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This article sets out to identify the origins of performance differences between units within the same organizational and industry context. Building on and reconciling diverse research streams, it empirically tests the effect of strategic, individual, and context factors on performance over time. The study complements traditional research in strategy by advancing a middle manager perspective. More specifically, it highlights the importance of middlemanagers' actions aligned with strategy, their demographic characteristics, and their immediate competitive environment in stimulating performance. Data on 119 managers and units of a European financial services firm suggest that how middle managers enact strategy, who they are, and where they are significantly affect profit growth in their units.

Introduction : social enterprises require a distinctive perspective on innovation and scaling -- Of red and green zones : how innovation and scaling create impact -- Mapping innovation pathologies -- Innovation as learning : the story of Gram Vikas (India) -- Innovation in support of scaling : the story of Aravind (India) -- Innovating and scaling for transformative impact : the story of BRAC (Bangladesh) -- Innovation that enables diffusion of proven ideas : the story of Waste Concern (Bangladesh) -- Innovation archetypes : balancing innovation and scaling over time -- Mapping problem spaces -- Conclusion : a guide to productive innovation and scaling for impact

AbstractGiven rampant economic inequality, social exclusion and overconsumption, organizing in markets increasingly focuses on leveraging commercial activity for a social purpose. Alternative forms of organizing have developed to overcome the deficiencies of contemporary capitalism. They have become prevalent in numerous institutional contexts through types of organizations such as social enterprises, cooperatives and platform-based sharing economy organizations. Our objective is to ignite research on alternative organizing. We build on two important institutional perspectives, Neo-institutionalism and Comparative Capitalism, to investigate how these organizations diverge from the archetypal corporation. In addition, we develop a framework to guide institutional analysis of the origins, enabling conditions and consequences of alternative organizing in contemporary markets and society. We conclude by laying out pathways for future research.

Abstract

Prior research has emphasized middle managers' important role in the strategy process and the benefits of their involvement, but little is known about their role in medium‐sized firms and their participation in the internationalization strategy process (ISP). This article aims to fill these gaps.


Our analysis of interviews conducted with the complete layer of middle managers at a medium‐sized firm is intended to shed light on these issues by examining the extent and effect of middle managers' involvement in the strategy formulation phase of the ISP. The medium‐sized Italian firm chosen for our sample was going through a period of radical change as it expanded its international activities beyond its cultural boundaries.


We found that not all the firm's middle managers perceived themselves to be involved in formulating the internationalization strategy. The perception of involvement was dependent on ownership of the outcome of internationalization. Middle managers with revenue accountability perceived themselves to be involved in strategy formulation. Furthermore, this perception of increased involvement was tightly linked to a more opportunity‐oriented attitude toward internationalization.


We suggest that medium‐sized firms can actively manage middle managers' attitudes and behavior toward internationalization by managing perceptions.

Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Many scholars of organizations see social enterprise as a promising approach to advancing social justice but neglect to scrutinize the normative foundations and limitations of this optimism. This article draws on Rawlsian political philosophy to investigate whether and how social enterprises can support social justice. We propose that this perspective assigns organizations a duty to foster institutional capacity, a concept we define and elaborate. We investigate how this duty might apply specifically to social enterprises, given their characteristic features. We theorize six different mechanisms through which social enterprises might successfully discharge this duty. These results affirm the value of conversation between organizational studies and political philosophy and shed new light on debates regarding social enterprise, institutional theory, and several other topics.

Hybrid organizations operate in a context of institutional plurality and enact elements of multiple, often conflicting institutional logics. Governance is highly relevant in navigating such an environment. This study examines how hybrid organizations set up their governance structures and practices. Building on survey data from 70 social enterprises, a subset of hybrid organizations, we identify two types of hybrid organization: conforming hybrids rely on the prioritization of a single institutional logic and dissenting hybrids use defiance, selective coupling and innovation as mechanisms to combine and balance the prescriptions of several institutional logics. We illustrate these mechanisms by drawing on the qualitative analysis of selected cases. This study refines current debates on social enterprises as hybrid organizations. Based on our findings, we speculate that some social enterprises might assume hybridity for symbolic reasons while others – genuine hybrids – do so for substantive reasons.