Two papers on diversity and retailing which are partly authored by researchers from the Department of Business administration has been selected as Outstanding papers in the 2017 Emerald Literati Network Awards for Excellence.
"The purpose of the paper is to challenge the dominance of the mainstream discourse and practice of diversity management (DM) by identifying and problematizing three distinct but related issues that it encompasses: first, its tendency to displace all alternative approaches; second, its general neglect of the social-historical context and third, its almost exclusive focus on the business case rationale for supporting diversity. The paper shows that in neglecting power, identity, intersectionality and the changing socio-historical context of diversity, a well-meaning corporate diversity programme tended to obscure ethnic and age-related disadvantages at work." (from the abstract)
Authors: David Knights and Vedran Omanović
Read the article (Mis)managing diversity: exploring the dangers of diversity management orthodoxy
"Digitalization denotes an on-going transformation of great importance for the retail sector. The purpose of the paper is to analyse the phenomenon of the digitalization of retailing by developing a conceptual framework that can be used to further delineate current transformations of the retailer-consumer interface. A framework is developed for digitalization in the retail-consumer interface that consists of four elements: exchanges, actors, offerings, and settings. Drawing on the previous literature, it describes and exemplifies how digitalization transforms each of these elements and identifies implications and proposals for future research." (from the abstract)
Authors: Johan Hagberg, Malin Sundstrom, Niklas Egels-Zandén
Read the article The digitalization of retailing: an exploratory framework