My current research topics
I strive to create synergy between my interests in
linguistics and organisation theory by focussing on sensemaking as introduced
by Karl Weick. Weick’s framework has been elaborated by the Management of
Change group around Henk van Dongen at Erasmus University Rotterdam, by linking
it with social constructivist thinking of philosophers like Michel Foucault and
Jacques Derrida. I myself have further expanded the Rotterdam framework by
incorporating Gilles Fauconnier’s theory of Mental Space. The resulting theory
is known as Social Integration (SI) Theory.
More concretely, my current research interests are:
Corporate identity
(Chinese) has always been my favourite
topic. I am currently writing a monograph on identity constructs of Chinese
enterprises using the Social Integration model developed in Peverelli(2000). I
intend to corroborate the following basic hypotheses:
-
Identity indicates the unicity of an actor or aggregate of actors as
constructed
by the actors themselves in
ongoing social interaction with other actors.
-
As a social construct, the identity of an actor or aggregate of actors will be
different in each different
social-cognitive context.
-
As an aggregate of actors, an enterprise will obtain a different identity in
each
different social-cognitive
context.
Long lasting Sino-foreign joint ventures
I am co-operating in a project with a group
of researchers at Hong Kong Baptist University
Department of Social Sciences on long lasting Sino-foreign joint ventures. The
current trend in foreign investment in China is to establish wholly owned
subsidiaries, rather than forging joint ventures with local partners. However,
a number of such joint ventures have been operating successfully for many
years, some more than a decade. We are trying to find common traits in those
ventures. My personal contribution is looking at a selected number of ventures
and investigate how they make sense in different social-cognitive contexts. My
basic hypothesis here is:
- organisations are constructs produced during social
interaction in certain social-
cognitive contexts;
- organisations are constructs produced during social
interaction in certain social-
cognitive contexts;
- for an organisation to continue to exist it needs to make
sense in a sufficient
number
of such contexts.
The Hong Kong Baptist side is looking at these venture from
the perspectives of sociology of marriage and cultural hybridisation.
Corporate Social Responsibility
A relatively new research activity is my association with a group
of researchers at Beijing Renmin University
Mingde School of Business. The core theme of this research is Chinese corporate social responsibility (CSR). I am contributing to this research by once more analyzing the companies that are the object of the study in terms of relationships with multiple parties in the environment (stakeholders). On the basis of a stakeholder analysis, an inventory can be made of the expectation that each major stakeholder has towards the company, and the way and the extent in which the company complies to those expectations.
National Business Systems
This research project is linked to the research projects of Amsterdam Trade University
. A separate web site has been launched for this project. Please click here to visit this site:
