Journal articles
Nazzal A, Stringfellow L, Maclean M (2023). Webs of oppression: an intersectional analysis of inequalities facing women activists in Palestine.
Human RelationsAbstract:
Webs of oppression: an intersectional analysis of inequalities facing women activists in Palestine
How can we understand the multiple, intersecting webs of oppression which Palestinian women activists face in their everyday organizing? with a long tradition of counter-hegemonic organizing, the Palestinian context presents opportunities and challenges for women pursuing activist causes in the public domain. Adopting an intersectionality framework, we uncover how gender, class and settler-colonized domination interact, engendering dynamics of oppression differentiated by activists’ social positions. Activists’ stories captured at interview reveal they were not victims across all categories of difference, experiencing forms of relative privilege, characterized as safeguarded, secured, and sheltered. We connect relative privilege to the patchwork nature of Palestinian institutions, whereby women’s agency intermingles with a patchwork of historically constituted structures and conditions. Our fine-grained study contributes to literature on feminist and activist organizing and to theorizations of intersectionality by identifying forms of relative oppression and privilege as women actively resist hegemonic gendered structures in Palestine.
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Thompson A, Stringfellow L, Maclean M, Nazzal A (2021). Ethical considerations and challenges for using digital ethnography to research vulnerable populations. Journal of Business Research, 124, 676-683.
Maclean M, Harvey C, Stringfellow L (2017). Narrative, Metaphor and the Subjective Understanding of Identity Transition.
Business History,
59, 1218-1241.
Abstract:
Narrative, Metaphor and the Subjective Understanding of Identity Transition
This paper examines the relevance of employing an oral history method and narrative interview techniques for business historians. We explore the use of oral history interviews as a means of capturing the expression of subjective experience in narrative and metaphor. We do so by analysing interviews concerning the transition of East German identities following reunification with West Germany. Self-expression emerges as critical to the vital identity work required for social integration following transformation, metaphor providing a means of articulating deep-rooted patterns of thought. We demonstrate that employing an oral history methodology can benefit business historians by affording access to the human dimension of a research project, unlocking the subjective understanding of experience by low-power actors among the non-hegemonic classes. Hence, employing an oral history methodology provides a valuable means of countering narrative imperialism, exemplified here by the dominant West German success story grounded in Western-style individual freedom.
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Ramirez C, Stringfellow L, Maclean M (2015). Beyond segments in movement: a ‘small’ agenda for research in the professions.
Accounting, Auditing and Accountability Journal,
28(8).
Abstract:
Beyond segments in movement: a ‘small’ agenda for research in the professions
Purpose – the small accounting practice, despite being the most numerous part of the profession by number of firms, remains largely under-researched. Part of the reason the small practice category remains elusive is that researchers find it difficult to precisely define the object to study, and yet, this may be precisely the reason for studying it. Envisaging how this category is ‘represented’ in institutionalized settings, constitutes a rich agenda for future research as it allows the small practitioner world to be connected to the issue of intra-professional segmentation.
Design/methodology/approach - This paper proposes reinvigorating research around Bucher and Strauss’ (1961) conceptualization of professions as ‘segments in movement’. At the same time as advocating a better investigation of the small practitioner segment itself, it suggests to take the latter as an example to further explore the vision of professions as segments “more or less delicately held together”. To this end, there is a potential for cross-fertilization between Bucher and Strauss’ research programme and a range of other theoretical frameworks.
Findings – Our discussion points towards how small practice, as a segment whose history and characteristics reflect the different struggles that have led to the creation of the professional accounting body and marked its subsequent evolution, is far from insignificant. Segmenting the profession in categories related to ‘size’ offers an opportunity to deal with an under-investigated aspect of professions’ sociology and history, which encapsulates its inherent diversity and hierarchy. Whilst the professional body may replicate the hierarchy that structures broader society, the meaning of small itself, within a hierarchy of organizations, is also a relative concept. It is politically charged, and must be delicately managed in order to maintain harmony within the polarized professional space.
Originality/value – the small practitioner has been much overlooked in the accounting literature, and the literature on the professions has overemphasized aspects of its cohesiveness. We contribute a revitalized agenda for researchers to explore the dynamics of heterogeneity and unity in the professional body, by focusing a lens on the small practice and extending the ‘segments in movements’ premise beyond the functional division of professions.
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Stringfellow L, Maclean M (2014). 'Space of possibles'? Legitimacy, industry maturity and organizational foresight.
Strategic Change,
23(3), 171-183.
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'Space of possibles'? Legitimacy, industry maturity and organizational foresight
The dispositions and invisible cognitive structures central to organizational foresight are more likely to emerge in young or transforming industries, which are less constrained by the need to achieve institutional legitimacy.
• Organizational foresight, conceived of as the ability to transgress boundaries and evaluate different futures, is seen as vital to an organization’s capabilities.
• the roots of the awareness and perception from which organizational foresight emerge are often unconscious, being embedded in invisible cognitive structures which organize practices.
• the emergence of organizational foresight is intimately linked to the institutional context of the firm, the modes of legitimacy which dominate that environment, and how balanced these conditions are with the subjective disposition of the organization.
• the stability and convergence that characterize mature industries orientate organizations towards institutional legitimacy and the conservation of existing social relations and practices.
• in emerging or transforming industries, there is a greater possibility for a disjuncture to occur between industry conditions and the situated practice of the organization, which may generate organizational foresight and opportunities to achieve strategic legitimacy.
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Stringfellow L, Thompson A (2014). Crab antics? Contesting and perpetuating status hierarchies in professional service firms.
Journal of Professions and Organization,
1, 118-136.
Abstract:
Crab antics? Contesting and perpetuating status hierarchies in professional service firms.
The focus of this research is a multi-level theory building exercise that highlights how status hierarchies are perpetuated, contested, and produced in small firm environments. Through eliciting the narratives
of the owners of small accounting practices, we aim to explore the specific dynamics of status and to identify how informants come to understand, perpetuate, and change notions of status within their organizational field. We identify macro-theoretical perspectives through the notion of ‘status framing’, which unpacks the professional norms, institutional logics, and marketplace structures that shape industry practice and understanding. Drawing from micro-level perspectives of ‘status sensemaking’, we highlight how industry members create their own status perceptions that effectively legitimize, reinforce, and contradict
industry status archetypes. We highlight the ‘crab antic’ nature to these status battles through narratives of ‘status reconciliation’, where informants effectively negotiate macro and micro status hierarchies.
We explicate practice through linking the micro and macro realms of experience in small professional practices and identify how status is socially organized within the accounting profession. In doing
so, we contribute to the status literature by highlighting that status is not a unified, stable concept, but one that is highly volatile and often undermined by actors vested in perpetuating the status quo.
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Stringfellow L, McMeeking KP, Maclean M (2014). From four to zero? the social mechanisms of symbolic domination in the UK accounting field.
Critical Perspectives on Accounting,
27(March), 86-100.
Abstract:
From four to zero? the social mechanisms of symbolic domination in the UK accounting field
Corporate failures and financial crises periodically lead to speculation and critique of the Big Four in the UK. Wide-reaching regulatory changes and reforms have emerged as a consequence, yet the overall dominance of the large accounting firms remains an immutable truth. This paper explores the dominance of the Big Four drawing on Bourdieu’s rich system of thought, and in particular the role of symbolic productions, and how symbolic power and symbolic violence are deployed to secure the social integration of an arbitrary order. We document the social mechanisms of symbolic domination that secure the Big Four’s position in the social structure of professional accounting firms. We identify a circular system of double-structured domination, where three mechanisms of euphemised discourse, rites of institution and socialisation normalise symbolic systems and disabling constraints for smaller firms. In addition to interviewing informants working in the field, this paper examines recent political challenges that have placed the role of the Big Four and their domination under increasing scrutiny. These challenges bring into focus issues of recognition and resistance to symbolic modes of domination, and we contemplate the impact of such discourses on the dynamics of the UK accounting field, and the Big Four’s continued influence.
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Thompson A, Stringfellow L, Maclean M, MacLaren A, O’Gorman K (2014). Puppets of necessity? Celebritisation in structured reality television. Journal of Marketing Management, 31(5-6), 478-501.
Stringfellow L, Shaw E, Maclean M (2013). Apostasy versus legitimacy: Relational dynamics and routes to resource acquisition in entrepreneurial ventures.
International Small Business Journal: Researching Entrepreneurship,
32(5), 571-592.
Abstract:
Apostasy versus legitimacy: Relational dynamics and routes to resource acquisition in entrepreneurial ventures
This article explores the relational dynamics of legitimation within a professional service venture context, using a Bourdieusian framework to elucidate the struggles for capital and legitimacy that characterise the venture development process. Two profiles of individual business owners who renounce or adhere to established norms of the professional field are identified: apostate and traditional. Small accounting ventures may benefit from improved access to resources if they concentrate on fitting in with prevailing small firm professional logics, eschewing logics from outside the focal field associated with apostates. A model of legitimacy is developed that accounts for the efficacy of institutional and strategic modes of legitimacy relative to the maturity of the field and objectification of its social formations. We propose that entrepreneurial habitus mediates field-level conditions and capital formations that, when combined, create symbolic capital and resource acquisition possibilities.
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Stringfellow L, MacLaren A, Maclean M, O’Gorman K (2013). Conceptualizing taste: Food, culture and celebrities. Tourism Management, 37, 77-85.
Stringfellow LJ, Shaw E (2009). Conceptualising entrepreneurial capital for a study of performance in small professional service firms.
International Journal of Entrepreneurial Behaviour & Research,
15(2), 137-161.
Abstract:
Conceptualising entrepreneurial capital for a study of performance in small professional service firms
Purpose – the purpose of this paper is to develop a robust theoretical framework for exploring the longitudinal impact of social capital on the performance of small business service firms.
Design/methodology/approach – This conceptual paper builds on theories of capital, particularly entrepreneurial capital, to develop a theoretically robust framework within which to consider the longitudinal impact of social capital on small business service firms.
Findings – Reviewing current literature on entrepreneurial capital demonstrates the difficulty in isolating capital in its various forms due to the convertibility and overlapping nature of different types of capital. Also problematic is the impact of time and the effect which changing amounts and types of capital can have on firm performance. The conceptual model addresses these concerns by exploring social capital in a sector where financial capital presents less of a barrier to entry and where owners' human capital, particularly their educational achievement, is broadly similar. To capture process-based data, three key stages in the entrepreneurship process are explored: nascent, start-up, and established.
Practical implications – Understanding the changing structure and relational aspects of social capital over time and its impact on performance will assist small business owners in utilising their relationships more effectively. Although the study focuses on small professional service firms it may also be applicable to other sectors, or be used in replicated studies with other professions.
Originality/value – the conceptual framework proposed recognises the overlapping and convertible nature of different forms of capital. Further, it recognises the fluctuating nature of entrepreneurial capital over time and the different outcomes which can emerge from social capital
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Stringfellow L, Ennis S, Brennan R, John MJ (2006). Mind the gap: the relevance of marketing education to marketing practice.
Marketing Intelligence and Planning,
24(3), 245-256.
Abstract:
Mind the gap: the relevance of marketing education to marketing practice
Purpose - the aim of this paper is to review the debate on the purpose, focus and necessity of UK undergraduate marketing education. Design/met hodology/approach - Assumptions in this debate are challenged by the collection and analysis of interview data from practitioners, alongside additional data from UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in respect of their current marketing programmes. Findings - the results indicate that there is a large degree of commonality between the offerings at UK HEIs, and that some significant gaps between the teaching offered by the academy, and the knowledge and abilities required by practitioners do exist. Research limitations/implications - the data sets have limitations of depth and scope. Further research is needed in which the details of marketing education and the requirements of marketing practice are examined more closely, and at levels other than undergraduate, and in countries other than the UK. Practical implications - This paper should be of interest to marketing programme managers, and also to marketing module co-ordinators as a basis on which to consider the future development of their educational practices. Originality/value - the collation of data about marketing modules offered by UK HEIs will be of interest to most marketing teachers. Further value will be obtained if this paper is used as part of the re-engineering of a marketing programme. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
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Shaw E, Stringfellow L (2006). Networks, trust and social capital. International Small Business Journal, 24(4), 424-427.
