Michel Léon Ehrenhard

What's Holding Back Social Entrepreneurship? Removing the Impediments to Theoretical Advancement

Abstract This article summarizes four contributions that were presented in a professional development workshop at the 2013 Academy of Management conference. The goal of the workshop was to discuss impediments to the theoretical advancement of social entrepreneurship. This papers first two contributors discuss assumptions and boundaries of social entrepreneurship, exhibiting contrasting views of whether theory should be aggregated or disaggregated. The other two scholars focus on specific topics that advance social entrepreneurship research, specifically, studying the implicit normative underpinning of social entrepreneurship and social innovation processes. This is part three of a three-part series dealing with the future of social entrepreneurship research and theory.

The structuration of managing for results : a practice perspective on middle managers in the Dutch Central Government

This study is driven by a desire to understand why organizational changes in general ‐but especially in government‐ are so difficult to achieve. For this purpose we contrasted the traditional legal‐rational bureaucracy with the Managing for Results (MFR) template. Next, we developed a structuration theory based lens to be able to study these competing templates in practice. With this lens we focused on middle managers’ behaviors during the implementation of MFR initiatives in the Dutch central government. Specifically, we first explored change agents’ views, after which we conducted in‐depth field studies in two Dutch ministries. Based on our data we iteratively developed propositions on middle managers’ behaviors. Among the concepts that surfaced in this study, we found mindfulness and bricolage to play a particularly important role in successful change efforts. Since these behaviors are present‐oriented they enable change agents and/or managers to overcome past‐oriented institutionalized responses to change impromptu. Similarly, we found that when middle managers actively and/or passively resisted MFR implementation they were mostly influenced by territoriality and traditional beliefs, moreover, by a low perceived behavioral control.

#WhoAmI in 160 characters? Classifying social identities based on Twitter profile descriptions

We combine social theory and NLP methods to classify English-speaking Twitter users’ online social identity in profile descriptions. We conduct two text classification experiments. In Experiment 1 we use a 5-category online social identity classification based on identity and self-categorization theories. While we are able to automatically classify two identity categories (Relational and Occupational), automatic classification of the other three identities (Political, Ethnic/religious and Stigmatized) is challenging. In Experiment 2 we test a merger of such identities based on theoretical arguments. We find that by combining these identities we can improve the predictive performance of the classifiers in the experiment. Our study shows how social theory can be used to guide NLP methods, and how such methods provide input to revisit traditional social theory that is strongly consolidated in offline settings.

Activist versus Slacktivist: A Dual Path Model of Online Protest Mobilization

Business protests, aimed at changing firm behavior, increasingly make use of websites to mobilize large numbers of participants. However, we know little about how protest organizers can motivate a ...

Physician’ entrepreneurship explained: a case study of intra-organizational dynamics in Dutch hospitals and specialty clinics

BackgroundChallenges brought about by developments such as continuing market reforms and budget reductions have strained the relation between managers and physicians in hospitals. By applying neo-institutional theory, we research how intra-organizational dynamics between physicians and managers induce physicians to become entrepreneurs by starting a specialty clinic. In addition, we determine the nature of this change by analyzing the intra-organizational dynamics in both hospitals and clinics.MethodsFor our research, we interviewed a total of fifteen physicians and eight managers in four hospitals and twelve physicians and seven managers in twelve specialty clinics.ResultsWe found evidence that in becoming entrepreneurs, physicians are influenced by intra-organizational dynamics, including power dependence, interest dissatisfaction, and value commitments, between physicians and managers as well as among physicians’ groups. The precise motivation for starting a new clinic can vary depending on the medical or business logic in which the entrepreneurs are embedded, but also the presence of an entrepreneurial nature or nurture. Finally we found that the entrepreneurial process of starting a specialty clinic is a process of sedimented change or hybridized professionalism in which elements of the business logic are added to the existing logic of medical professionalism, leading to a hybrid logic.ConclusionsThese findings have implications for policy at both the national and hospital level. Shared ownership and aligned incentives may provide the additional cement in which the developing entrepreneurial values are ‘glued’ to the central medical logic.

#SupportTheCause: Identifying Motivations to Participate in Online Health Campaigns

We consider the task of automatically identifying participants’ motivations in the public health campaign Movember and investigate the impact of the different motivations on the amount of campaign donations raised. Our classification scheme is based on the Social Identity Model of Collective Action (van Zomeren et al., 2008). We find that automatic classification based on Movember profiles is fairly accurate, while automatic classification based on tweets is challenging. Using our classifier, we find a strong relation between types of motivations and donations. Our study is a first step towards scaling-up collective action research methods.

Narrowing the Gap between Open Standards Policy and Practice: The Dutch E-Government Experience

Interoperability in the public sector can be improved by the use of open standards. Nonetheless, the openness of standards in government policies is debatable. This paper introduces the Dutch government policy on open standards, and will introduce a multi-dimensional view (and model) on openness rather than a one-dimensional strict definition. Applicability of the multi-dimensional model is tested in a case study, which demonstrates that this model has value for standardization organizations active in the government domain. In future cases the model helps in understanding how government-related standardization organizations can influence openness in a situation-specific way and the model therefore narrows the gap between open standards policy and practice.

Identity and collective action via computer-mediated communication: A review and agenda for future research

Since the start of large-scale waves of mobilisation in 2011, the importance of identity in the study of collective action via computer-mediated communication (CMC) has been a source of contention. Hence, our research sets out to systematically review and synthesise empirical findings on identity and collective action via CMC from 2012 to 2016. We found that the literature on the topic is broad and diverse, with contributions from multiple disciplines and theoretical and methodological approaches. Based on our findings, we provide directions for future research and propose the adoption of an integrative approach that combines the study of identity and networks to advance our understanding of collective action via CMC. This review contributes to the crossroad of social movement, collective action, communication and media studies. Our results also have practical implications for the organisation of collective action in a society characterised by the pervasive influence of CMC.

Reviewing the Role of Media Attributes in Mobilizing Protest Participation

Activist groups increasingly use computer-mediated communication (CMC) channels to mobilize large groups of consumers to persuade incumbent firms to change their contested strategies or practices. The attributes of CMC channels change the effectiveness of persuasion processes in organizations. Similarly, attributes may change the effectiveness of protest mobilization. Yet, organizational research to date has mostly neglected this potential effect. This paper systematically reviews the effect of CMC attributes on the antecedents of protest participation. We construct a conceptual framework based on social movement and media choice theory, which guides the systematic collation of online activism research. Three main themes emerge from the literature. First, we find that the interactivity of online activism decreases the need for formal mobilizing structures, while increasing the importance of informal mobilizing structures for protest diffusion and global cooperation between activist groups. Second, increased interactivity and user control provide an alternative media channel for consumers and resource-poor activist groups to express and bundle their grievances. Third, the degree of publicness and interactivity seems to stimulate the formation of multiple, online collective identities that are rather interest-based than identity-based. We conclude this paper with a conceptual model that highlights the most prominent relations found in literature and discuss the implications for future research and practitioners

Structuring shared services: realizing SSC benefits through end-users' usage of an HR portal

Abstract Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the use of shared services by end-users and why this may conflict with the use as intended by the shared service center (SSC) management. Methodology/approach By applying structuration theory, this empirical study draws on qualitative data obtained from semi-structured interviews with managers and end-users of an SSC. This SSC is part of a Dutch subsidiary of a multinational corporation that produces professional electronics for the defense and security market. Findings We find two main types of shared services usage by end-users which were not intended by the SSC management: avoidance and window-dressing. These forms of unintended usage were the result of contradictions in social structures related to the centralization and decentralization models as appropriated by end-users and management. Implications Our findings show that the benefits of shared services depends on how well contradictions in managers’ and end-users’ interpretive schemes, resources, and norms associated with centralization and decentralization models are resolved. Originality/value A popular argument in existing studies is that the benefit of shared services follows from the design of the SSC’s organizational structure. These studies overlook the fact that shared services are not always used as their designers intended and, therefore, that success depends on how the SSC’s organizational structure is appropriated by end-users. As such, the originality of this study is our focus on the way shared services are used by their end-users in order to explain why SSCs succeed or fail in reaping their promised benefits.