Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Firm objects: new realist insights into the sociohistorical ontology of the business enterprise

Firm objects: new realist insights into the sociohistorical ontology of the business enterprise By engaging with recent debates between management historians over social constructionism, this paper aims to show the merits of adopting a new realist ontology of the business enterprise. In contrast with ANTi-History, the purpose is to provide a philosophically rigorous conception of social objects and to argue that enterprises are a member of this category.Design/methodology/approachInsights from Maurizio Ferraris’s documentality theory and Graham Harman’s philosophy of social objects are used to identify the ontological forming ground and developmental pathway of an Antipodean stevedoring company that operated prior to the deregulation of New Zealand’s ports in 1989.FindingsWith regard to social entities in general and firms in particular, continental philosophy’s resurgent realist movement provides a history-aware social ontology that incorporates the grain of truth lying within social constructionism. As exemplified by the writings of Ferraris and Harman, realism provides a viable conception of social objects and, in so doing, a more coherent ontological foundation for the business enterprise than the relational ontology embraced by management history ANTians.Originality/valueBy drawing on two realist perspectives hitherto neglected by management historians, this paper resolves disagreements about the ontology of the business enterprise. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Management History Emerald Publishing

Firm objects: new realist insights into the sociohistorical ontology of the business enterprise

Reveley, James
Journal of Management History , Volume 29 (1): 17 – Jan 16, 2023
Download PDF
17 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/emerald-publishing/firm-objects-new-realist-insights-into-the-sociohistorical-ontology-of-D9CDf8IYpl
Publisher
Emerald Publishing
Copyright
© Emerald Publishing Limited
ISSN
1751-1348
eISSN
1751-1348
DOI
10.1108/jmh-03-2022-0009
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

By engaging with recent debates between management historians over social constructionism, this paper aims to show the merits of adopting a new realist ontology of the business enterprise. In contrast with ANTi-History, the purpose is to provide a philosophically rigorous conception of social objects and to argue that enterprises are a member of this category.Design/methodology/approachInsights from Maurizio Ferraris’s documentality theory and Graham Harman’s philosophy of social objects are used to identify the ontological forming ground and developmental pathway of an Antipodean stevedoring company that operated prior to the deregulation of New Zealand’s ports in 1989.FindingsWith regard to social entities in general and firms in particular, continental philosophy’s resurgent realist movement provides a history-aware social ontology that incorporates the grain of truth lying within social constructionism. As exemplified by the writings of Ferraris and Harman, realism provides a viable conception of social objects and, in so doing, a more coherent ontological foundation for the business enterprise than the relational ontology embraced by management history ANTians.Originality/valueBy drawing on two realist perspectives hitherto neglected by management historians, this paper resolves disagreements about the ontology of the business enterprise.

Journal

Journal of Management History – Emerald Publishing

Published: Jan 16, 2023

Keywords: Business enterprise; Ontology; New realism; Documentality; ANTi-History

References

  • Foreword
    Caffo, L.
  • The treatment of history in organisation studies: towards an ‘historic turn’?
    Clark, P.; Rowlinson, M.
  • There must be a first: why Thomas Aquinas rejects infinite, essentially ordered, causal series
    Cohoe, C.
  • History in the making: following the failed attempt of Wolfgang langewiesche in pan American airways history project
    Deal, G.M.; Mills, A.J.; Mills, J.H.; Durepos, G.; Hartt, C.M.
  • ANTi-History, relationism and the historic turn in management and organization studies
    Durepos, G.; Mills, A.J.
  • ANTi-History: an alternative approach to history
    Durepos, G.; Mills, A.J.; Cassell, C.; Cunliffe, AL.; Grandy, G.
  • From fictions and aggregates to real entities in the theory of the firm
    Gindis, D.
  • Realism with a straight face: a response to Leonard Lawlor
    Harman, G.; Kroupa, G.; Simoniti, J.
  • Actants without actors: polydimensional discussion of a regional conference
    Hartt, C.M.
  • Is history corporeal
    Hartt, C.M.; Hartt, C.M.
  • The role of non-corporeal actant theory in historical research: a case study of henry Wallace and the new deal
    Hartt, C.M.; Mills, A.J.; Mills, J.H.
  • Sense-making and actor networks: the non-corporeal actant and the making of an Air Canada history
    Hartt, C.M.; Mills, A.J.; Mills, J.H.; Corrigan, L.T.
  • Archival research
    Mills, A.J.; Mills, J.H.; Cassell, C.; Cunliffe, A.L.; Grandy, G.
  • Where eagles dare: a discussion on the debates about management history
    Muldoon, J.
  • Controversy as a non-corporeal actant in the community of management historians
    Novicevic, M.N.; Mills, A.J.; Hartt, C.M.
  • Social capital in maritime joint ventures: the case of Lyttelton stevedoring Co., 1977-1989
    Reveley, J.
  • Artefacts, surprise and managing during disaster: object-oriented ontological and assemblage-theoretic insights
    Reveley, J.
  • Avoiding the minutiae of minutes
    Sharp, S.; Rose, A.
  • Modal metaphysics and the existence of god
    Sijuwade, J.R.
  • Desert islands and the origins of antirealism
    Simoniti, J.; Kroupa, G.; Simoniti, J.
  • Document acts
    Smith, B.; Konzelmann Ziv, A.; Schmid, H.B.
  • Traces, documents, and the puzzle of ‘permanent acts’
    Terrone, E.
  • Organizational evolution: a metamorphosis model of convergence and reorientation
    Tushman, M.L.; Romanelli, E.
  • A critique of the quantificational account of existence
    Vallicella, W.F.
  • Social ontology and the modern corporation
    Veldman, J.; Willmott, H.
  • The historic (wrong) turn in management and organizational studies
    Bowden, B.