Enhancing interdisciplinary adoption practices: insights from biology-influenced concepts in management and organizational studies

Abstract

Theoretical breakthroughs are essential in every discipline. In management and organizational domains, it ensures and maintains the relevance and sufficiency of knowledge and tools addressing the ever-changing socially constructed world. Integral to this process, interdisciplinary adoption practices, especially from biology-influenced tenets to management and organizational studies, seem to hold promising prospects of theoretical development for the latter as the target domain. However, the current state of these adoption practices is inadequate in two factors. First, there is limited evidence that proves the potential resourcefulness of adopting biological principles into management and organizational studies. Second, it lacks universal guidance and standards to justify the need for adoption and improve theoretical integration and functionality. As a result, the present practices are subject to fragmentation, inconsistent integration, and oversimplification of adopted concepts, failing to leverage the full potential from the source domain into the organizational contexts.

This thesis seeks to critically address these gaps by providing evidence of the potential resourcefulness of selected biological tenets as conceptual insights and developing a guiding principle to improve the theoretical integration by drawing insights from selected biology-influenced concepts in management and organizational studies. In line with the identified gaps, the thesis sets out to address them following specific and general objectives, presented in a logical and systematic research progression from Paper 1 (exploration phase), Paper 2 (refinement phase), and Paper 3 (realization phase).

Hereon, Paper 1 and Paper 2 specifically demonstrate the untapped potential of selected biological tenets (virology-epidemiology) as a source for theoretical development for organizational studies through the proposition of Viral Transmissibility Theory, introduced as VTT, a reconceptualization of Virus-Inspired Theory or VIT. In the case study of the Edinburgh Net Zero Carbon 2030 plan, Paper 1 utilized the historical analysis method to establish the foundational elements for VTT (heterogeneity in a population, viral entry, and replication strategies) from three localized sustainable city schemes under the Edinburgh Net Zero Carbon 2030 plan. The data involves 150 publicly available documents, seven purposively selected interviews, and observations.

Moving from the theoretical insights from Paper 1, Paper 2 developed the VTT through a rigorous retroductive approach involving the analysis of interviews from 49 participants in the Ministry of Home Affairs of Indonesia (single, dyadic, and focus group discussions), social media content, observations, and publicly available documents in the Indonesian Capital City Relocation initiative. As an alternative to VIT, the newly developed VTT challenges and extends the original virological metaphor to account for the intricate dynamics of idea transmission in heterogeneous populations, incorporating additional features and unique combinations to the framework, which is later introduced as contextual compatibility, iterative reconfiguration, and alternate trajectories of idea transmission. Along with the 1st paper, both demonstrate the potential resourcefulness of interdisciplinary adoption practices, from specific biological tenets (virology and epidemiology) to organization studies.

In a conceptual format, Paper 3 (realization phase) materialized the insights and experience taken during the first two empirical works and combined them with four selected streams of adoption studies in management and organizational domains influenced by biological tenets. This combination helps identify the common pitfalls during the process and develop a universal framework to improve interdisciplinary theoretical integration through the REIR framework.

Altogether, this thesis provides critical contributions to theory, method, and practice by demonstrating how specific biological principles can be systematically integrated to enrich management and organizational studies. By proposing a structured and rigorous approach for future interdisciplinary adoption practices, this thesis underscores the need for a paradigm shift towards deeper theoretical integration and standardized guidelines, optimizing the potential of selected biological tenets as a source of innovative theoretical insights for management and organizational studies. Through the multiple phases, the thesis lays the groundwork for more robust and comprehensive interdisciplinary adoption practices in the management and organizational domain.