Ruminations on process
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Transcript of Ruminations on process
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RUMINATIONS ON PROCESS
Raghu GarudPennsylvania State University
August 2011
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Process vs. Variance
• Longitudinal -- driven by questions about "how phenomena emerge”
• Not efficient causality but generative causality
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Innovation Processes are Complex
• Multiple people artifacts and metrics – manifest complexity.
• Ecology of interactions between these heterogeneous elements – relational complexity.
• Full of ups and downs, false starts and dead ends, “backing & forthing” – temporal complexity.
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Consequentially
Ambiguity is generated endogenously and is manifest in:– blurred boundaries– shifting loci of action – emerging preferences – multiple & conflicting cues
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AndPractitioners have to commit to a course of action despite and even because of the ambiguity.
From: Garud R. and Van de Ven A. H. 1992. "An empirical evaluation of the internal corporate venturing process" Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 13, 93-109.
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How Address Boundary Problem?• One approach is to let field members
inform us about emerging boundaries.
• In my case, I attended conferences on cochlear implants where actor networks constituted and re-constituted the emerging fields through their entanglements.
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These and other studies and others have led to insight on
Innovation as: – Complex adaptive processes– Complex responsive processes– Complex becoming processes
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Complex Adaptive Processes
• Metaphors from an evolutionary perspective include -- search, landscape, selection environments, structural holes etc.
• Context is largely exogenous.• Theorizing includes -- path dependence,
absorptive capacity, punctuated equilibrium, two-stage dominant design, exaptation.
• Implications for process research – follow and study shifts in landscapes over time.
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An Example
This figure shows the transition from one sociotechnical regime to another as a consequence of exogenous niche innovations and landscape changes, as depicted by Geels & Schot (2007).
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Complex Responsive Processes
• Metaphors from a relational perspective include -- interpretive flexibility, co-creation, translation.
• Context is endogenized to yield a flat ontology (actor-network) that considers entanglements between social and material elements.
• Theorizing includes -- path constitution, bricolage• Implications for process research – follow and
study entanglements over time.
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An Example
This figure shows the emergence and transformation of the bicycle through the constitutive entanglement of the social and the material as depicted by Pinch & Bijker (1987).
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Complex Becoming Processes
• Metaphors from an intertemporal perspective include – distentio, diachrony, chronos & kairos, anticipation and recollection.
• Time is endogenized to yield a Mobius strip of unfolding experiences.
• Theorizing includes -- transformative capacity, improvisation, path creation.
• Implications for process research – follow & study temporal agency.
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An example
This figure is a temporally emplotted diagram of the research in the human genome project. The figure appeared in Mane and Börner (2004).
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Summary of Complexity Perspectives
Adapted from: Garud, R., Gehman, J. and Kumaraswamy. A. (2011) Complexity Arrangements for Sustaining Innovation: Lessons from 3M Corporation. Organization Studies 32(6) 737–767.
Garud, R. and Gehman, J. (2011) “Metatheoretical perspectives on sustainability journeys: Evolutionary, relational and intertemporal.” Research Policy (forthcoming).
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Conclusion
• We first have to clarify what we mean by process to conduct meaningful process research.
• It is both a matter of personal choice and social acceptance as to what kind of process research we conduct.
• As we endogenize context, text and sub-text, process research becomes all the more challenging, but at the same time more rewarding.