Alex Mitchell, Judith Madill and Samia Chreim
The purpose of this paper is to understand the tensions that marketing practitioners in social enterprises experience, and to explore how these tensions impact the development and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to understand the tensions that marketing practitioners in social enterprises experience, and to explore how these tensions impact the development and implementation of marketing activities.
Design/methodology/approach
Using an approach informed by grounded theory, this paper reports on an investigation of the tensions facing 15 social enterprises. The primary data comprises semi-structured interviews with senior marketing decision-makers, supplemented with archival sources.
Findings
The analysis shows tensions and dualities inform the social and commercial strategic marketing activities of the social enterprises. These tensions and dualities are linked to how the organization obtains financial resources, the nature of the organization’s growth, working with myriad stakeholders and competitive versus cooperative pressures. A model outlining the dualities and their links to marketing activities is developed.
Research limitations/implications
The study provides an in-depth analysis of a small, regional sample of Canadian social enterprises. The study serves as a foundation for future research aimed at elaborating the model we propose.
Practical implications
The findings point to tensions and dualities that play an important role in enabling and restricting the development and implementation of strategic marketing activities in social enterprises. Understanding the nature of these dualities is crucial for social enterprise managers and social marketers as they develop strategic activities.
Social implications
Social enterprises engage in activities that offer substantial social benefits, yet the development of marketing activities in these organizations requires confronting tensions that must be carefully managed.
Originality/value
This paper highlights how dualities facing marketing practitioners in social enterprises influence the development of both social and for-profit marketing activities. The paper offers a model of these dualities. The findings help to extend our understanding of the complex environmental influences impacting marketing practices within social enterprise organizations. Understanding the nature of these environmental influences helps to attune marketers to the potential opportunities and challenges of using social enterprise as an organizational form for launching social marketing programs, as well as providing a theoretical basis for future investigations of marketing practice in social enterprise and social marketing organizations.
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To analyze lower level employees' retrospective views of their experience with organizational changes introduced by management; to provide a typology of change responses based on…
Abstract
Purpose
To analyze lower level employees' retrospective views of their experience with organizational changes introduced by management; to provide a typology of change responses based on employees' interpretations.
Design/methodology/approach
Canadian bank employees' accounts of their experience with change were obtained in interviews and analyzed using established guidelines for qualitative data analysis. A typology of change responses (acceptance, resigned compliance, avoidance/opposition, and ambivalence) was derived from the data. Links are made to the literature on readiness for, compliance with and resistance to, change, and to the literatures on framing and on identity as they inform responses to change.
Findings
Among others, the findings indicate: that changes that are compatible with employees' role identity or that are viewed as enhancing organizational identity tend to be easily embraced; the extensive prevalence of the “resigned compliance” response; that lack of participation in change decisions may be a common expectation among employees of large bureaucratic organizations that seek uniformity across widely dispersed geographic units; and opposition to change may be functional from an organizational standpoint.
Research limitations/implications
Several research implications are outlined including the need for theories to consider that change has been ubiquitous and that its pervasiveness can place its legitimacy beyond questioning. Research limitation includes the fact that the study focused on change survivors and did not have access to employees who had willingly left, or were asked to leave the organization as changes were being implemented.
Practical implications
The study provides an understanding of the dynamics that underlie different responses to change. Understanding such dynamics is essential for the performance of the change agent role.
Originality/value
Unlike much of the extant literature that tends to focus on the managerial view of change and on managerial framing, this study contributes the lower level employee perspective on, and framing of, change. In contrast with other studies of change that attend to a specific change situation, this article focuses on experiences with multiple changes and on the general view of change held by participants. The study also addresses a gap in the literature, as empirical studies have failed to tie responses to change to identity dynamics.
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Samia Chreim, B.E. (Bernie) Williams and Kristene E. Coller
The purpose of this paper is to examine: the content of radical change by mapping differences between two templates for organizing delivery of healthcare; the enabling and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine: the content of radical change by mapping differences between two templates for organizing delivery of healthcare; the enabling and constraining mechanisms underlying major change from one template to another; and the processes implicated in change implementation.
Design/methodology/approach
Longitudinal, qualitative case study design allowed the tracking, over a four‐year period, of the transformation of healthcare service in a community from provider‐centered, fragmented delivery to patient‐centered, integrated delivery. The authors conducted 90 interviews at three intervals, observed meetings, and analyzed internal and external documents. Concepts on content, process and mechanisms were used to analyze the data.
Findings
Transition from one template to another involves radical change in structures/systems and underlying values. Mechanisms precipitating and enabling change include: powerful stakeholders' dissatisfaction with current template and commitment to a new one, willingness to resource the change, provision of credible leadership, and manipulation of incentive programs. Radical change is underlain by a series of micro change processes that involve emergent, non‐linear dynamics, and that follow their own track with enabling and constraining mechanisms.
Originality/value
The paper describes a case of positive, successful change. Implications include importance of: attention to power dynamics, persistent leadership, elimination of boundaries between collaborating groups, and aligning incentives with desired practice changes; and attending to both variance and process in understanding healthcare change.
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Christiane Demers, Nicole Giroux and Samia Chreim
This study uses a discursive perspective to analyze the way in which top managers legitimize change in official announcements. It focuses on the foundations of legitimacy invoked…
Abstract
This study uses a discursive perspective to analyze the way in which top managers legitimize change in official announcements. It focuses on the foundations of legitimacy invoked using both Weber's typology, based on modes of authority, and the conventionalist model, stressing the constitutive frameworks that justify collective action. We use a narrative approach to examine four texts intended for employees in the context of mergers‐acquisitions in the Canadian financial services sector. We look at those announcements as wedding narratives. A framework based on the canonical schema and Greimas's actantial model was applied to the texts. The analysis reveals that these narrations of corporate marriages, while describing the same event, give distinct versions of it. These distinctions bring out differences between firms in terms of the foundations of legitimacy invoked, the contribution of the various actors, and the narrative style favoured.
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Alex Mitchell, Judith Madill and Samia Chreim
The purpose of this paper is to build understanding of the concept of social enterprise in the social marketing community and to report on empirical research designed to develop…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to build understanding of the concept of social enterprise in the social marketing community and to report on empirical research designed to develop an understanding the perceptions and practices of marketing within social enterprises. This addresses a significant gap in the current literature base and also provides insights for social marketers seeking to pursue social change initiatives through social enterprise.
Design/methodology/approach
This empirical investigation uses a qualitative investigation of 15 social enterprises informed by a grounded theory approach. Researchers conducted interviews with senior decision-makers responsible for marketing activities and strategic policy, and gathered additional data regarding the organizations in the form of archival materials, including strategic planning documents, promotional materials and firm-generated online content.
Findings
Strategic marketing practices used by social enterprises are shaped by moral, pragmatic and cognitive legitimacy influences stemming from imperatives to achieve congruence with institutional norms. This study exposes the challenges social enterprises face in developing strategic marketing activities that address business needs, while balancing stakeholder interests linked to the social missions of such organizations.
Research limitations/implications
This qualitative study pursues depth of understanding through focused investigation of a small, regional sample of Canadian social enterprises. The findings demonstrate that social enterprises are similar to both not-for-profit and small- and medium-sized firms in terms of their marketing approaches, but face particular institutional legitimacy challenges when developing and implementing strategic marketing activities.
Practical implications
This paper highlights the influences of institutional legitimacy on marketing practices and approaches in social enterprises. Understanding these influences is crucial for social marketing practitioners, as they develop strategic activities. The findings from the research provide a baseline upon which to begin to build both our theoretical and practical understanding of the potential utilization of social marketing through social enterprises.
Social implications
Understanding the challenges social enterprises face in developing their strategic marketing activities provides deeper insights into social enterprises for social marketers, who might consider using social marketing in such organizations to achieve social change.
Originality/value
This paper offers empirical evidence grounded in depth investigations of 15 social enterprises operating in a Canadian context. The findings help to extend our understanding of the complex institutional influences impacting marketing practices within social enterprise organizations. These institutional influences help to attune social marketers to the potential opportunities and challenges of using social enterprise as an organizational form for launching social marketing programs.
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Sameer Deshpande, Samia Chreim, Roberto Bello and Terry Ross Evashkevich
The purpose of this paper is to explore relationships that seniors (aged 55 and above) experience with prescription pharmaceutical brands, thus attending to situations where…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore relationships that seniors (aged 55 and above) experience with prescription pharmaceutical brands, thus attending to situations where consumers have limited control over brand choice.
Design/methodology/approach
A phenomenological study was conducted involving interviews with seniors in two Canadian cities. Phenomenology relies on a small number of interviews that are analyzed in depth and describes the lived consumer experience. Data analysis focused on types of relationships participants had experienced with brands and factors that influenced relationships.
Findings
Analysis reveals four types of relationships that seniors hold with prescription pharmaceutical brands. The interpersonal relationship metaphor of arranged marriages can be used to describe relationship forms that seniors develop with brands. The quality of relationship seniors have with prescribing physician, who acts as marriage broker, and brand attributes influence relationships with prescription pharmaceutical brands. Consumer's ethos and nature of illness also influence brand relationships.
Research limitations/implications
The study provides insights into brand choice situations where consumers have low control and addresses impact of intermediaries on consumer experiences. It opens the way for further research on mediated brand relationships.
Practical implications
Marketing managers need to understand the role of intermediaries, where applicable, in influencing consumer relationships with brands.
Originality/value
The study closes a gap in academic research (which is sparse) on relationships with prescription pharmaceutical brands held by consumers – specifically older consumers. It also encourages a critical view of the arranged marriage metaphor as a means of understanding consumer‐brand interactions.