Professor Andy Adcroft

Purpose – In an age where organizational transformation is becoming more important to both the theory and practice of strategic management, the aim of this paper is to provide a model through which organizational transformation and strategic change can be understood in an holistic manner. Design/methodology/approach – In developing a model to explain organizational transformation, the paper draws on two different theoretical traditions. First, the paper draws on theories of political revolutions and, second, the paper draws on interpretative theories, in particular, speech act theory. Findings – The paper argues that in order to provide a realistic understanding of how and why an organization has attempted a transformational strategy it is important to consider four issues: the event which triggered the transformation, the program and process through which transformation was attempted, the outcome of the transformational strategy, and the myths which have been built up around the transformation. Originality/value – The paper takes a novel approach by drawing on non-management theories to develop an understanding of management phenomena. In doing this the paper generates an original model useful for the post rational explanation of transformational strategies.

The growth in management education generally, and entrepreneurship education specifically, has occurred at the same time as increasing importance is attached to management both as an activity for academic investigation and as a practical activity in both public and private sectors. This paper argues that the intellectual foundations of this growth are unsupported by a significant volume of evidence and so it is unlikely that the hope for economic outcomes will be achieved. In the specific case of entrepreneurship education, this paper recommends that the tension between prescription and recognition of the activity needs to be resolved by both academics and policy makers before the benefits of education in this area can be realised.

The current obsession with globalization and technological change has given rise to a new school of management, the revolutionary school. This school uses language appropriated from the political concept of revolution and argues that the key role of management is the transformation of their organizations. The article considers the extent to which the European business environment has been transformed and the extent to which transformation is possible under difficult market conditions such as those faced by the European car industry. The article concludes that under the structural conditions of saturation and slow or cyclical growth, organizational transformation is unlikely to be successful.

The aim of this article is to examine the general and discipline-specific support needed by academics new to the profession. The article takes a social process approach to the examination of the experiences of new academics. The approach taken is, therefore, qualitative in nature and centres around a series of semi-structured interviews, carried out with new academics and senior managers in two research-intensive business schools in the UK. The research suggests that there are four crucial dimensions to successful career support for new academics: managing expectations, career management, mentoring and professional development. Whilst it is important to offer good practice in each of these dimensions, the article argues that it is the relationship between them which determines the quality of career support offered. The article offers a number of original insights into this issue, and contributes to both the literature on career support for new academics and to practice with a conceptual model which may have applicability across a number of different settings.

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to assess both the philosophical underpinnings and contributions to knowledge made by research in the field of strategy in the five years between 2002 and 2006. Design/methodology/approach – The paper begins with a review of the literature on the philosophy, purpose, process and outcome of management research which leads to the development of a conceptual model. Following this, almost 4,000 articles from 23 journals are assessed on the basis of their philosophical underpinnings and contribution to knowledge. Findings are reported and implications are discussed. Findings – Most strategy research, especially in higher ranked journals, comes from a positivist perspective. Across all journals, most contributions to knowledge are in the form of stretching theory. There is a limited amount of reflective work in the strategy literature. Practical implications – Given the form and content of strategy research, it is increasingly unlikely that research will make the crossover from the academic to the practitioner world. Originality/value – This paper provides a better understanding of the process through which academic management research can be carried out and the barriers to this process. The paper provides a number of important insights into the nature of strategy research.

Purpose To consider whether the growth in management and entrepreneurship education is driven by (external) demand or (internal) academic supply. Design/methodology/approach Three key elements of the intellectual context of management and entrepreneurship education are considered: the apparent causal relationship between improved management and economic performance; the privilege afforded to management as an agent of change in the context of globalisation; reforms in the public sector which define problems in terms of management rather than resources. Findings There is a lack of clarity as to whether the purpose of entrepreneurship education is about promoting higher levels of activity or better recognising entrepreneurial activity. Originality/value The paper offers an alternative perspective on entrepreneurship education through an examination of its purpose rather than its form and content.

Purpose The aim of this paper is to consider the versatility of management theory by testing it in a non-management context, in this case sport in general and the Rugby World Cup in particular. Design/methodology/approach The paper develops a theoretical discussion of performance and competitiveness into a conceptual model before using that model to analyse and discuss the causes of success and failure in the Rugby World Cup. Findings Understanding the outcome of sporting contests is a complex activity. In the examples discussed, success or failure is the product of both the internal characteristics of the contestants and the external conditions of the contest itself. The findings of the research are robust in their reliability and validity. Originality/value Originality lies in a number of areas. Theory is used to develop an original conceptual model and it is then tested in an original context. The value of the paper lies as much in the investigations it opens up as in the debates it closes.

Purpose To consider the extent to which regimes of performance measurement in the public sector are fit for purpose, and the likely outcomes for public services and public sector workers of such performance measurement systems. Design/methodology/approach The article considers four key issues: the context and content of performance measurement in the public sector, the specific examples of health care and higher education, the limitations of performance measurement systems, and the likely outcomes of performance measurement systems. Findings Current systems of performance measurement in the public sector are unlikely to have a significant influence on improving services. The most likely outcomes of these systems is further commodification of services and deprofessionalisation of public sector workers. Originality/value The article builds on established literature and offers a systematic metaphor-driven critique of performance management in the public sector, and discusses the implications of this.

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between the diversity of team composition and the outcome enjoyed by those teams in test match cricket by using performance and competitiveness variables. Design/methodology/approach – The paper examines 100 test matches over 13 years played by eight test match-playing countries. It draws on 12 measures of performance and 12 measures of competitiveness across more than 130 players. Findings – The paper finds that there is a link between diversity and outcome, but it is not always clear as to which direction that relationship lies. Team characteristics are found to be a function of member characteristics and not a simple aggregate. Research limitations/implications – The findings of the paper are probably not generalisable outside of international test match cricket. Practical implication – The paper provides evidence that suggests that, in developing sporting teams, consideration must be given as to which activities are more important in delivering outcomes. Originality/value – The paper adds to the literature on team dynamics in terms of theory and sporting context.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to consider the extent to which recent changes in the UK's higher education sector are likely to increase the level of competition and change the behaviour of UK higher education institutions. Design/methodology/approach The paper draws on a conceptual framework developed to understand competitive conditions and behaviours in order to provide an analytical device to guide the narrative of the paper. The paper draws on a number of national and international sources. Findings It is likely that competition between UK higher education institutions will intensify in the future especially in light of the introduction of student tuition fees and this will lead to further changes in behaviour. Originality/value The paper offers an original approach and conceptual basis to make a contribution to a growing debate about the future of the UK higher education sector.

Purpose – Businesses are always seeking resilient strategies so they can weather unpredictable competitive environments. One source of unpredictability is the unsustainability of commerce's environmental, economic or social impacts and the limitations this places on businesses. Another is poor resilience causing erroneous and unexpected outputs. Companies prospering long-term must have both resilience and sustainability, existing in a symbiotic state. The purpose of this paper is to explore the two concepts and their relationship, their combined benefits and propose an approach for supporting decision makers to proactively build both characteristics. Design/methodology/approach – The paper looks at businesses as complex adaptive systems, how their resilience and sustainability can be defined and how these might be exhibited. It then explores how they can be combined in practice. Findings – The two qualities are related but have different purposes, moreover resilience has two major forms related to timescales. Both kinds of resilience are identified as key for delivering sustainability, yet the reverse is also found to be true. Both are needed to deliver either and to let businesses flourish. Practical implications – Although the ideal state of resilient sustainability is difficult to define or achieve, pragmatic ways exist to deliver the right direction of change in organisational decisions. A novel approach to this is explored based on transition engineering and robustness engineering. Originality/value – This paper links resilience and sustainability explicitly and develops a holistic pragmatic approach for working through their implications in strategic decision making.

The purpose of this article is to examine the relationship between motivations to learn and expectations of learning and to see if there are any differences across student groups based on their choice of degree programme and level of study. Six scales were used from Pintrich et al.’s Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire, of which two were adapted for this study, to measure motivations to learn and expectations of learning amongst undergraduate students. Across different levels of study and programmes, 564 responses were collected. The study suggests that there is a correlation between the degree of importance and interest that students attach to their studies, their beliefs about how well they will do and their overall levels of motivation to learn. These relationships vary across different student groups. The study also found that the degree of anxiety about assessment experienced by students was independent of their motivations and expectations and did not differ significantly between any student groups.

Much of the general education and discipline-specific literature on feedback suggests that it is a central and important element of student learning. This paper examines feedback from a social process perspective and suggests that feedback is best understood through an analysis of the interactions between academics and students. The paper argues that these two groups will have their own mythology of feedback and that this will inform their beliefs, attitudes and behaviours in the feedback process. Where there are different mythologies, the outcome will be dissonance. The paper reports on a study in which a 15-item questionnaire was distributed to academics and students in a School of Law and a School of Management. Responses were received from 91 academics and 1197 students. The data suggests that academics and students have different perceptions of feedback and this creates dissonance as the two groups offer different interpretations of the same feedback events.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce this special issue of Management Decision and discuss the key question “Should sport be taken seriously?”. Design/methodology/approach – The themes of the special issue are discussed and each paper is introduced. Findings – Sport should be taken seriously because it has a significance beyond the field of play. It has become a commodified activity which creates and consumes wealth and can be used as a context for management research. Originality/value – Rarely before has sport been taken seriously in a management research context. This guest editorial and the special issue that follows it begin that debate.

This chapter focuses on the nature of strategy and how this influences the direction and behaviour of sport organisations. The chapter begins with an explanation of what we mean when we talk about strategy and how this means different things to different people. The chapter also looks at the common elements of strategy across different theories, schools and concepts in order to understand what it means to be a strategist in a sport organisation. The chapter considers three issues crucial to the development of strategy:  The philosophy of strategy and whether strategy is a science or an art;  The process of strategy and whether strategy is based around planning and analysis or trial, experimentation and emergence;  The drivers of strategy and whether the crucial determinants of a strategy are the organisation or the environment. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the relationship between theory and practice and what this means for a strategist in a sports organisation.

The continued success of Asian entrepreneurs in the UK testifies to the sustainability of the Asian business community which appears to combine the dynamism of the free market with the dynamic, risk taking heroism of the entrepreneur. Asian wealth in the UK has become more diverse in terms of the type of entrepreneur and the types of business. It now crosses from first through to second and third generations. It spans manufacturing and services, entertainment and fashion, hotels and property, food and pharmaceuticals. Asian enterprises have attracted the attention of academics, policy makers and practitioners and are increasingly enjoying a higher profile in the popular press. Whilst recent studies highlight this growing importance, when charting the success of the Asian entrepreneur they tend to focus on the transformation from ‘rags to riches’ and the majority of studies concentrate on the characteristics of the owner, start up and the barriers to accessing finance. This study analyses the longer established, more successful enterprises of the Asian business community and seeks to draw out trends within this increasingly important sector of the economy and consider their economic sustainability. The study draws on data provided by the annual Asian wealth index which focuses on the 200 richest Asians in the UK. It analyses the wealth-generating capacity of this upper spectrum of the Asian business community through a comparative economic and sectoral analysis. The analysis suggests that the Asian business community has delivered significantly higher than average growth and that this growth has been driven by a shift towards higher value industrial sectors, questioning the extent to which the traditional stereotypes of the Asian entrepreneur, portrayed in the academic literature, maintain their value. For policy makers and the business support community the paper offers new insights into the economic nature of this growing business sector. The originality of the research process and data raises new issues in research into Asian entrepreneurship not just the UK. It thus offers significant challenges to the academic community.

This book embodies the ever-increasing scope and depth of empirical entrepreneurship research in Europe.

In the context of the contemporary macro issues facing higher education, this book presents the latest teaching practices and tools used in higher education business teaching, clearly illustrating the practical ways in which business ...

The aim of this paper is to develop a conceptual model which allows for an understanding of the general and discipline specific support needed by academics new to the profession. The approach taken is qualitative in nature and centers around a series of semi-structured interviews carried out with new academics and senior managers in two research-intensive business schools in the UK. The research suggests that there are four crucial dimensions to successful career support for new academics: managing expectations, career management, mentoring, and professional development. While it is important to offer good practice in each of these dimensions, this paper argues that it is the relationship between them, which determines the quality of career support offered. This paper offers a number of original insights into this issue and contributes to both the scant literature on career support for new academics and to practice with a model that may have applicability across a number of different settings.

Asian enterprises are becoming an ever more prominent feature of the small business population and, thus, have attracted the attention of academics, policy makers and practitioners and are increasingly eulogised in the popular press keen to laud free enterprise heroes. Whilst recent studies highlight this growing importance, when charting the success of the Asian entrepreneur they tend to focus on the transformation from rags to riches and the majority of studies concentrate on the characteristics of the owner, start up and the barriers to accessing finance. This study analyses the higher echelons of the Asian business community and seeks to draw out trends within this increasingly important sector of the economy. This study draws on data provided by the annual Asian wealth index which focuses on the 200 richest Asians in the UK. The paper analyses the wealth generating capacity of the top end of the Asian business community through a comparative economic and sectoral analysis. The analysis suggests that the Asian business community has delivered significantly higher than average growth and that this growth has been driven by a shift towards higher value industrial sectors. This questions the extent to which the traditional stereotypes of the Asian entrepreneur maintain their currency and value. For policy makers and the business support community this paper offers new insights into the economic nature of this growing business sector to which they have paid increasing attention. The originality of the research process and data raises new issues in research into Asian entrepreneurship and thus offers significant challenges to academics.

Currently managerial reforms in the UK public sector focus on performance measurement aimed at increasing accountability, value for money and the use of scarce resources. Through examination of this process in the National Health Service and higher education, this paper argues that this represents the imposition of private sector management practices and, therefore, represents further commodification of public sector services. The most likely outcome of these changes is not transformation of performance but deprofessionalisation of public sector workers.