Johanna Mair

Institutional Work: Bringing change into the lives of the poor: entrepreneurship outside traditional boundaries

The powerful imagery of entrepreneurship as a means to induce and explain institutional change is gaining momentum (Greenwood & Suddaby, 2006; Lawrence & Suddaby, 2006). In response to criticisms that institutional theory was chiefly being used to explain homogeneity and persistence, important efforts have been devoted to restoring human agency in explanations of endogenous institutional change (DiMaggio, 1988; Sewell, 1992; Emirbayer & Mische, 1998). However, the image of the entrepreneur as institutional change agent has also been a source of controversy among institutional theorists, especially when accompanied by voluntarist, un-embedded conceptions of individual action (Holm, 1995; Leca & Naccache, 2006). As a result we observe vivid scholarly discussions on how to solve the “paradox of embedded agency”– i.e. on explaining how institutional change is possible if actors are fully conditioned by the institutions that they wish to change (Holm, 1995; Seo & Creed, 2002; Greenwood & Suddaby, 2006). The current debate is important and we welcome more agent-oriented views on institutions. The purpose of this chapter is to advance institutional theory by rethinking various aspects of institutional work (Lawrence & Suddaby, 2006; DiMaggio, 1988) and thereby to contribute new insights into the paradox of embedded agency. We do so by challenging and breaking dominant patterns in current empirical research. While previous research on institutional entrepreneurship has predominantly looked at elite and/or powerful actors (DiMaggio, 1988; Fligstein & Mara-Drita, 1996) who assume either peripheral (Leblebici, Salancik, Copay & King, 1991) or central (Greenwood & Suddaby, 2006) positions, we focus instead on institutional work carried out by actors with limited power and very few resources.

Organizations Driving Positive Social Change: A Review and an Integrative Framework of Change Processes

Academic and practitioner interest in how market-based organizations can drive positive social change (PSC) is steadily growing. This paper helps to recast how organizations relate to society. It integrates research on projects stimulating PSC—the transformational processes to advance societal well-being—that is fragmented across different streams of research in management and related disciplines. Focusing on the mechanisms at play in how organizations and their projects affect change in targets outside of organizational boundaries, we (1) clarify the nature of PSC as a process, (2) develop an integrative framework that specifies two distinct PSC strategies, (3) take stock of and offer a categorization scheme for change mechanisms and enabling organizational practices, and (4) outline opportunities for future research. Our conceptual framework differentiates between surface- and deep-level PSC strategies understood as distinct combinations of change mechanisms and enabling organizational practices. These strategies differ in the nature and speed of transformation experienced by the targets of change projects and the resulting quality (pervasiveness and durability), timing, and reach of social impact. Our findings provide a solid base for integrating and advancing knowledge across the largely disparate streams of management research on corporate social responsibility, social entrepreneurship, and base of the pyramid and open up important new avenues for future research on organizing for PSC and on unpacking PSC processes.

Social Entrepreneurs Directly Contribute to Global Development Goals

In 1987, Gro Harlem Brundtland put forward the global objective of achieving sustainable development (UN General Assembly, 1987). She had been tasked by the United Nations General Assembly in 1983 to ‘make available a report on environment and the global problematique to the year 2000 and beyond, including proposed strategies for sustainable development’ (UN General Assembly, 1983). In her report, she explicitly assigned priority to satisfying the essential needs of the poor, such as those for ‘food, clothing, shelter, jobs’, and also to provide them with the ‘opportunity to satisfy their aspirations for a better life’. This should be achieved, however, without ‘compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs’ (Brundtland, 1987). Brundtland thus identified the main goal for global efforts to trace a path of balanced social and economic development which was also compatible with a notion of social equity across the dimensions of space and time. Her report left open the question of how such balanced development could be achieved: nNo single blueprint of sustainability will be found, as economic and social systems and ecological conditions differ widely among countries. Each nation will have to work out its own concrete policy implications.

Organizational Closure Competencies and Scaling: A Realist Approach to Theorizing Social Enterprise

Originality/Value of ChapternThis chapter demonstrates how to operationalize realist philosophy of science for causal explanations of complex social phenomena and better utilize its theoretical and practical value.

Waste Concern: Fixing Market Failures

In 1995 Iftekhar Enayetullah and Abu Hasnat Md. Maqsood Sinha founded Waste Concern to research and develop solutions to the problem of waste in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh. Over the years they established a number of companies and grew nationally and internationally. They also pioneered two Clean Development Mechanism projects under the United Nations program. In this case we describe the financial problems faced by the entrepreneurs as the carbon market plummeted affecting their Clean Development Mechanism projects. We also report other unforeseen issues such as the electricity crisis and the problem with accessing the site needed for implementing the projects. The case illustrates how Enayetullah and Sinha deal with these problems. Their approach can be summarized by their own words “when there is a problem, there is also an opportunity”. The case also illustrates the number of challenges and questions that ensued.

Scaling innovative ideas to create inclusive labour markets

Social innovation can be a powerful tool for positive change, but we need to rethink scaling as an integral part of the innovation process, explains Johanna Mair.