality as they move through their professional lives.
We show how technology and its temporal instantiations act as material-relational mnemonic device... more We show how technology and its temporal instantiations act as material-relational mnemonic devices that provide temporal anchors for collective remembering in occupations and form the basis of what we call an 'occupational mnemonic community'. This is important because how the past is remembered shapes politics, the definition of membership and boundaries within occupations. Empirically, we focus on the occupation of DJing, an occupation that has witnessed major technological transformation. Utilizing interviews, archival research, and auto-ethnographic data, we show how DJs' engagement with material mnemonic devices, here, DJing technology, aligns group members' interpretations of the past, and forms the basis of an 'occupational mnemonic community'. In our analysis, we uncover that imagined perceptions regarding how existing group members assess the material choices of newcomers, as well as, the performative behaviours exhibiting these choices, play pivotal roles in sustaining mnemonic communities. We conclude with a discussion on occupational mnemonic processes and their effect on establishing boundaries within occupations. Our findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the sociomaterial aspects of collective memory and its significance in understanding the politics of memory in work communities and organizations.
Proceedings - Academy of Management, Aug 1, 2024
Proceedings - Academy of Management, Aug 1, 2023
Academy of Management Proceedings
Advances in Strategic Management, 2020
This paper highlights that the strategic use of design, a competitive pattern typically associate... more This paper highlights that the strategic use of design, a competitive pattern typically associated with creative industries, those creating and trading meanings, also characterizes industries that produce functional or utilitarian goods not typically considered creative. The paper explores the origins of this phenomenon in the context of three industry settings: cars, specialty coffee, and personal computers. The analysis theorizes three distinct strategic paths that explain how design may become an institutionalized aspect of competition in industries that are not creative. We explain how firms link their products to the identities of their users, how design is linked to stakeholders’ emotions and visceral reactions to products, and how intermediaries are relevant to enhancing attention to design. Illuminating these strategic paths allows harnessing some of the well-established understandings about competition in creative industries toward understanding competition in non-creative industries.
Far from being an oxymoron, we propose that the design of emergence is a central process in organ... more Far from being an oxymoron, we propose that the design of emergence is a central process in organization design. The formal structure of an organization is designed by those with the formal authority to do so and refers to the desired pattern of behavior and interactions among agents. However, incomplete specification and imperfect enforcement of designs implies that the realized organizational structure can diverge significantly from the specified formal structure. These divergent elements of the realized structure constitute the informal structure. These are the emergent patterns of individual behavior and interactions between individuals, as well as the norms, values, and beliefs that underlie such behaviors and interactions (Roethlisberger and Dickson 1939; Smith-Doerr and Powell 2005). Given the inevitable divergence between the formal and informal structure, some scholars have argued that an emphasis on the formal structure may be misleading (Granovetter 1985: 487). Others hav...
Academy of Management Proceedings
Organization Theory, 2021
In this paper, we develop a material–relational approach to understanding organizational memory. ... more In this paper, we develop a material–relational approach to understanding organizational memory. We focus on the inherent materiality of mnemonic devices—material artifacts that anchor shared memories of the past. Mnemonic devices work to constitute social groups of organizational stakeholders bound together by mutual affinities to these devices, known as mnemonic communities. While we know that the materiality of mnemonic devices represents information about the past that is interpreted by members of the mnemonic community as a narrative that is important in the present, our approach focuses on how engagement with the material aspects of mnemonic devices can create relationships of affinity among people remembering together. To develop our conceptualization, we first apply insights from the literature on materiality and its emphasis on how materiality is the basis for non-verbal and relational communication. From this, we theorize four material attributes that affect how mnemonic d...
Advances in Strategic Management, 2020
This paper highlights that the strategic use of design, a competitive pattern typically associate... more This paper highlights that the strategic use of design, a competitive pattern typically associated with creative industries, those creating and trading meanings, also characterizes industries that ...
Academy of Management Proceedings, 2015
Over the last two decades, a large body of organizational and strategy research has focused on th... more Over the last two decades, a large body of organizational and strategy research has focused on the importance of a firm’s ability to innovate. Using a behavioral strategy lens, our panel discussion will argue that to fully understand the innovation process, one must investigate the complex social context in which innovation develops. Through our exchange, we hope to understand innovation from a resource-based and social constructivist framework and extend the conversation to theoretically map how innovation embodies human and environmental factors. Some of the questions that will be addressed during the panel discussion to engender understanding, dialogue, and novel insights include: (1) How do environmental stimuli influence decision making in terms of innovation, (2) Are all innovations equally subjected to the influence of social forces, and (3) Where do our beliefs about the value and quality of innovation originate?
Journal of Management Studies, 2012
Taking a cue from a recently evolving stream that calls for exploring the microfoundations of cap... more Taking a cue from a recently evolving stream that calls for exploring the microfoundations of capabilities, we focus on inventor networks to examine how the activities underlying firms' R&D change in the aftermath of a merger. We view mergers as events that cause anxiety and impede inventors' abilities to process research knowledge. Employing the notion of an intra-firm inventor collaboration network, we hypothesize that in the aftermath of a merger, the impact of knowledge that is prominent and widely available in the intra-firm network will increase but that the impact of knowledge that, albeit richer, is less easily accessible, will decrease. Our empirical study of the merger of Bristol-Myers and Squibb supports our hypotheses. The findings enhance our understanding not only of mergers and acquisitions, but also of the microfoundations of a firm's R&D activities.
Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship, 2008
This paper contributes to our understanding of minority entrepreneurs in the US by showing that e... more This paper contributes to our understanding of minority entrepreneurs in the US by showing that ethnicity alone should not be used to describe or categorize small business owners. We examine a sample of 508 entrepreneurs from three minority groups (African, Mexican, and Korean Americans) and a white group using cluster analysis to explore a categorization pattern that best describes the differences among these entrepreneurs. Our findings suggest that minority entrepreneurs are in fact a very heterogeneous group on a multitude of dimensions such as motivations for entry, satisfaction with the business, nature of problems experienced, and demographics of the business such as its size and gross income. Based on our findings, we recommend that educational and support programs targeting minority entrepreneurs should consider other variables rather than focusing on ethnicity alone.
Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship, 2009
In this study, we seek to understand the key differences between the entrepreneurial experience f... more In this study, we seek to understand the key differences between the entrepreneurial experience for Mexican immigrant and US-born Mexican entrepreneurs. We focus on differences in motivation for start-up, reliance on ethnic enclaves and business management practices. Using data from the 2005 National Minority Business Owner Survey, our sample consisted of 156 Mexican American entrepreneurs (55 immigrants and 101 US-born). Results suggest that even within a particular minority group, there are key distinctions between immigrant and US-born entrepreneurs. For example, US-born Mexican entrepreneurs are more motivated by the individualistic financial benefits of being an entrepreneur, while Mexican immigrant entrepreneurs are more motivated by serving society and their co-ethnic community. Implications are discussed.
Administrative Science Quarterly, 2008
In this theory development case study, we focus on the relations across recurrent waves in the am... more In this theory development case study, we focus on the relations across recurrent waves in the amount and kind of language promoting and diffusing, and then demoting and rejecting, management techniques—techniques for transforming the input of organizational labor into organizational outputs. We suggest that rather than manifesting themselves as independent, transitory, and un-cumulative fads, the language of repeated waves cumulates into what we call management fashion trends. These trends are protracted and major transformations in what managers read, think, express, and enact that result from the accumulation of the language of these consecutive waves. For the language of five waves in employee-management techniques—management by objectives, job enrichment, quality circles, total quality management, and business process reengineering—we measure rational and normative language suggesting, respectively, that managers can induce labor financially or psychologically. The results reve...
Long Range Planning, 2019
We study firms' abilities to increase the generative appropriability of their knowledge by studyi... more We study firms' abilities to increase the generative appropriability of their knowledge by studying the knowledge recombination patterns of inventors in the context of a merger between two equally sized pharmaceutical firms. Specifically, we study inventors' choices to recombine knowledge originating in the firm with which they merge. We hypothesize that mergers focus inventors' attention to units of knowledge originating in the other firm and that therefore, inventors will choose to recombine more of this knowledge, which exists in their intra-firm network, following a merger. We also hypothesize that inventors vary in terms of their recombination choices following a merger. We explore these differences by linking inventors' network positions with their abilities and motivations to recombine knowledge originating in the other firm. Specifically, we hypothesize an inverted-U shaped relationship between centrality and knowledge recombination from the other firm and a linear relationship between brokerage and knowledge recombination from the other firm. We test our hypotheses using patent data from the merger between Bristol-Myers and Squibb and find support for our hypotheses. The paper contributes to knowledge recombination research by exploring changes in knowledge recombination dynamics following a merger and by understanding how mergers affect firms' generative research trajectories. Practically, we suggest that managers should identify and nurture certain types of inventors following a merger to be able to better leverage the knowledge bases of merging firms.
This paper focuses on aesthetic communication-communication based on aesthetic attributes-color, ... more This paper focuses on aesthetic communication-communication based on aesthetic attributes-color, size, shape, ornamentation, or texture, for example -in the context of organizational communication. We argue that aesthetic communication is potent because, when done effectively, it leads message receivers, such as the organization’s various stakeholders, employees, customers, etc., to accept an organization’s message as natural and obvious. Our paper theorizes the conditions that render aesthetic communication effective in this regard. To develop our theory, we highlight that aesthetic communication consists of three distinct modes: one linked to the associations the aesthetic attributes evoke, one linked to the habitual bodily responses the attributes form, and one linked to the linguistic communication articulating the effect of the aesthetic attributes. We suggest that aesthetic communication is more effective when there is a high degree of internal consistency among these modes. A...
The study applies a multimodal approach to position aesthetic innovation, i.e., the strategic use... more The study applies a multimodal approach to position aesthetic innovation, i.e., the strategic use of aesthetic design attributes, such as color and shape, as an institutionalized aspect of competition, rather than as a firm-specific differentiation strategy, in settings that favor the symbolic meanings of products. Empirically, the study offers a detailed case study of the personal computer (PC) industry to examine the institutionalization of aesthetic innovation as a dimension of competition across industrial firms. The study examines the color and shape of PCs over the 1992–2003 period and situates changes to these attributes in the competitive conditions that characterized the industry, paying particular attention to the introduction of the Apple iMac in 1998. Furthermore, it examines the discursive manifestations of aesthetic innovation by content analysis of reviews of PCs and interviews with industry executives. Findings demonstrate that, in a period coinciding with a decline ...
We advance current understandings about the nature of interpretative processes unique to design-b... more We advance current understandings about the nature of interpretative processes unique to design-based cues—elements in the organizational environment, such as colors or textures—that affect institutional processes by shaping behaviors and emotions. The implicit assumption in extant work is that because these cues are salient, they are tightly coupled with distinct meanings. We argue, however, that interpretation in the context of these cues is processual rather than linear or finite. We explain this argument by exploring the interpretation of design-based cues given tensions along three planes: tensions between individual and intersubjective levels of interpretations; tensions among the multiple cues that co-exist in organizational workspaces, whose interpretations may reinforce or contradict each other; and tensions emanating from the ways the design-based cues themselves transform over time due to deliberate and natural change. On the basis of these arguments, we reveal the inhere...
Organization Theory, 2021
In this paper, we develop a material-relational approach to understanding organizational memory. ... more In this paper, we develop a material-relational approach to understanding organizational memory. We focus on the inherent materiality of mnemonic devices-material artifacts that anchor shared memories of the past. Mnemonic devices work to constitute social groups of organizational stakeholders bound together by mutual affinities to these devices, known as mnemonic communities. While we know that the materiality of mnemonic devices represents information about the past that is interpreted by members of the mnemonic community as a narrative that is important in the present, our approach focuses on how engagement with the material aspects of mnemonic devices can create relationships of affinity among people remembering together. To develop our conceptualization, we first apply insights from the literature on materiality and its emphasis on how materiality is the basis for non-verbal and relational communication. From this, we theorize four material attributes that affect how mnemonic devices constitute relational connections that create embodied, cartographic, and temporal boundaries for organizational mnemonic communities. We then conceptualize how these distinct material attributes accumulate, intersect, and interact with each other and with the narrative representations of mnemonic devices and how in turn these interactions may bind stakeholders together. By emphasizing the material-relational aspect of mnemonic devices, our paper theorizes a broader and potentially more powerful set of affinities between stakeholders and organizations and, on this basis, enhances extant research by articulating different paths to the emergence of mnemonic communities.
This paper highlights that the strategic use of design, a competitive pattern typically associate... more This paper highlights that the strategic use of design, a competitive pattern typically associated with creative industries, those creating and trading meanings, also characterizes industries that produce functional or utilitarian goods not typically considered creative. The paper explores the origins of this phenomenon in the context of three industry settings: cars, specialty coffee, and personal computers. The analysis theorizes three distinct strategic paths that explain how design may become an institutionalized aspect of competition in industries that are not creative. We explain how firms link their products to the identities of their users, how design is linked to stakeholders’ emotions and visceral reactions to products, and how intermediaries are relevant to enhancing attention to design. Illuminating these strategic paths allows harnessing some of the well-established understandings about competition in creative industries toward understanding competition in non-creative industries.