TY - JOUR A1 - Seelos, Christian A1 - Mair, Johanna T1 - Innovation Is Not the Holy Grail JF - Stanford Social Innovation Review KW - Social Innovation KW - Organizational Innovation Y1 - 2012 VL - Fall 2012 SP - 45 EP - 49 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Mair, Johanna A1 - Seelos, Christian T1 - La Iniciativa Sekem BT - algunos de los mejores casos de IESE T2 - Mejorar la gestion de empresas KW - Emprendedores de carácter social Y1 - 2005 SN - 9788448146382 N1 - Sekem: liberando una visión. Un enfoque artístico de la iniciativa emprendedora / IESE Business School: DG-1466 PB - McGrawHill CY - Madrid ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Seelos, Christian A1 - Mair, Johanna T1 - Mastering System Change JF - Stanford Social Innovation Review Y1 - 2018 UR - https://ssir.org/articles/entry/mastering_system_change IS - Fall 2018 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Seelos, Christian A1 - Mair, Johanna T1 - Organizational closure competencies and scaling: A realist approach to theorizing social enterprise T2 - Social entrepreneurship and research methods N2 - Purpose Social entrepreneurs create novel approaches to social problems such as poverty. But scaling these approaches to the dimension of the problem can be a difficult task. In the social enterprise sector, the subject of scaling has become a key dimension of organizational performance. This chapter advances the scholarly literature on the scaling of social enterprises, a literature which is currently in an embryonic stage and characterized by conceptual ambiguity and fragmented perspectives. Methodology/Approach We engage realist philosophy of science to develop mechanism-based causal explanations of the scaling performance of social enterprises. We also develop a coding scheme to guide systematic empirical analysis and highlight the explanatory power of counterfactuals. Counterfactuals have been largely neglected in empirical research as they represent mechanisms that are enabled but remain unobservable – in a state of suppression or neutralization of their effects. Findings We question the ability of organizations to “socially engineer” desired outcomes and introduce a new construct – organizational closure competence. Anchored in realism, this construct provides a basis for productive approaches to social engineering. We elaborate on the importance of organizational closure competencies for scaling, derive a series of propositions, and develop ideas for future research and for practice. Research, Practical and Social Implications Applying a realist lens allows us to add empirical rigor to research on social enterprises and scaling. Our approach constitutes a move from rich narratives to causal models and informs the way we design and evaluate efforts to address important societal challenges. Originality/Value of Chapter This chapter demonstrates how to operationalize realist philosophy of science for causal explanations of complex social phenomena and better utilize its theoretical and practical value. KW - Social entrepreneurship KW - scaling KW - realism KW - causal model KW - mechanism-based research Y1 - 2014 SN - 978-1-78441-142-8 SP - 147 EP - 188 PB - Emerald Group Publishing Limited CY - Bingley ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mair, Johanna A1 - Seelos, Christian T1 - Organizations, Social Problems, and System Change: Invigorating the Third Mandate of Organizational Research JF - Organization Theory N2 - Organizations across sectors appear to be shifting their ambitions from solving social problems to changing entire social systems. This phenomenon offers a timely opportunity to revisit what came to be known as the third mandate of organizational theory. In this paper we interrogate how organizational scholarship can productively explore and theorize the relationship between organizations and social systems in organized system change – an effort by organizations to alter the conditions that generate the characteristics of social problems and their dynamics of change. As a basis for theorizing organized system change, we develop an analytical scaffold that helps researchers to attend to fundamental aspects of the phenomenon and to achieve parsimony without blanking out complexity. Grounded in realist metatheory and principles, the scaffold reduces ambiguity, provides a backbone for empirical analysis, and favours mechanism-based explanation. We suggest that generating theoretically interesting and practically adequate knowledge on organized system change requires attention to three system realms: First, the subjectively constructed problem realm of systems concerned with processes of evaluating and problematizing situations. Second, the objectively constituted situational realm that attends to factual characteristics of situations and their dynamics of change. And third, the realm of causality understood as the mechanisms that generate both the objective characteristics of situations and the subjective criteria by which situations are evaluated as problems. In concluding, we reflect on the topics of boundaries and power as two promising areas for theorizing organized system change. KW - grand challenges KW - hybrid organizing KW - social problems KW - system change KW - systems Y1 - 2021 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1177/26317877211054858 VL - 2 IS - 4 SP - 1 EP - 22 ER - TY - CHAP A1 - Battilana, Julie A1 - Butler, Brittany A1 - Kimsey, Marissa A1 - Mair, Johanna A1 - Marquis, Christopher A1 - Seelos, Christian ED - George, Gerard ED - Baker, Ted ED - Tracey, Paul ED - Joshi, Havovi T1 - Problem, person, and pathway: A framework for social innovators BT - The Role of Organizations, Markets and Communities in Social Innovation T2 - Handbook of Inclusive Innovation Y1 - 2019 SN - 9781786436009 SN - 9781786436016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.4337/9781786436016 SP - 61 EP - 74 PB - Edward Elgar Publishing CY - Cheltenham ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mair, Johanna A1 - Seelos, Christian T1 - Profitable business models and market creation in the context of deep poverty: A strategic view JF - Academy of Management Perspectives N2 - The bottom of the pyramid (BOP) in the global distribution of income has been promoted as a significant opportunity for companies to grow profitably. Under the BOP approach, poor people are identified as potential customers who can be served if companies learn to fundamentally rethink their existing strategies and business models. This involves acquiring and building new resources and capabilities and forging a multitude of local partnerships. However, current BOP literature remains relatively silent about how to actually implement such a step into the unknown. We use two BOP cases to illustrate a strategic framework that reduces managerial complexity. In our view, existing capabilities and existing local BOP models can be leveraged to build new markets that include the poor and generate sufficient financial returns for companies to justify investments. KW - business models KW - poverty alleviation KW - market creation Y1 - 2007 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:b1570-opus4-21813 SN - 1558-9080 VL - 21 IS - 4 SP - 49 EP - 63 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mair, Johanna A1 - Seelos, Christian T1 - Quand le business devient un outil contre la pauvreté JF - Business Digest, French edition N2 - À l’heure où tout nouveau débouché est un enjeu stratégique de taille, peut-on ignorer à la masse de consommateurs des pays du Sud ? Focus réalisé d’après « Profitable Business Models and Market Creation in the Context of Deep Poverty: A Strategic View », de Christian Seelos et Johanna Mair, Academy of Management Perspectives, novembre 2007, et l’interview d’Iqbal Quadir, fondateur et directeur du Legatum Center for Development and Entrepreneurship (US), février 2009. Y1 - 2009 ET - 193 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Mair, Johanna A1 - Wolf, Miriam A1 - Seelos, Christian T1 - Scaffolding: A Process of Transforming Patterns of Inequality in Small-Scale Societies JF - Academy of Management Journal N2 - 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. Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2015.0725 SN - 0001-4273 VL - 59 IS - 6 SP - 2021 EP - 2044 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Mair, Johanna A1 - Seelos, Christian T1 - Sekem: Liberating a Vision, an Artistic Approach to Entrepreneurship N2 - This case portrays a complex set of circumstances that frames Sekem's decisions to further grow and develop the initiative along its historical path of holistic development in the social, economic and cultural spheres. The case documents the history of the initiative and lays out the major constituents and their internal and external relations. Sekem was founded by Ibrahim Abouleish, an Egyptian who had been living, studying and working in Austria prior to his return to Egypt in 1977, the year he established Sekem. Literally starting from nothing, ie, a piece of desert land north of Cairo, Abouleish showed tremendous resourcefulness, creativity, and perseverance. Driven by a strong belief in his personal mission, Abouleish built up the Sekem initiative that in 2003 consisted of three main parts: the Sekem group of companies, the Egyptian Society for Cultural Development and the Co-operative of Sekem Employees, together employing more than 2,000 people. Sekem was also a hub managing a large network of associated farmers and companies within Egypt and abroad. It also ran a medical centre for the local community, a kindergarten, primary and secondary schools, an adult training centre, special needs education programmes, and an academy for applied arts and sciences. In 2003, Abouleish won the Right Livelihood Award, also known as the 'Alternative Nobel Prize', in recognition of Sekem being the blueprint of the organisation of the 21st century. Abouleish has also received an award as an 'outstanding social entrepreneur' from the Schwab Foundation of the World Economic Forum. Abouleish's objective was to heal Egyptian society from the wounds of the past and to initiate holistic development able to create economic, social and cultural value in a sustainable manner. KW - Social entrepreneurship KW - Strategy KW - Egypt Y1 - 2004 PB - IESE Business School ER -