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Why do some types of evaluation use prevail in certain contexts and not in others? The aim of this article is to advance knowledge about organisational factors of evaluation use, that is, determinants of evaluation use grounded in organisational theories. We critically review existing frameworks of organisational factors of evaluation use, highlighting key differences between them and pointing out discrepancies with empirical insights. We discuss the merits of two potential areas for future research that can help concretise theoretical stances: considering organisational legitimacy as a potential direct determinant of evaluation use and incorporating a dynamic perspective in organisational frameworks of evaluation use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the editorial note is to introduce the scope of this special issue (SI). We explain our editorial approach and provide a brief summary of eight articles included in the SI following multiple rounds of reviews. Finally, we outline future research questions which stemmed out of the discussions of this SI. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transnational migration, especially the growth of forced migration is unsettling the literature on widening access to university education. Equity definitions and understandings that frame social inclusion have presumed stable domestic populations within nations and targeted redressing historic internal social inequalities. Refugees and people seeking asylum have high aspirations to access to university education to gain recognition or update qualifications. University access for refugees and people seeking asylum is hampered by restricted funding entitlements that privilege citizens and admissions criteria that position them in the international student market and favour language and cultural requirements that reflect the dominant national culture. A qualitative narrative-based case-study of the admissions practices in one university in Australia explored the opportunities and blockages experienced by those seeking access and the dilemmas recognised by the admissions' gatekeepers. Employing organisational theory and Scott's three pillars of a neo-institutional framework, the regulative, the normative and the cultural-cognitive pillars, the article argues that homogenised institutional policies and practices to assess applications construct norms of access and equity, which create new exclusions for forced migrants. In revealing how some gatekeepers sought to 'workaround' these practices of exclusion, the article provides hope that informal learning within organisations can lead to organisational change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Corporate sustainability has recently been challenging traditional business models that have been based on value proposition, creation and capture. There has been a steady increase in publications using the term "sustainable business models"; however, there have been few that have theoretically defined or characterized the term, and in most cases, they just apply the term. Seven peer‐reviewed papers were selected that aimed to define and explain sustainable business models and that have been widely cited. The papers were analyzed by assessing the elements and activities covered using the corporate sustainability framework, and by comparing them against four approaches to explain organizations. The paper proposes a definition and framework for more sustainable business models aimed at integrating organizational approaches, the company system, stakeholders, change and sustainability dimensions, thus providing a more holistic and systemic approach to discourses on sustainable business models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This piece critically follows David Bakhurst’s 2009 article “Reflections on Activity Theory” in light of recent developments in the field. It sketches three directions for further research. First, it examines his identification of “two strands” of activity theory (AT) – the philosophical, which he associates with E.V. Ilyenkov and other Soviet theorists, and the organizational, which he associates with Yrjö Engeström and Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT). Drawing on recent scholarship, it interrogates this understanding of AT, and examines how political commitment cuts across these strands. Second, it engages Bakhurst’s critical assessment of Engeström’s triangle model of activity, and supplements it with a critique of CHAT’s “radical localism” – an understanding of activity as the unit of analysis that contains the basic characteristics of the whole. It follows Avis, Colley, Dafermos, Jones, Mojab and Gorman as well as Warmington, who note the occlusion of broader social relations and contradictions from the triangular representation of local activities, and it posits Ilyenkov’s dialectical conception of activity, which understands the unit of analysis as an entry point into the whole, as a way to grasp those broader social relations. Third, it takes up Bakhurst’s critique of anthropocentrism in the Marxist tradition in light of current literature on the Anthropocene. In contrast to dominant philosophical trends, which locate climate change in anthropocentric perspectives inherited from Enlightenment thought, it suggests how AT can recast the issue in relation to the organisation of human activity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In the past four decades, transparency has gone from being primarily a clear plastic sheet used with overhead projectors to being primarily a quality of organisations. The pledge to provide (or, in corporate jargon, deliver) this quality has become an almost indispensable element of political speeches, earnings calls and product descriptions. The proliferation of digital technology and social networks has intensified this trend. This paper argues that our era's fascination with transparency was prefigured by early modernity's fascination with sincerity. A comparison of the two discourses shows that the functioning, purpose and benefits that 17th-century and 18th-century observers ascribed to sincerity are remarkably similar to those that 21st-century observers ascribe to transparency. This paper also interprets recent proposals for regulatory reform as digital-age refashionings of Immanuel Kant's categorical imperative. Finally, it examines current speculations about the effect radical transparency is having on concepts of identity. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We adopt Hegel's dialectical approach to explain the paradox of why firms engage in competition and cooperation in turbulent environments. While previous researchers have provided reasons why firms sometimes engage in cooperative strategies with competitors, the unique but conflicting scenario of simultaneous competitive and cooperative behaviour of a firm with the same rival has not so far been examined from a non-positivistic theoretical approach. By utilising insights from the principles of expression and differentiation in the Hegelian dialectic, we are able to offer an explanation of the paradox and establish its linkages with resource endowments, organisational legitimacy, and mimetic isomorphism of firms - concepts that are already well established in mainstream strategy and organisational theory literatures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The theory of Chain-computerisation (Grijpink, 1997) was developed from practical insights and insights derived from the Organisation and Management Sciences. The theory focuses on large-scale information exchange in social chains and is based on three different components: a specific chain perspective, a chain analysis method and a specific type of information-infrastructure resulting from the application of the Chain-computerisation theory. In this article, we investigate the various similarities and differences between the theoretical framework of Chaincomputerisation and insights on Interorganisational Systems (IOS) in the disciplines of Management Science and Public Administration. Based on this, we will indicate where the disciplines augment each other. This article will conclude that the methodology of Chain-computerisation is more intricate than the methods that are proposed in the IOS literature. It is precisely through the weighted combination of four assessment profiles and its dynamic chain concept that the theory of Chain-computerisation enables a sharper analysis of the possibility to create a chain information system. The dynamic chain concept that is the core of the theory is a worthy complement to the manner in which chains are conceived in IOS and Public Administration. This conclusion does not necessarily apply to the Chain-computerisation assessment framework. These have been constructed for a specific purpose and cannot, therefore, be applied to a broader IOS context. Conversely, the Chain-computerisation theory can be augmented with a number of insights from administrative and organisational theory with respect to IOS. These are concerned with the role of regional 'sub-chain formation' within a national or international chain and the possibility of central coordination by a dominant party. Finally, IOS literature offers concrete opportunities for augmenting the chain cooperation profile, one of the assessment profiles of the theoretical framework of Chain-computerisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]