Beyond Self-Interest: Agency Theory and the Board in a Satisficing World

This paper argues that a consideration of some of the peculiarities of boards of directors can be used as a basis for developing and enriching our theoretical conception of agency relationships; and that the generalized version of agency theory that results can help us to better understand some of the empirical observations and theoretical and policy issues raised by Roberts, McNulty and Stiles.     

Underlying Values and Consequences in Financial Services

The freeing of financial markets has brought with it increasing sophistication in regulatory regimes. Over time, a succession of frauds and financial scandals has emphasised some limitations of these complex regulatory schemes. This paper seeks to address the reasons for the events that have caused concern, and suggests that they are to be found principally in three categories: (1) the underlying values that drive financial services; (2) the assumptions and values of regulatory regimes, and (3) the increased opportunities to break or evade the rules. Some possible ways forward are sketched. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Bridging Scholarship in Management: Epistemological Reflections

If the relevance gap in management research is to be narrowed, management scholars must identify and adopt processes of inquiry that simultaneously achieve high rigour and high relevance. Research approaches that strive for relevance emphasize the particular at the expense of the general and approaches that strive for rigour emphasize the general over the particular. Inquiry that attains both rigour and relevance can be found in approaches to knowledge that involve a reasoned relationship between the particular and the general. Prominent among these are the works of Ikujiro Nonaka and John Dewey. Their epistemological foundations indicate the potential for a philosophy of science and a process of inquiry that crosses epistemological lines by synthesizing the particular and the general and by utilizing experience and theory, the implicit and the explicit, and induction and deduction. These epistemologies point to characteristics of a bridging scholarship that is problem-initiated and rests on expanded standards of validity. The present epistemological reflections are in search of new communities of knowing toward the production of relevant and rigorous management knowledge.     

Industry and the environment: a case study of cleaner technologies in selected European countries

The aim of this case study is to discuss the role of technology in addressing environmental problems. The paper tries to scratch beneath the surface of the increasingly frequent ‘quick-fix’ solutions to the present environmental problems, based on such beguiling catchwords as Cleaner Technologies, Best Available Technologies, and Best Available Technologies Not Exceeding Excessive Costs, etc., in an attempt to discover whether there is any substance in them, or whether they are just full of hot air. Recent data from case studies performed by the author in Germany and Finland as well as a postal questionnaire in Denmark are presented. The paper analyses and discusses the roles and responsibilities of designers, industrialists, and government policy-makers. It is argued that existing regulatory regimes, supranational industrial structures, and market mechanisms do not favour the development of cleaner technologies, nor do they promote a reduction in consumption patterns. Evidence from ongoing empirical research in Northwest Europe suggests that industry is far from developing and/or implementing cleaner technologies. The paper closes with a discussion of some of the policy implications involved and some examples of urgently needed further research.     

Trope Control: The Costs and Benefits of Metaphor Unreliability in the Description of Empirical Phenomena*

The process of communicating and interpreting the meaning of metaphors in business writing is deeply unreliable. This stems from the structure of metaphors in which some of the characteristics of a source domain are transferred to a target domain. The precise selection of characteristics is made by the reader rather than the author of the metaphor, thus creating uncertainty of meaning. Although there are some benefits stemming from the inherent ambiguity of metaphor, the unreliability of the trope not only makes it impossible to choose between competing metaphors, but may distort our view of reality and thus lead to poor management decision‐making. Moreover, the unreliability of the interpretation process is so pronounced that some authors have attempted to reject the use of metaphor entirely. However, this paper argues that although it is impossible to avoid employing metaphor, contrary to the conventional wisdom in this subject area, it is possible to improve meaning reliability. Drawing on linguistic theory to explain the recommendations, and illustrative examples from business literature and practice, the papers offers several recommendations for so doing that may be applied throughout the Business and Management field.