Paul Tracey

Social Entrepreneurship: A Critique and Future Directions

Work on social entrepreneurship constitutes a field of study that intersects a number of domains, including entrepreneurial studies, social innovation, and nonprofit management. Scholars are beginning to contribute to the development of this new discipline through efforts that attempt to trace the emergence of social entrepreneurship as well as by comparing it to other organizational activities such as conventional entrepreneurship. However, as a nascent field, social entrepreneurship scholars are in the midst of a number of debates involving definitional and conceptual clarity, boundaries of the field, and a struggle to arrive at a set of relevant and meaningful research questions. This paper examines the promise of social entrepreneurship as a domain of inquiry and suggests a number of research areas and research questions for future study.

Social Bricolage: Theorizing Social Value Creation in Social Enterprises

Current theorizations of bricolage in entrepreneurship studies require refinement and development to be used as a theoretical framework for social entrepreneurship. Our analysis traces bricolages conceptual underpinnings from various disciplines, identifying its key constructs as making do, a refusal to be constrained by limitations, and improvisation. Although these characteristics appear to epitomize the process of creating social enterprises, our research identifies three further constructs associated with social entrepreneurship: social value creation, stakeholder participation, and persuasion. Using data from a qualitative study of eight U.K. social enterprises, we apply the bricolage concept to social entrepreneurial action and propose an extended theoretical framework of social bricolage.

Bridging Institutional Entrepreneurship and the Creation of New Organizational Forms: A Multilevel Model

The question of how new organizational forms are created remains an unsolved problem in new institutional theory. We argue that one important way that new organizational forms emerge is through a process of bridging institutional entrepreneurship, which involves an institutional entrepreneur combining aspects of established institutional logics to create a new type of organization underpinned by a new, hybrid logic. Building on an in-depth case study of a social enterprise in the United Kingdom, we present a model of the institutional work required for this type of institutional entrepreneurship. The model highlights the multilevel nature of bridging institutional entrepreneurship, showing that it entails institutional work at the micro-, meso-, and macrolevels. The study contributes to the literature by examining an important way that institutional entrepreneurs create new organizational forms; shedding light on the relationship between individual, organizational, and societal level institutional processes; and exploring the relationship between entrepreneurship and institutional entrepreneurship.

Altruism and Agency in the Family Firm: Exploring the Role of Family, Kinship, and Ethnicity

This article examines the relationship between altruism and agency costs in family business through an in–depth case study of a family firm. We found that altruism reduced agency costs in the early stages of the business, but that agency problems increased as the venture became larger and more established. Moreover, we suggest that altruistic behavior need not be confined to family and close kin, but may extend through networks of distant kin and ethnic ties. We thus present a more complex view of the agency relationship in family business than is often portrayed in the existing literature.

Toward a Theory of Social Venture Franchising

This article examines the relevance of the two main theories used to understand business format franchising—resource scarcity theory and agency theory—for social venture franchising through an in–depth case study of one of the United Kingdoms first and most high–profile social franchises. We posit that both theories can be reframed to take account of the distinctive characteristics of social franchise systems. In developing our arguments, we present four findings that, taken together, move us closer toward a theory of social venture franchising.

Religion and Organization: A Critical Review of Current Trends and Future Directions

Given the profound role that religion continues to play in contemporary societies, it is surprising that management researchers have not explored the intersection between religion and organization ...

The Dialectic of Social Exchange: Theorizing Corporate—Social Enterprise Collaboration:

We augment social exchange theory with dialectical theory to build a framework to examine corporate—social enterprise collaborations. These cross-sector collaborations represent a novel form of political-economic arrangement seeking to reconcile the efficient functioning of markets with the welfare of communities. We propose that corporate—social enterprise collaborations are shaped by (1) the value that each member of the collaboration attributes to their partner’s inputs, (2) competing practices and priorities intrinsic to the corporation and the social enterprise, and (3) expected benefits of the collaboration to each partner. For a synthesized state of collaboration to emerge and the partnership to be sustained, we posit that the antithetical forces inherent within the relationship must be resolved.

Alliances, Networks and Competitive Strategy: Rethinking Clusters of Innovation

Networks of interaction have assumed particular significance in recent years because of their presumed importance for learning and innovation. Alliances between related firms are thought to encourage interactive learning between participating organizations through the sharing of knowledge and information, which is itself facilitated through trust, shared values and ways of working. The vast body of literature that has emerged is, however, incredibly fragmented, encompassing an array of theoretical positions and perspectives. This paper focuses upon two issues which are believed to be of particular significance and which need clarification in order to move to a clearer understanding of the ways in which networks of interaction evolve, and of their capabilities and limitations in relation to economic performance and competitiveness: (1) the importance of network structure, arguing that innovative activity requires flexibility with regard to network formation. (2) The role of geography in relation to the construction and functioning of alliances. It is the contention here that networks are likely to be increasingly international in scope.

Rethinking institutional distance: strengthening the tie between new institutional theory and international management

Research in international management (IM) has long recognized the importance of understanding the institutional differences between countries. Indeed, ‘a basic premise of much of IM research has been that firms are embedded in country-specific institutional arrangements’ (Busenitz et al., 2000: 994). One important strand of this literature focuses on institutional distance: ‘the difference/similarity between the regulatory, cognitive, and normative institutions of . . . two countries’ (Kostova and Zaheer, 1999: 71). However, the version of institutional theory that this work draws upon is dated and narrow, and this limits the usefulness of the concept. In this essay, we argue for a new conceptualization of institutional distance based on recent developments in new institutional theory (see Greenwood et al., 2008). More specifically, we argue that institutional distance should be reconceptualized in three ways. First, we argue that institutionalization is a matter of degree and that low levels of institutionalization increase institutional distance. Current conceptualizations of institutional distance fail to include this effect. Second, we argue that including the concept of organizational field allows for a multi-level analysis that incorporates subnational, national and supranational institutional differences resulting in a better measurement. Finally, we introduce the concept of institutional entrepreneurship to discussions of institutional distance. This provides an exciting new opportunity for theorizing about the activities of firms involved in international activity. STRATEGIC ORGANIZATION Vol 7(3): 339–348 DOI: 10.1177/1476127009337439

Recasting the city into city-regions: Place promotion, competitiveness benchmarking and the quest for urban supremacy

This essay critically examines twenty-two studies designed to measure the competitiveness of cities and city-regions. We suggest that while this research may show statistical correlations between different dimensions of competitiveness, there is little in the way of causation. More fundamentally, our main point is to question the utility of such studies. Regional disparities in terms of wealth and living standards are well known; simply recasting the spatial scale to the city or the city-region does not change the underlying fundamentals of regional performance.