scholarly journals Reformists, Decouplists, and Activists: A Typology of Ecocentric Management

2021 ◽  
pp. 108602662199320
Author(s):  
Mauricio Hernández ◽  
Pablo Muñoz
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
Business Management ◽  
Business Owners ◽  
Deep Ecology ◽  
Small Business Owners ◽  
Business Sustainability ◽  
Sustainability Research

Ecocentric management has grown in interest in business sustainability research, driven by recent debates on sustainability-as-flourishing and novel nature-based business approaches. While relevant and promising, examination and explanations remain anchored in conventional dualistic thinking and piecemeal logics. In this article, we seek to understand what conditions or combination of conditions enable the formation of ecocentrism in business management. Drawing on deep ecology and ecocentric philosophy, we develop a conceptual framework for ecocentric management, comprising ecological sensing, envisioning, and enacting. Leveraging this framework and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis, we map the responses of 160 small business owners and managers in Chile. Our analyses reveal three configurations of conditions, forming a typology of ecocentric management: Market Reformist, Legitimated Decouplist, and Self-Centered Activist. The article offers a new conceptual apparatus and systemic characterization of ecocentrism in business sustainability. It shows what matters and when for the formation of ecocentric thinking and decision-making in management.

Ballot Cues, Business Candidates, and Voter Choices in Local Elections

2020 ◽  
pp. 1532673X2094355
Author(s):  
Brian E. Adams ◽  
Edward L. Lascher ◽  
Danielle Joesten Martin
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Business Owners ◽  
Small Business Owners ◽  
Local Elections ◽  
Electoral Success ◽  
Political Experience ◽  
Occupational Information ◽  
Political Background ◽  
Occupational Background

American voters commonly express abstract support for candidates with a business background, yet there is minimal systematic evidence about whether it advantages candidates in actual electoral contests. We examine this question using observational data, drawing on a California law allowing candidates to designate their occupational background on the ballot, and experimental data. Candidates with a business background are prevalent in California. However, neither of our studies indicate that business candidates enjoy atypical overall electoral success (although Republican leaning constituencies have a notably more favorable view of such candidates). A political background predicts electoral success far more effectively. Further, “small business owners” have more success than other business candidates, suggesting that voters consider the specifics of a candidate’s business experience. These results advance our knowledge of decision making in low-information elections, how voters weigh private-sector versus political experience, and how they filter occupational information through a partisan lens.

Neuropsychological profile of entrepreneurs

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Esteban R. Brenes ◽  
Gabriel Rodríguez ◽  
Joseph Acuña ◽  
Yadira Villalobos ◽  
Caleb A. Pichardo
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Cognitive Flexibility ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Government Institutions ◽  
Neuropsychological Profile ◽  
Neuropsychological Characteristics

PurposeBy analyzing variables from the fields of business and neuropsychology, this document examines alternative combinations of behavioral economics and neuropsychological characteristics that would explain a successful entrepreneurial profile.Design/methodology/approachThe research is based on information gathered through a survey of 1,080 entrepreneurs. The findings offer interesting perspectives for academics, professionals and government institutions, which illustrate various neuropsychological characteristics that a person must have to be a successful entrepreneur. The method consists of a novel perspective that integrates qualitative comparative analysis (QCAs), a method based on Boolean algebra that offers a study from a configurational perspective.FindingsFrom the mixture of configurations, the paper explores following possible traits of an entrepreneurial mindset: cognitive flexibility, risk-taking, decision-making and teamwork.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the literature on emerging attempts and approaches to understand the entrepreneurial mindset and the possible skillset that underpins successful entrepreneurship.

Qualitative Comparative Analysis: Discovering Core Combinations of Conditions in Political Decision Making

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benoît Rihoux
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Political Decision ◽  
New Techniques ◽  
The Core ◽  
Minimization Algorithms ◽  
Social Scientific ◽  
Political Decision Making

Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) was launched in the late 1980s by Charles Ragin, as a research approach bridging case-oriented and variable-oriented perspectives. It conceives cases as complex combinations of attributes (i.e. configurations), is designed to process multiple cases, and enables one to identify, through minimization algorithms, the core equifinal combinations of conditions leading to an outcome of interest. It systematizes the analysis in terms of necessity and sufficiency, models social reality in terms of set-theoretic relations, and provides powerful logical tools for complexity reduction. It initially came along with one technique, crisp-set QCA (csQCA), requiring dichotomized coding of data. As it has expanded, the QCA field has been enriched by new techniques such as multi-value QCA (mvQCA) and especially fuzzy-set QCA (fsQCA), both of which enable finer-grained calibration. It has also developed further with diverse extensions and more advanced designs, including mixed- and multimethod designs in which QCA is sequenced with focused case studies or with statistical analyses. QCA’s emphasis on causal complexity makes it very fit to address various types of objects and research questions touching upon political decision making—and indeed QCA has been applied in multiple related social scientific fields. While QCA can be exploited in different ways, it is most frequently used for theory evaluation purposes, with a streamlined protocol including a sequence of core operations and good practices. Several reliable software options are also available to implement the core of the QCA procedure. However, given QCA’s case-based foundation, much researcher input is still required at different stages. As it has further developed, QCA has been subject to fierce criticism, especially from a mainstream statistical perspective. This has stimulated further innovations and refinements, in particular in terms of parameters of fit and robustness tests which also correspond to the growth of QCA applications in larger-n designs. Altogether the field has diversified and broadened, and different users may exploit QCA in various ways, from smaller-n case-oriented uses to larger-n more analytic uses, and following different epistemological positions regarding causal claims. This broader field can therefore be labeled as that of both “Configurational Comparative Methods” (CCMs) and “Set-Theoretic Methods” (STMs).

scholarly journals Institutions and coalitions in policy processes: a cross-sectoral comparison

2014 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-268 ◽  
Author(s):  
Manuel Fischer
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Institutional Conditions ◽  
Phase Lead ◽  
Coalition Structures ◽  
Institutional Void ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Dominant Coalition

AbstractActors with joint beliefs in a decision-making process form coalitions in order to translate their goals into policy. Yet, coalitions are not formed in an institutional void, but rather institutions confer opportunities and constraints to actors. This paper studies the institutional conditions under which either coalition structures with a dominant coalition or with competing coalitions emerge. It takes into account three conditions, i.e. the degree of federalism of a project, its degree of Europeanisation and the openness of the pre-parliamentary phase of the decision-making process. The cross-sectoral comparison includes the 11 most important decision-making processes in Switzerland between 2001 and 2006 with a fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis. Results suggest that Europeanisation or an open pre-parliamentary phase lead to a dominant coalition, whereas only a specific combination of all three conditions is able to explain a structure with competing coalitions.

Embedding Small Business and Entrepreneurship Training within the Rural Context

2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 165-178 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lynne Siemens
Keyword(s):  
Small Business ◽  
Business Owners ◽  
Business Development ◽  
Small Business Owners ◽  
Entrepreneurship Training ◽  
Business Sustainability ◽  
Income Sources ◽  
Rural Business ◽  
Rural Context ◽  
Training Programmes

Rural small business owners face challenges that are not generally present in urban locations. As a result, they need training programmes that are specific to this context. This paper presents a framework for such a programme. First, the programme is based on the perspective that rural business owners are strongly motivated, but not necessarily by financial goals alone. Second, the owners must approach the issue of business development with the realization that multiple income sources may be required for business sustainability. Third, the primary resources are the owners themselves, along with their family, their business and their community – all available locally. Finally, the curriculum is delivered using examples of successful rural entrepreneurs.

Configurations of factors affecting triage decision-making

2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (10) ◽  
pp. 2148-2171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristina Ponsiglione ◽  
Adelaide Ippolito ◽  
Simonetta Primario ◽  
Giuseppe Zollo
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Fuzzy Set ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
Organizational Factors ◽  
Public Hospitals ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Triage Decision ◽  
The Impact

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the configuration of factors affecting the accuracy of triage decision-making. The contribution of the work is twofold: first, it develops a protocol for applying a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) in the context of triage decision-making, and second, it studies, through two pilot cases, the interplay between individual and organizational factors in determining the emergence of errors in different decisional situations. Design/methodology/approach The methodology adopted in this paper is the qualitative comparative analysis (QCA). The fuzzy-set variant of QCA (fsQCA) is implemented. The data set has been collected during field research carried out in the Emergency Departments (EDs) of two Italian public hospitals. Findings The results of this study show that the interplay between individual and contextual/organizational factors determines the emergence of errors in triage assessment. Furthermore, there are some regularities in the patterns discovered in each of the investigated organizational contexts. These findings suggest that we should avoid isolating individual factors from the context in which nurses make their decisions. Originality/value Previous research on triage has mainly explored the impact of homogeneous groups of factors on the accuracy of the triage process, without considering the complexity of the phenomenon under investigation. This study outlines the need to consider the not-linear relationships among different factors in the study of triage’s decision-making. The definition and implementation of a protocol to apply fsQCA to the triage process in EDs further contributes to the originality of the research.

IT Security Investment Decision by New Zealand Owner-Managers

2020 ◽  
pp. 217-233
Author(s):  
Radiah Othman ◽  
Sydney Kanda
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
New Zealand ◽  
Small Businesses ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Investment Decision ◽  
Business Owners ◽  
Small Business Owners ◽  
It Security ◽  
Security Investment

Small businesses employ 29% of New Zealand's private sector workforce and account for more than a quarter of its gross domestic product. Thus, a large-scale attack on small businesses could prove to be catastrophic to the economy. This chapter, which is framed by the protection motivation theory, explores 80 small business owners' IT security decision-making via an online survey. The findings revealed that 21% of small businesses were affected by ransomware. Fifty-one percent of the respondents did not have any anti-malware and none of the respondents used data classification, which means all information was regarded as the same. Since they managed to recover their backup information, they did not perceive the threat of ransomware as imminent. In terms of coping appraisal, it is assumed that if the business owner-managers believe that the capability of IT security investment averts threats in their organizations, they will be more inclined to develop an intention to invest in it.

Groupthink, Qualitative Comparative Analysis, and the 1989 Tiananmen Square Disaster

2019 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 435-463
Author(s):  
Tony C. Lee
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Crisis Management ◽  
Qualitative Comparative Analysis ◽  
Causal Connection ◽  
Tiananmen Square ◽  
Chinese Leadership

The article has two primary objectives: first, to elucidate why qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) stands out as a superior method for the study of groupthink, and second, to demonstrate the extent to which the Chinese leadership in 1989 fell prey to groupthink, resulting in ineffective decision-making that caused nationwide upheaval. While evidencing the causal connection between groupthink and the leadership group’s ineffective crisis management, the study nevertheless confirms the growing consensus that the groupthink model is over-specified. Accordingly, the article offers a revised model as a way to improve the groupthink theoretic constructs.

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