DBA 702
PREFACE
The second edition of this book was published over ten years ago and we, as the authors, have since learnt so much from using that edition that we feel it is now time to come out with a new edition which incorporates that knowledge. We are, therefore, happy to present its third edition. Over the years the book has been used by us as teachers and as supervisors in various
academic contexts in different parts of the world. A very great number of educators in similar roles worldwide have also used it and some of them have sent us useful pedagogical comments from time to time. Also, as the question of methodology concerns everybody in a position of creating and
disseminating knowledge, opinions on what the subject is all about are many. We have participated in many debates and dialogues, in seminar rooms, lecture theatres, conferences of various sorts, cafeterias and bars, as well as in cyberspace, on this subject – discussions which commonly involve our book. We have learnt much from these diverse conversations. However, outside teaching and supervising purposes in tertiary educational positions, we
have also used those ideas on which the book is based in our roles as consultants in industry and elsewhere, and as participants in, more or less public, investigations, commissioned by, for instance, industrial organizations, educators’ associations or governmental institutions. This has also provided us with valuable experience about what it means to use the book. Furthermore, in order get more input about the revision of the book into its third edition, it
has been sent out by our publisher to several reviewers. Many useful and progressive comments have come to us by this way as well. Even if the reviewers are, and will remain, anonymous, we thank them for their contributions. All the above have been with us when writing the third edition of the book, which has taken
us about one year. Several changes, modifications and additions have been worked into the book, of which the most important ones are the following:
The new edition has a refined pedagogical, linguistic and stringent structure. With the addition of a couple of new chapters we are also reinforcing its unique profile by, in the same book, combining and illustrating both theory of science/methodological issues with business practical/empirical ones. The unique profile of the book has been further developed. The theory of science/methodological theme of the book has been deepened. At the same time it been made additionally accessible by more practical examples, while the discussion of its position among various philosophical “schools” has now been extended and placed in an Appendix. In this way, the book becomes still more useful at several academic levels.For students at a lower level, the text is free from long and complicated abstract deliberations which could easily hide simpler relations of relevance to the reader, at the same time as
Arbnor, I., & Bjerke, B. (2008). Methodology for creating business knowledge. ProQuest Ebook Central <a onclick=window.open('http://ebookcentral.proquest.com','_blank') href='http://ebookcentral.proquest.com' target='_blank' style='cursor: pointer;'>http://ebookcentral.proquest.com</a> Created from indwes on 2021-03-03 13:07:26.
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there is, for readers who want to go further into the subject, a more philosophically oriented Appendix directly related to what is said in the text itself. This Appendix also includes suggestions for further reading. All of this will deepen the theory of science connections of the new edition compared to the previous one. The practical/empirical theme of the book has also been deepened and developed. The text has, from Chapter 2, practical examples where different methodological points of departure are illustrated in concrete terms relevant to the topic of the book. In the new edition, furthermore, most of previous cases have been replaced by new and more pedagogic, as well as more varied, ones, in order to cover a greater number of areas within the subject of business. The cases have been chosen and written such that they, in general terms, should be experienced as more exciting and easier to read. The terminology has been developed. An extended set of terminology has been brought into the third edition including, for example, methodology of complementarity. This involves extensive discussion of how various methodological views can be approached in reconciliation with each other and assessed as such “combinations”. Crealiability is another example of this terminology, which refers to the quality assessment of knowledge- creating works. The illustrations in the book are completely new. All illustrations in the book have been remade and a unique graphical language of design has been developed in order to illustratively describe all the methodological and empirical themes of the book. Also, in many cases, the illustrations build on each other in order to extend the pedagogic ability of this graphical language of design to communicate aspects in both theoretical and practical areas of methodology, which could be difficult to comprehend. The pedagogical design has been improved. Every chapter finishes with a “Points of reflection” section, where the reader is posed a number of questions. The idea is to intensify the instructive capability of the book. In all, there are 162 such questions for the student to answer. To the instructor there is an offer of a compendium with suggested answers to these questions as the authors see them. The book has also become part of an interactive effort. We have created a website (knowledge-creator.com) in order to improve communication among our readers, interested in the topic of creating business knowledge and business intelligence. This site will include, among other things, ideas for further reading, a question and answer section, a wiki of methodology for creating business knowledge and a forum for discussions.
However, there are some aspects which have not changed and which have been with us all the way from the first edition of the book:
It presents a “complete” overview of what methodology is all about, all the way from theory of science and ultimate presumptions, to the practical applications of specific techniques for creating knowledge in business. In fact, if such links are not considered, we would not like to call it methodology! As before, it is based on the belief that methodology as such requires its own metalanguage. The kind of language used in the third edition is, in principle, the same as
Arbnor, I., & Bjerke, B. (2008). Methodology for creating business knowledge. ProQuest Ebook Central <a onclick=window.open('http://ebookcentral.proquest.com','_blank') href='http://ebookcentral.proquest.com' target='_blank' style='cursor: pointer;'>http://ebookcentral.proquest.com</a> Created from indwes on 2021-03-03 13:07:26.
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in previous editions, but several refinements, developments and additions have been made, as mentioned above. We have been very careful to make sure that the new developments and additions not contradictory with what is in there from before. We keep to our point of departure that the foundation of creating knowledge in business can be comprehended by three different methodological views. We call these the analytical view, the systems view and the actors view. We still believe that these methodological views are built on paradigms, which cannot be compared or assessed from any logical or empirical grounds. Our methodological views can therefore not, in principle, be compared with each other from any neutral points of departure and it is not possible from any general ground to say which of the three views is scientifically best, most profitable, or the like.
The professional relationship between the two of us started more than thirty years ago. However, we have not been working together for many years now. It is therefore not surprising that we have developed differently and to some extent gone our own ways. The past year has therefore involved many and intensive discussions about what the design and content of the third edition of our Methodology for Creating Business Knowledge should be and how it should be improved based on our, partly individual, experiences and feedbacks. These discussions have been very fruitful and we are convinced that, without them, the book would not have been so good. We believe that the book provides an opportunity for the user of its message and terminology
to discuss his/her methodology of knowledge creating in a kind of language commonality with, in principle, anybody else. Furthermore, we believe that it provides the reader with a unique in-depth understanding of what methodology is all about and his/her role in it. Also, the reader is offered, by our methodology of complementarity, the ability to use his/her creativity to go beyond what normally restricts the creation of knowledge. This improves, as we see it, the chance that the reader feels less lost and less strictly bound by whichever methodological view he/she intends to be an essential part of.
Ingeman Arbnor Björn Bjerke
Additional online material for teachers can be found at www.sagepub.co.uk/arbnor
Arbnor, I., & Bjerke, B. (2008). Methodology for creating business knowledge. ProQuest Ebook Central <a onclick=window.open('http://ebookcentral.proquest.com','_blank') href='http://ebookcentral.proquest.com' target='_blank' style='cursor: pointer;'>http://ebookcentral.proquest.com</a> Created from indwes on 2021-03-03 13:07:26.
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