Critical realism in case study research

Easton, Geoff

doi:10.1016/j.indmarman.2008.06.004

Cited by 771 publications

(810 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…In order to come up with an accurate description of the interdependencies and complexities of relationships in supplier networks, a case study approach was adopted, allowing for a multilevel investigation covering the buying companies' relationships with their first-tier suppliers and the supply network itself (for a comprehensive discussion of the use of case studies in interorganizational research see Andersen & Kragh, 2010;Easton, 2010;Jårvensivu & Törnroos, 2010). Bonoma (1985) and Dubois, and Araújo (2004; argue that case research is likely to provide a significant contribution to the development of theory in the fields of purchasing and supply management.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing interdependencies in supplier networks

Roseira

Brito

Henneberg

2010

Industrial Marketing Management

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a b s t r a c t a r t i c l e i n f oBuilding and managing a supplier base has been referred to in the literature as a key aspect of supplier management. Scholars have proposed a number of models aimed at enhancing the effectiveness of supplier network management, mainly based on a portfolio approach. In the IMP tradition of research, those models are often criticized as they ignore the interdependencies between the different existing dyadic relationships of a focal buyer company and its suppliers. Such interdependencies are the main focus of this paper, which has four objectives: (1) To analyze the types of relationships linking suppliers, (2) to understand the factors and dynamics underlying the creation and management of these relationships (3) to uncover existing links between buyer-supplier and supplier-supplier relationships, and (4) to clarify how different configurations of supplier relationship interactions impact on the performance of the actors involved. The paper discusses two empirical case studies, using the supplier networks of two focal buyer companies. We find that supplier interdependencies are mainly a by-product of the buyer-supplier dyads. Furthermore, the nature and dynamics of these dyads are a strong determinant of the scope and frequency of supplier connections and the corresponding effects on performance.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing interdependencies in supplier networks

Roseira

Brito

Henneberg

2010

Industrial Marketing Management

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“…The traditional method of conducting case research within industrial marketing is by interviews (Easton, 2010). In the initial stages of the research project, we saw a need to learn what the involved companies were doing and what their relationships looked like.…”

Section: Interviewsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Power in distribution channels — Supplier assortment strategy for balancing power

Rehme

Nordigården

Ellström

et al. 2016

Industrial Marketing Management

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“…It is the use of non-deterministic, non-Humean causal language to describe the world, a central tenet of critical realism, which provides ontological guidance for this thesis. Grounded in the work by Sayer (1992), Easton (2010) explains that a critical realist view of the world is conveyed through informed causal language that parallels the everyday explanation of the processes that are routinely adopted.…”

Section: Theoretical Orientationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Drawing inspiration from the work of Easton (2010), the aim of an ethnographic study was to: (i) depict major activities in the Patient Journey and the informational relationships between them; (ii) identify the organizations and roles that undertook each of the major activities and (iii) identify the information management practices used by the organizations and how information was shared across organizations. This raised questions about data collection, study design and the mapping of clinical information flow.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

eHealth-as-a-Service: A Service Based Design Approach for Large Scale eHealth Architecture

Black¹

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A significant challenge for the design of large scale (national) eHealth systems is the fluid nature of the Patient Journey, particularly in primary healthcare modalities.In this context, a patient's journey is predisposed to organic growth rather than intelligent design. As a result, clinical tasks requiring access to high quality information may occur as a function of known healthcare patterns or as a response to a patient's state of health. Whilst Australia's national eHealth system provides the infrastructure to accommodate the self-organizing flexibility and dynamism characteristic of complex information-based ecosystems, the system neglects certain information quality attributes. Specifically, accuracy, timeliness and completeness, which may lead to improved coordination of patient care. Based on the premise that the quality of patient information plays a significant role in the performance of health professionals, consideration must be given to these information quality dimensions as an overarching goal for eHealth architectural design activities. Framed as a problem concerning the design of large scale eHealth architecture that improves the quality of health information, this perspective presents a timely research opportunity.Within a prescriptive design science research (DSR) framework, this thesis is an example of a multi-methodological approach to create and evaluate a purposeful eHealth-as-a-Service (eHaaS) design artifact, which will improve patient information quality. This was achieved by firstly, deriving abstract meta-requirements from an ethnographic examination of care pathways to establish the technical goals of the solution space. Secondly, defining the functions, organization, and structure of an eHaaS conceptual model as an example of how service-based architectures might deliver high quality information services. Finally, by establishing the validity of the conceptual model with the development of a novel evaluation strategy to explain the predicted change produced by an eHaaS design artifact.Several original contributions emerged from the research. First and foremost, the developed eHaaS conceptual model, which encapsulates a set of design principles, service-based architectural patterns and implementation strategies represents a new class of eHealth solution. One that embodies a shift away from data-centric monolithic eHealth-as-a-Service: A Service-Based Design Approach for Large Scale eHealth Architecture iii architecture to process oriented, event-driven application services. To demonstrate the benefits of this shift, an electronic patient information system (ePIMS) was developed as an original solution for orchestrating clinical information services as personalised patient workflows. Another significant contribution of this thesis is a novel evaluation strategy for validating the utility of large scale eHealth systems at the design stage. It is innovative in its use of business process and data modelling techniques (e.g. data flow diagrams, business process modelling notatio...

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Critical realism in case study research

Cited by 771 publications

References 30 publications

Managing interdependencies in supplier networks

Managing interdependencies in supplier networks

Power in distribution channels — Supplier assortment strategy for balancing power

eHealth-as-a-Service: A Service Based Design Approach for Large Scale eHealth Architecture

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