Matthew Higgins - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Papers by Matthew Higgins

The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, 2009

International Journal of Healthcare Management, 2012

Abstract The Health & Social Care Bill has focused attention on the commissioning processes e... more Abstract The Health & Social Care Bill has focused attention on the commissioning processes evident within the National Health Service (NHS) in England and Wales. Through a detailed exploratory empirical study of commissioning in the NHS, this paper examines how the implicit models constructed through the discourses surrounding the Bill create tensions for the existent commissioning process. Significantly for the research and more broadly in terms of healthcare policy, it highlights the centrality of legacy and trust when considering the introduction of change. The changed nature of the relationships within the commissioning process has wider implications on the commissioning partners, influencing strategic direction, and investment in innovation.

Organization, 1999

Introduction but instead trying to disturb the discipline itself. After all, the notion of a&... more Introduction but instead trying to disturb the discipline itself. After all, the notion of a&amp;#x27;neo-discipline&amp;#x27;put forward in the first issue of Organization five years ago (Burrell et al., 1994) implied that imperialism was not the only metaphor for meetings between the sciences of organization and other knowledges traditionally demarcated as different. Rather than asking what science fiction can do for organization studies, we want to see what it might do to organization studies. 1 But, before we get around to that, we want to say something about ...

Journal of Marketing Management, 2005

This paper sets out to expand the parameters of the agri-food marketing research domain through a... more This paper sets out to expand the parameters of the agri-food marketing research domain through an empirical study of marketing management within the farm supply industry. Despite its size, and increasing scrutiny by government regulators, farm supplies remain poorly ...

Journal of Management & Marketing in Healthcare, 2011

Abstract This paper attempts, through empirical research, to examine the extent to which the prin... more Abstract This paper attempts, through empirical research, to examine the extent to which the principles of relationship marketing have been developed within the National Health Service (NHS) in England. It examines the propensity for NHS Trust acute hospitals to develop strategic relationships with Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) and other secondary care purchasers. Within the discussion, consideration is given to the impending changes to the NHS being introduced by the UK coalition Government. The findings from this study appear to support the argument that the manifestation of relationship marketing within the health service takes a particular, and perhaps peculiar, form and have not yet developed into the customer focused relationship marketing found within commercial organizations.

Business Ethics: A European Review, 2002

This paper evaluates the ethical consequences of the use of marketing techniques in the child ado... more This paper evaluates the ethical consequences of the use of marketing techniques in the child adoption process within England and Wales. Since 1995 the political climate in the UK has seen a reassessment of the manner in which the state organises care for children who are within its legal guardianship. Successive UK governments have acknowledged the under‐utilisation of child adoption as a moral and efficient means of child‐care. However, the presentation of child adoption in a more active fashion involves concerns about the manner in which child adoption has been organised. Increasingly child adoption organisations and social work professionals are being made accountable through the language of customer service and performance measurements. The use of commercial techniques such as marketing is justified on utilitarian grounds. However, any utilisation of marketing within the child adoption process is forced to ensure that the child is not de‐centred. Legislation requires that the n...

Business & Society, 2000

This article evaluates the ethical implications of the practice of cause-related marketing (CRM).... more This article evaluates the ethical implications of the practice of cause-related marketing (CRM). The authors note howCRMis consistent with a contemporary rhetoric that argues that consumers are displaying a developing interest in the social commitments of the corporate world. However, following the work of Zygmunt Bauman, the authors suggest that CRM actually threatens these sentiments. Of particular significance is its incorporation of a charitable act within an act of exchange that is mediated by marketing technique. This serves to prevent any encounter with Bauman’s “Other.” Instead, the pretense of engagement has to be preserved by increasingly vociferous avowals of concern. These become examples of the ecstatic, a seductive force that renders the extreme meaningless and amoral. Finally, the authors argue that the nature of ethical commitment produced by CRM cannot be divorced from the instrumental benefits that are generated.

… of the 25 th Annual Conference of the Industrial …, 2009

... Spivak puts it, to unlearn your privilege (1990: 30). A reading of relationships withinindu... more ... Spivak puts it, to unlearn your privilege (1990: 30). A reading of relationships withinindustrial networks with a view to otherness can open us to the experiences of others and the ways in which our actions affect those of others. ...

Introducing the History of Marketing Theory and Practice Marketing 'Science' and the Para... more Introducing the History of Marketing Theory and Practice Marketing 'Science' and the Paradigm Debates What's the Story? Analyzing Marketing Discourse Interrogating the Ideological Function of Marketing The Management of Marketing Taking a Different Look at Business-to-Business Marketing Consumer Surveillance and Marketing Research Consumer Rights and Resistance Consumer Society and the Production of Identity Marketing and the Sign Globalization and Ethics

Culture and Organization, 2003

... It provides imagery that is closer to the experience of everyday life. Indeed its objects of ... more ... It provides imagery that is closer to the experience of everyday life. Indeed its objects of study are raindrops, ferns and dripping taps (Steenburg, 1991: 466). There is an immediate aesthetic appeal. ... Page 10. 102 WARREN SMITH and MATTHEW HIGGINS ...

The project developed a directed/supported online case study for 33 internationally-dispersed, di... more The project developed a directed/supported online case study for 33 internationally-dispersed, distance learning MBA students using the Blackboard virtual learning environment (VLE). The activities included: Devising, designing and producing a case study classroom using Blackboard. Publication of a case study that could be used on the project. Development of student resources that could be used on the project. Implementation of a student application process. Co-ordination of associate tutors and Faculty. Monitoring of student diaries. Establishing evaluation system comprising depth interviews, course statistics, user statistics, questionnaire of user attitudes and observation of online behaviours. Development of an article to discuss the implications of the study.

This paper considers the parallels and intersections between Star Trek and contemporary managemen... more This paper considers the parallels and intersections between Star Trek and contemporary management discourse. We show that the central issues of complex organisations and management are represented in fictional scenarios in Star Trek and that these find their 'real world' correspondences in the management literature. Tracing this theme over the thirty-year lifespan of the product, we outline both the central axial problems of organisations as well as contextual transformations, and, by focusing on particular episodes, we identify and analyse germane micro-sociological and micro-organisational processes. Thus, we consider Star Trek an 'expressive good'-that is, a material product of the culture industry that gives expression to the prevailing cultural processes through which its production and circulation takes place. Moreover, Star Trek, as an exemplary science fiction utopia/dystopia, facilitates a critical imaginary enabling us to envision a variety of organisational alternatives through which we can assess and reflect on our own management practices and organisational contexts.

This paper explores a neglected area of single identity and its consumption contexts. We consider... more This paper explores a neglected area of single identity and its consumption contexts. We consider how singleness is constructed as a reflexive project within the marketplace, which privileges the heteronormativity of coupledom. Phenomenological interviews were conducted with 10 British adults who reveal the alienation and empowering dimensions of 'being single'.

Culture and Organization, 2015

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Journal of Marketing Management, 2020

This paper sets out a vision and bold research agenda for the future of marketing strategy. It is... more This paper sets out a vision and bold research agenda for the future of marketing strategy. It is a response to a recent special issue of the Journal of Marketing Management in which Shelby Hunt (2018) celebrates the achievements of forty years of marketing strategy. In noting the passing of the 'old guard', Hunt calls on a new generation of scholars to meet the challenges confronting marketing and to develop new theories and frameworks to advance Marketing Strategy into Era V. We take for our inspiration Hunt's own words, specifically his reference to the 'promising' and 'problematic' that he uses to characterise the current and latent state of marketing strategy. To build our vision and map out our agenda we assemble a motley crew of scholars more accustomed to the shadows of mainstream marketing theory and employ their critical reflexive oeuvre to offer an alternative reading of this discipline through the idea of Marketing Strategy as Discourse (MSAD). Within the paper we outline the role that discourse can perform as a resource to reconfigure our appreciation of marketing strategy.

The Routledge Companion to Critical Marketing, 2018

Purpose & literature addressed: This paper scrutinises the way in which ethics is taught in the m... more Purpose & literature addressed: This paper scrutinises the way in which ethics is taught in the modern business/industrial marketing syllabus. We argue for a reappraisal of the tutor-student relationship such that we may facilitate a greater understanding of how marketing students can make sense of themselves and of 'the other' within industrial networks. Research method: This paper is conceptual in its approach. Drawing on literature from the history of marketing thought, educational philosophy and the work of Emmanuel Levinas, we suggest that the conceptualisation of ethics in marketing cannot be divorced from the question of pedagogy and the responsibilities of the tutor. Research findings: We suggest that the ideas of alterity and proximity offers space for a discussion of justice within the global supply chain, providing entry into the marketing discourse for those members of the industrial network not normally encountered by students in the course of teaching. Main con...

Journal of Marketing Management, 2015

This paper explores the gendered experience of singleness in Britain through a theoretical and em... more This paper explores the gendered experience of singleness in Britain through a theoretical and empirical understanding of the 'abject'. Drawing on the writings of Judith Butler, we argue that 'singleness' is culturally pathologised as an 'abject other', a liminal state which renders the legitimation of the 'single subject' unintelligible. Through 14 active interviews with British singles, we demonstrate how our participants negotiate their marginal status vis-à-vis the marketplace and the broader society that continue to uphold heterosexual partnership as a normative form of intimacy. Our data uncovers persistent and powerful stereotypes of how singles ought to organize their lives and conform both to social, as well as market-driven, pressures. We therefore highlight research gaps in the experience of singleness and critique the heteronormative framework that remains dominant, yet concealed, in gender research.

Management Decision, 2002

Across much of the developed and developing world the last few years have been marked by protest ... more Across much of the developed and developing world the last few years have been marked by protest against institutions and corporations. Much has been said about the significance of these protests, indeed books broadly supportive of anti‐corporate protest compete for ratings against management gurus in the best selling business book charts. In this paper we explore how the technology of marketing is implicated within the organisation and representation of anti‐corporate protests. We argue that the cynical and unreflexive manner in which cultural critics engage with marketing, and their attempts to distance marketing from activities that they privilege, may have consequences for the anti‐corporate movement. This paper concludes with a sense of pessimism about the current tactics employed by anti‐corporate protestors but hope in the potentiality of marketing to develop a sense of individual responsibility.