This paper presents the findings of an empirical study into two organizations' experiences with the adoption and use of CASE tools over time. Using a grounded theory research approach, the study characterizes the organizations' experiences in terms of processes of incremental or radical organizational change. These findings are used to develop a theoretical framework for conceptualizing the organizational issues around the adoption and use of these tools--issues that have been largely missing from contemporary discussions of CASE tools. The paper thus has important implications for research and practice. Specifically, the framework and findings suggest that in order to account for the experiences and outcomes associated with CASE tools, research- ers should consider the social context of systems development, the intentions and actions of key players, and the implementation process followed by the organization. Similarly, the paper suggests that practitioners will be better able to manage their organizations' experiences with CASE tools if they understand that such implementations involve a process of organizational change over time and not merely the installation of a new technology.

(Bob) Gephart to write a “From the Editors ” column designed to help authors improve their chances of success when submitting qualitative research to AMJ. Judging from the increasing number of qualitative studies that have been accepted and published in AMJ since that time, I would like to think that his article, “Qualitative Research and the Academy of Management Journal, ” has had a positive impact. Continuing in this tradition, I asked Roy Suddaby—an excellent reviewer (and author) of qualitative research—to tackle another “big issue ” that the editorial team has noticed with respect to qualitative submissions to AMJ: overly generic use of the term “grounded theory ” and confusion regarding alternative epistemological approaches to qualitative research. Like Bob before him, Roy has, I believe, produced an analysis that will greatly benefit those who are relatively new to qualitative research or who have not yet had much success in getting their qualitative research published. Hopefully, Roy’s analysis will help even more authors to succeed, thus allowing AMJ and other journals to continue to increase the quality of insights provided by rich qualitative studies of individual, organizational, and institutional phenomena.

Abstract: Similarities between individual and organizational response to loss are documented through literature analysis and case studies in the automobile industry. An identity maintenance and adaptation thesis is developed to explain this similarity and provide a logic for a stage theory of loss. Risk-seeking behavior under loss is also explained.

This research increases our knowledge of the business-to-business relationship ending process. It answers a question of how to describe a process of business relationship ending, while considering both the aspects of time and the multiplicity of actors involved. Previous research has predominantly been cross-sectional and applied only the viewpoint of one actor. As relationship ending is a process this research takes a processual approach. Moreover, as ending influences several actors, this research incorporates the multiplicity of the actors (individuals, companies, other relationships) involved into the model. Understanding the ending process explains how ending happens, how the changes from an existing relationship to a dissolved relationship take place. The process of ending is seen to consist of actions performed by the actors, as well as their perceptions and decisions concerning the future of the relationship and the consequences they have on the relationship. The underlying assumption is that what happens in the relationship changes both the relationship itself and the network of

Enabled by the globalization and advances in technology, offshore outsourcing of software development to countries

This paper describes the use of a computer-assisted narrative data analysis program in outlining causal process in organizations. The program, ESA (for Event Structure Analysis), has been used primarily as a tool for modeling historical processes (Griffin 1993; Brown and Brueggeman 1997) and individual motivational processes (Eder and Enke 1991; MacKinnon and Heise 1993), but has also been used as a means of analyzing narratives of organizational change (Stevenson and Greenberg 1998). This paper is intended to be a further contribution to the use of ESA in explaining organizational change. Specifically, I am concerned with explaining the causes and processes of nonprofit organization closure. Different Approaches to Cause Social scientists approach causation in two different ways, which can be labeled the nomothetic and idiographic approaches to causation (Schutt 1996). The nomothetic approach is most familiar to scholars who consider themselves positive, empiricist social scientists. Nomothetic causal explanations are established by observing the covariation of characteristics of many elements and then making probabilistic claims based on the patterns of covariation. The method is well entrenched in most disciplines: data is collected on a large number of elements in

The paper explores a theoretical, systems-oriented model for understanding sustainable corporate performance.

Enabled by the globalization and advances in technology, offshore outsourcing of software

Towards a strategic model of employment reform in developing countries: explaining and remedying experience to date

The main purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of strategic moves on the likelihood of organizational survival in a population of firms which has undergone continuous and radical transformations in its environment. To this end, we propose and test two competitive hypotheses which are the result of two other theoretical perspectives about the consequences of strategic change: the adaptation view (classic strategic management and dynamic capabilities) and the ecological approach. While from the former strategic change has a positive effect on the likelihood of organizational survival, from the ecological approach, strategic change implies an increase in the likelihood of organizational extinction. The sample used to test the two proposed hypotheses is the Spanish private banks population over the period 1983-1997. The results confirm the negative effect of strategic change on the likelihood of organizational extinction, in line with the conclusions of the adaptive perspective and other research carried out in different settings. This paper introduces two important methodological innovations: (a) the definition and measurement of strategic change by using a new cluster algorithm, MCLUST; and (b) the control of the non-observable heterogeneity using panel data models for “logit ” regression.