Authors: Gary Buttriss; Ian Wilkinson
A central focus of IMP research is the process of development and evolutionof firms, relations and networks. Narrative Sequence methods, first developedin sociology but not widely known or used in marketing, offer a means of moresystematically examining and explaining such processes of change over time.We use these methods to guide our analysis of a particular case study of theevolution of ebusiness in a major Australian financial institution.Narrative sequence methods stem from a desire to move from an analysis ofcausation in terms interaction among disembodied proximate variables to afocus on the interaction of ?events? taking place over time, in which actors actand interact to go from ‘snap-shots? highlighting simple correlation betweenvariables, to ?moving pictures? in which the timing and order of unfoldingevents is of central interest.First we review some of the main types of factors shaping the evolution ofebusiness in a firm. Next, we describe the nature of narrative sequencemethods before providing an overview of the focal case. We then describeand illustrate some of the ways the case can be analysed using narrativesequence methods and discuss the issues and problems involved.
Journal: ( – )
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Publish Year: 2004
Conference: Copenhagen, Denmark (2004)