Papers by Charlene Zietsma
This paper documents egocentric biases in market-entry decisions. We demonstrate self-focused exp... more This paper documents egocentric biases in market-entry decisions. We demonstrate self-focused explanations for entrydecisions made by three groups of participants: actual entrepreneurs (founders), working professionals who considered starting their own firms but did not (nonfounders), and participants in a market-entry experiment. Potential entrants based their decision to enter primarily on evaluations of their own competence (or incompetence) and paid relatively little attention to the strength of the competition. Our results suggest that excess entrepreneurial entry is more complicated than simple overconfidence, and can help explain notable patterns in entrepreneurial entry. Key words: entrepreneurial entry; egocentrism; market entry; overconfidence; underconfidence One of the key contributions of Cyert and March’s (1963) behavioral theory of the firm is the notion that organizations conduct a limited search for information. Organizational decision makers conduct a local search ...
Organization Science
Firms are increasingly responding to social and environmental issues in highly complex and hetero... more Firms are increasingly responding to social and environmental issues in highly complex and heterogeneous organizational fields that transcend national boundaries. Yet, we still have a limited understanding of how these fields are structured and the implications of structural variation on how issues are addressed over time. We advance theory in this area by arguing that issue fields are characterized by varying settlement constellations that structure these fields. We develop a typology of three settlement constellations—unified, fragmented, and bifurcated—and describe their impact on field structure and the challenges they raise for addressing field-defining issues. We then theorize the evolution of fields with different settlement constellations and explain how and why constellations are sustained over time as well as when they may change. Our paper helps advance theory on organizational fields, private regulation, and firm responses to social and environmental issues. More broadly...
SAGE Publications Inc., Mar 1, 2002
Organization Studies, 2015
Motivated by the question of how to develop viable new markets and value chains in the resource-c... more Motivated by the question of how to develop viable new markets and value chains in the resource-constrained settings of least developed countries, we adopted multi-year qualitative methods to examine the intervention of a nongovernmental organization (NGO) in developing the dairy value chain in Bangladesh. Consistent with the theoretical premise that markets and value chains are social orders, we found that the NGO’s success relied on building the social structure of a market wherein market participants could negotiate relationships and norms of production and exchange and embed them in practices and technologies. To establish social structure among participants as a means of market building, the NGO acquired relevant knowledge, then used contextual bridging (transferring new meanings, practices and structures into a given context in a way that is sensitive to the norms, practices, knowledge and relationships that exist in that context), brokering relationships along the value chain...
Academy of Management Proceedings, 2003
This article discusses the multilevel determinants and processes of institutional change in the B... more This article discusses the multilevel determinants and processes of institutional change in the British Columbia coastal forest industry. Institutional change is attracting increasing attention among organizational scholars. Individual organizations change first, often stimulated by changes in the broader environment. Innovations are later mimetically adopted by other organizations under certain conditions. Within an organization, the need for change is noticed and championed by an individual or team, and the adoption of change requires adjustments in the interpretations of other organization members. For years in British Columbia, environmentalists and forest companies engaged in a War of the Woods. Environmentalists protested clearcutting (a logging practice in which all of the trees in an area are cut), by blockading roads and chaining themselves to logging equipment. Clearcutting was institutionalized by practice, by legislation, and normatively. Forest companies staunchly defended clearcutting as tre...
Organization Studies, 2013
How do relatively low-power, role-constrained actors break through their constraints in a highly ... more How do relatively low-power, role-constrained actors break through their constraints in a highly institutionalized environment? Examining the experience of Japanese middle-class housewives involved in a social enterprise, we developed a model of emergent identity work which outlines how actors who enacted their role values in new domains triggered a process of learning and sensemaking which led to spiralling cycles of role boundary expansion. In this process, facilitated by an enabling collective, actors not only changed their own self-concept (internal identity work) but also, through external identity work, changed others’ conceptions of their institutionally prescribed roles.
Organization Science, 2007
T his paper documents egocentric biases in market-entry decisions. We demonstrate self-focused ex... more T his paper documents egocentric biases in market-entry decisions. We demonstrate self-focused explanations for entry decisions made by three groups of participants: actual entrepreneurs (founders), working professionals who considered starting their own firms but did not (nonfounders), and participants in a market-entry experiment. Potential entrants based their decision to enter primarily on evaluations of their own competence (or incompetence) and paid relatively little attention to the strength of the competition. Our results suggest that excess entrepreneurial entry is more complicated than simple overconfidence, and can help explain notable patterns in entrepreneurial entry.
Corporate Reputation Review, 2008
To broaden understanding of the dynamics of collective reputation management, we conducted a long... more To broaden understanding of the dynamics of collective reputation management, we conducted a longitudinal, qualitative study of two industries whose legitimacy was under sustained and intense attack by environmental stakeholders. Our study traces the emergence of, and dynamic tension between, collective and competitive reputation management, and examines the motives for and effects of specific strategies used by the industry, individual firms and groups of firms. The paper contributes to theory building on the dynamic interplay of, and tensions between, collective and competitive reputation management.
Business & Society, 2007
This article aims to deepen the understanding of the processes and specific actions aimed at infl... more This article aims to deepen the understanding of the processes and specific actions aimed at influencing and shaping business practices through dynamic stakeholder relationships. An inductive, longitudinal study of all players involved in a stakeholder conflict identified four clusters of influence tactics that were used by both secondary stakeholders and their target firms: issue raising, issue suppressing, positioning, and solution seeking. The stakeholders studied built elaborate influence chains and worked to direct influence flows. The study contributes to stakeholder theory by offering a refined understanding of both bilateral and mutual-influence tactics, expanding the theory's focus beyond bilateral relationships, and highlighting the use of dependence relationships among multiple embedded organizations to build influence over a specific target, and more generally, an organizational field. These findings are discussed in light of work on social movement organizations and...
Academy of Management Learning & Education, 2012
We reviewed two key repositories of social entrepreneurship pedagogical resources: Ashoka.org and... more We reviewed two key repositories of social entrepreneurship pedagogical resources: Ashoka.org and CasePlace.org. Each provides a set of useful resources, comprising videos, syllabi, cases, readings and other resources that make it easy for instructors to design social entrepreneurship courses, modules, or programs. We caution against what we see as overenthusiasm for the topic, however, since social entrepreneurship involves tinkering with social structures, sometimes with disastrous unintended effects. We advise instructors to teach their students to think critically about social entrepreneurship initiatives, since they include the potential for harm as well as good.
Academy of Management Journal, 2014
We would like to thank Mike Lounsbury, Bob Hinings, Oana Branzei, Royston Greenwood, Remus Ilies ... more We would like to thank Mike Lounsbury, Bob Hinings, Oana Branzei, Royston Greenwood, Remus Ilies and Christine Oliver for their insightful comments and suggestions. We are also indebted to the members of the Organization Theory Research Group (OTREG), members of the Dutch Institutional Theory group (DIT), and the reviewers and participants of the symposium on 'Experimental Research in Institutional Theory' at the Academy of Management Annual Meeting (2012) for their insightful remarks on earlier versions of the paper. We thank Helen Pluut for her assistance in data collection and Hendrik Straat for his insightful comments on some questions concerning data analysis. We also greatly appreciate the support of the Waarborgfonds Kinderopvang. In addition, we thank three AMJ reviewers and especially associate editor Marta Geletkanycz for her guidance and support.
Academy of Management Journal, 2012
We examine organizational field change instigated by activists. Contrary to existing views emphas... more We examine organizational field change instigated by activists. Contrary to existing views emphasizing incumbent resistance, we suggest that collaboration between incumbents and challenger movements may emerge when a movement's cultural and relational fabric becomes moderately structured, creating threats and market opportunities but remaining permeable to external influence. We also elucidate how lead incumbents' attempts at movement cooptation may be deflected through distributed brokerage. The resulting confluence of cultural and relational "structuration" between movement and field accelerates the pace but dilutes the radicalness of institutional innovation, ensuring ongoing, incremental field change. Overall, this article contributes to the emergent literature on field dynamics by uncovering the evolution and outcomes of collaborative work at the intersection of social movements and incumbent fields. We would like to thank past chief editor Duane Ireland and the three anonymous reviewers for their excellent comments and suggestions. The first author also thankfully acknowledges Roy Suddaby, Royston Greenwood, Marvin Washington, and all other members of the De-partment of Strategic Management and Organization at the Alberta School of Business for the inspiring discussions on a draft during her visiting doctoral scholarship. We are also indebted to Anoop Madhok, Tom Lawrence, and Zhi Huang for their feedback on drafts. Of course, any errors are our responsibility.
Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Oct 3, 2018
No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or ... more No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters' suitability and application and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use.
Journal of Business Venturing
Abstract How can new ventures successfully distinguish themselves from competitors and incumbents... more Abstract How can new ventures successfully distinguish themselves from competitors and incumbents while also ensuring that the new venture is seen as legitimate and appropriate? This tension is challenging. If a new venture is not seen as legitimate, usually by conforming to typical models of firms in its category, it will struggle to access resources, attract customers, satisfy regulators and curry favor from other stakeholders. This makes commercialization challenging. At the same time, entrepreneurs must convince customers, investors, and suppliers that their nascent firm is offering something new and valuable. This is the challenge of optimal distinctiveness: how different can and should firms be? Prior research addressing the challenge of optimal distinctiveness has suggested that firms strike a strategic balance between conformity for legitimation and competitive differentiation, and also that firms should be as different as legitimately possible. While similar, there is ambiguity in these prescriptions. Should firms perfectly balance legitimacy and differentiation, or aggressively differentiate themselves beyond a base level of legitimacy? How to achieve optimal distinctiveness remains unclear. Clouding matters further, how a firm seeks legitimation and pursues differentiation is contextual depending on industry, technology stage, constituents and other factors. This means that the path to optimal distinctiveness likely demonstrates equifinality. We adopt a configurational approach, exploring optimal distinctiveness in the context of newly commercializing Canadian clean technology firms. We consider how firms use differentiating framing and collaboration strategies in the context of radical technology, incumbent dependency, relevant entrepreneurial experience, and presence in international markets. Rather than assuming a singular point of optimal distinctiveness, we explore how different combinations of strategies and conditions can lead to successful commercialization. Methodologically, we adopt an exploratory qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) approach. Our study elaborates theory on optimal distinctiveness by developing the notion of a legitimacy threshold. We argue that successfully commercializing firms are those that seek levels of differentiation that go beyond merely striking a strategic balance. In the process we identify combinations of strategies and contextual conditions associated with successful commercialization as well as non-commercialization.
Supplemental material, Malhotra_et_al._online_supp for Handling Resistance to Change When Societa... more Supplemental material, Malhotra_et_al._online_supp for Handling Resistance to Change When Societal and Workplace Logics Conflict by Namrata Malhotra, Charlene Zietsma, Timothy Morris and Michael Smets in Administrative Science Quarterly
Close interaction between universities, industries and governments has given rise to hybrid organ... more Close interaction between universities, industries and governments has given rise to hybrid organizations incorporating economic development alongside scientific research and higher education. We will approach this phenomenon and the related organization-theoretical problems by looking at two cases of discipline making to discuss the potential of the concept of organizational field introduced by the neoinstitutionalist school of organization theory. As this concept presumes the Bourdieusian theory of social fields, we will consider possibilities of reflective contesting of the states of doxa in discipline making in regard to organizational aspects of disciplinary boundaries in the university-centered system of higher education, its demarcation to business and schooling, as well as to the related ideology of professionalism and science policy. We will also comment on the Bourdieusian conceptuality inscribed in the neoinstitutionalist metaphor of organizational field from the perspect...
What happens to nonelite workers’ meaning, belonging, and identity when work is “on-demand”? On-d... more What happens to nonelite workers’ meaning, belonging, and identity when work is “on-demand”? On-demand organizations, such as Uber and TaskRabbit, have ambiguous boundaries and locations of workers. This qualitative study investigated how organizational and societal boundary discourse and the organization of the work itself, constructed sometimes conflicting worker roles that influenced how ride-hailing workers understood the boundaries of the on-demand organization and their location with respect to it. The roles of app–user and driver–partner constructed ride-hailing workers as outside the boundaries of the organization, while the driver–bot role constructed them as (nonhuman) elements of organizational technology. While the driver–partner role had positive and empowering identity, meaning, and belongingness associations, its conflict with the other roles blocked these positive associations, and led to cynicism and fatalism. We reflect on the possible impacts of the on-demand econ...
This chapter provides a summary of the closing plenary at the 2018 Alberta Institutions Conferenc... more This chapter provides a summary of the closing plenary at the 2018 Alberta Institutions Conference in which four scholars – Markus Hollerer, Marc Schneiberg, Patricia Thornton, and Charlene Zietsma – shared their views on how we could once again put the macrofoundations of institutional theory more center-stage in institutional analysis. The first major theme emerging from the panel discussion pertains to the meaning of macrofoundations. While Schneiberg sees institutions as socio-cognitive infrastructures, Zietsma emphasizes their constitutive nature. Second, both Thornton and Hollerer caution that an exclusive focus on either the micro- or the macro-level might remain only partial, and call for more cross-level studies of institutions – and for understanding the micro and the macro as co-constitutive analytical categories. Finally, the panelists discuss how we could break academic silos in institutional analysis and strive for theoretical innovation through interdisciplinary studi...
150) Using a partially grounded theory approach, we examine multilevel learning processes over ti... more 150) Using a partially grounded theory approach, we examine multilevel learning processes over time at four British Columbia forest companies in response to significant changes in their environment. We identify a self-reinforcing ‘legitimacy trap’, where organizations respond with moral indignation and the escalation of normative commitment to an institutionalized practice when they are subjected to normative claims that they judge to be illegitimate. We then identify facilitators of and impediments to high quality adaptive exploratory learning, using the Crossan, Lane and White (1999) framework of organizational learning processes. We build on their framework to include ‘normative confusion’, which leads to unlearning and paves the way for future learning. We also examine processes of institutionalization at the field level, in addition to the processes of intuiting, interpreting, integrating and institutionalizing at the levels of individual, group and organization. We formalize o...
This study explores the processes and characteristics that comprise successful boundary objects. ... more This study explores the processes and characteristics that comprise successful boundary objects. Through a longitudinal exploration of an extensive qualitative database, we identify characteristics of both successful boundary objects and the processes by which they are created. It further discusses the life cycle of a boundary object, and the challenges associated with the use of boundary objects in knowledge retrieval and transformation processes.
Uploads
Papers by Charlene Zietsma