@incollection{MairWolfIoan, author = {Mair, Johanna and Wolf, Miriam and Ioan, Alexandra}, title = {Governance in Social Enterprises}, series = {Advances in Corporate Governance: Comparative Perspectives.}, booktitle = {Advances in Corporate Governance: Comparative Perspectives.}, editor = {Anheier, Helmut K. and Baums, Theodor}, publisher = {Oxford University Press}, address = {Oxford}, isbn = {9780198866367}, publisher = {Hertie School}, pages = {180 -- 202}, abstract = {Social enterprises are organisations that pursue a social mission using market mechanisms. From a policy perspective, they are promising vehicles to create both social and economic value for society in times when public funds are shrinking and the financial viability of charities and non-profit organisations (NPOs) is increasingly at stake. From a civil society perspective, they are an important organisational form to ensure longevity, financial viability, and sustainability of mission-driven organisations. Social enterprises are neither typical charities nor typical businesses but combine aspects of both, using commercial activities as means toward social ends. They are often small or medium-sized1 and do not draw on highly elaborated governance arrangements as do larger for- or non-profit organisations. Governance often resembles a grey zone for these organisations, and the approach social enterprises adopt ranges from formal, legally binding arrangements to more flexible and context-based ones.}, language = {en} } @incollection{MairWolf, author = {Mair, Johanna and Wolf, Miriam}, title = {Hybrid Organizations as Sites for Reimagining Organizational Governance.}, series = {Research Handbook on Nonprofit Governance. Research Handbooks in Business and Management series.}, booktitle = {Research Handbook on Nonprofit Governance. Research Handbooks in Business and Management series.}, editor = {Donnelly-Cox, Gemma and Meyer, Michael and Wijkstr{\"o}m, Filip}, publisher = {Edward Elgar Publishing}, address = {Cheltenham}, isbn = {9781788114905}, doi = {10.4337/9781788114912.00027}, publisher = {Hertie School}, pages = {311 -- 325}, abstract = {In this chapter we argue that hybrid organizations, i.e., organizations pursuing dual goals, are an important site for rethinking and potentially recasting our perspective on organizational governance. We give an overview of the specific governance challenges hybrid organizations face and probe conventional and more novel approaches and their potential to understand governance in hybrid organizations. Introducing empirical findings from a large-scale qualitative and quantitative study about governance in social enterprises, we propose to complement the reactive approach dominant in the governance literature with a more proactive approach: drawing on the work of Philip Selznick, we introduce a governance approach focused on purpose, commitment and new ways of coordination. We propose that these three interlocking governance mechanisms allow hybrid organizations such as social enterprises to mitigate governance challenges such as the risk of mission drift in a proactive rather than reactive manner.}, language = {en} } @article{MairWolfSeelos, author = {Mair, Johanna and Wolf, Miriam and Seelos, Christian}, title = {Scaffolding: A Process of Transforming Patterns of Inequality in Small-Scale Societies}, series = {Academy of Management Journal}, volume = {59}, journal = {Academy of Management Journal}, number = {6}, issn = {0001-4273}, doi = {10.5465/amj.2015.0725}, pages = {2021 -- 2044}, abstract = {This study advances research on organizational efforts to tackle multidimensional, complex, and interlinked societal challenges. We examine how social inequality manifests in small-scale societies, and illustrate how it inheres in entrenched patterns of behavior and interaction. Asking how development programs can be organizing tools to transform these patterns of inequality, we use a program sponsored by an Indian non-governmental organization as our empirical window and leverage data that we collected over a decade. We identify "scaffolding" as a process that enables and organizes the transformation of behavior and interaction patterns. Three interrelated mechanisms make the transformation processes adaptive and emerging alternative social orders robust: (1) mobilizing institutional, social organizational, and economic resources; (2) stabilizing new patterns of interaction that reflect an alternative social order; and (3) concealing goals that are neither anticipated nor desired by some groups. Through this analysis, we move beyond conventional thinking on unintended consequences proposed in classic studies on organizations, complement contemporary research about how organizations effect positive social change by pursuing multiple goals, and develop portable insights for organizational efforts in tackling inequality. This study provides a first link between the study of organizational efforts to alleviate social problems and the transformation of social systems.}, language = {en} } @article{WolfMair, author = {Wolf, Miriam and Mair, Johanna}, title = {Purpose, Commitment and Coordination Around Small Wins: A Proactive Approach to Governance in Integrated Hybrid Organizations}, series = {VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations}, volume = {30}, journal = {VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations}, number = {3}, doi = {10.1007/s11266-019-00116-5}, pages = {535 -- 548}, abstract = {Integrated hybrid organizations, for instance social enterprises that pursue both social and economic goals through a single activity, are seen by many as promising vehicles to create social value while remaining economically sustainable. At the same time, they are said to run the risk of mission drift—losing sight of their social mission while navigating market and political pressures. While organizational governance mechanisms that ensure the overall direction, control and accountability of the organization are considered key to avoiding mission drift, scholars have argued that traditional governance mechanisms may not work in the context of social enterprises. Drawing on the legacy of old institutional theory, this article proposes a proactive approach to governance in social enterprises. We complement and go beyond control and compliance approaches and introduce a governance approach focused on purpose, commitment and coordinating around small wins. We propose that these three interlocking governance mechanisms allow social enterprises to mitigate the risk of mission drift in a proactive rather than reactive manner.}, language = {en} } @techreport{FritzscheWolf, type = {Working Paper}, author = {Fritzsche, Miriam and Wolf, Nikolaus}, title = {Fickle Fossils. Economic Growth, Coal and the European Oil Invasion, 1900-2015}, series = {Berlin School of Economics Discussion Papers}, journal = {Berlin School of Economics Discussion Papers}, edition = {No. 3}, doi = {10.48462/opus4-4652}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b1570-opus4-46529}, pages = {34}, abstract = {Fossil fuels have shaped the European economy since the industrial revolution. In this paper, we analyse the effect of coal and oil on long-run economic growth, exploiting variation at the level of European NUTS-2 and NUTS-3 regions over the last century. We show that an "oil invasion" in the early 1960s turned regional coal abundance from a blessing into a curse, using new detailed data on carboniferous strata as an instrument. Moreover, we show that human capital accumulation was the key mechanism behind this reversal of fortune. Not only did former coal regions fail to accumulate sufficient levels of human capital, but pre-industrial human capital helped declining regions to reinvent themselves. Without sufficient human capital, fossil fuels did never generate sustainable growth.}, language = {en} }