Does Engaging Commercial Customers in a Shared Social Mission Improve Impact Sourcing Service Provider (ISSP) Success? A Critically Appraised Topic

This topic paper examines whether engaging commercial customers through a shared social mission improves the success of social enterprises. It is based on an examination of a subset of the information technology and business process outsourcing (ITO/BPO) industries, known as impact sourcing service providers (ISSPs). ISSPs are social enterprises – B2R Technologies and Digital Divide Data are two examples – that provide call center, transaction processing, data entry, and other technology-enabled services for commercial customers from remote locations around the globe. What is unique about ISSPs is that they do this with a social mission of creating jobs and economic development in disadvantaged and marginalized communities. The analysis presented in this paper is based on an examination of academic research on ISSPs published in peer-reviewed journals from 2013 through 2022. The findings are that ISSPs that engage commercial customers through a shared social mission develop stronger bonds at both the personal and organizational levels. These bonds, in turn, strengthen the overall relationship between the companies and improve the ISSP’s success. Although specific to the case of ISSPs and the outsourcing industry, these findings offer lessons that can inform other industries and other types of relationships between commercial and social enterprises

The Interplay Between Communitas and Anti-structure in Liminal Innovation

This paper contributes to the nascent debate in the information systems (IS) field on liminal innovation by focusing on how tensions can be resolved during crisis. Liminal innovation is used by scholars to describe iterative processes of experimentation and implementation of IS during crisis. We draw on the concepts of communitas and anti-structure from the literature on liminality to analyse a longitudinal case study of digitalization of contact tracing in Norway during the COVID-19 pandemic and show how they mutually reinforce each other to create a sense of togetherness and urgency. We identify four resolutions to tensions emerging from this interplay: egalitarianism, autonomy, disobedience, and silo breaking. These manifestations of anti-structure and communitas allowed rapid and responsive innovation during a period of intense organizational and psychological stress, and thus contributed to positive performative outcomes by implementing a digital contact tracing system

Exploring the effects of liminality on corporate social responsibility in inter-firm outsourcing relationships

This article draws on the evidence gathered from a corporate social responsibility (CSR) research project in the area of global information technology (IT) outsourcing to examine the impact of liminality. IT outsourcing offers a novel context to study this phenomena, as it operates across the boundaries of both firm and country. The case study focuses on the specific project of a school in India, as the liminal space found ‘betwixt and between’ the client and provider of IT outsourcing services. Three stages of liminality are identified: separation (divestiture), transition (liminality) and incorporation (investiture); through the interpretive analysis of the empirical material. The construct of communitas is proposed for analysing the impact of liminality on the relationship between an outsourcing client and the provider. The understanding of liminality and communitas has both theoretical and practical implications, and contributes to the understanding of relationships and the wider role of CSR in global IT outsourcing. </jats:p

Social Aspects of Food-Sensitive Adults

People living with food-related illnesses find themselves subjugated by commonly held ideologies causing awkwardness in social situations. The current study is a qualitative analysis addressing how people with celiac disease (CD) navigate social situations in light of dominant beliefs that influence behaviors. Initially, I identify macro-level patriarchal, religious, sexist, ableist and etiquette-related commensality ideologies that disadvantage those with CD. Drawing from the communication narrative sense making (CNSM) theory that supports storytelling and memorable messages as a sense-making tool for individuals diagnosed with chronic illness and their family members, this work highlights retrospective stories and memorable messages from 20 randomly selected interviews (out of 66 conducted). Further, I discuss how individual identity evolves while redefining truths in light of having a disease. Three overarching themes emerge from the analysis: 1) questioning ideologies to form revised truths, 2) familial adaptation or non-adaptive responses, and 3) identity transformation. The first theme contemplates what is considered true depending on dominant ideologies on food-related expectations. The second theme examines social stigma that can result when a person in a given social group no longer conforms to these basic, assumed beliefs; or conversely, familial compassion that occurs when family and friends do conform. Finally, the third theme traces the evolution of an individual\u27s transformation when faced with redefining his or her identity, standing with courage and fortitude to influence those around him/her to align with new revised truths that may yield compliance or resistance. This study expands the current knowledge by associating how those with food sensitivities (FS) or CD find themselves subjugated by dominant ideologies that permeate behavior. The dissertation adds to the communication studies conversation by illuminating a seldom-studied population of adults living with the hidden disability of FS or CD, and expands the CNSM by contributing a concept I am calling a homeostatic shift, or the process where rituals are disrupted, causing the person with CD to enter into a state of liminality or transition, reforming truths and eventually shifting to a new state of equilibrium living with the realization that all experiences thereafter are shrouded with the veil of disease

Dynamics of digital entrepreneurship and innovation : insights from an emerging market

In the recent years, the pervasive use of digital technologies has remarkably changed our society. Realizing its huge potential for transforming a society, many emerging markets worldwide have widely adopted digital technologies aiming at poverty reduction, rapid socio-economic development and sustainability through a better connected society. However, despite its large scale adoption, a major percentage of digital technology-based projects in these markets have failed completely or partially. Considering the unique characteristics of emerging markets, it is now well acknowledged that the canonical set of methods used for innovation in developed economies do not work in the emerging markets and need doing things differently. As these projects are often led by entrepreneurs who lack in local knowledge, the projects suffer in contextualization of innovation leading to failure. This doctoral thesis examines dynamics of digital innovation in emerging markets focusing on digital entrepreneurship, digital technology driven enterprise transformation and co-creation of IT value for the firms engaged in such digital ventures. This thesis adopts three paper format and is grounded in concepts and theories from wide range of related and intertwined academic literatures: those of digital innovation in emerging markets, digital innovation and entrepreneurship, liminality, enterprise transformation, path creation, co-creation of IT value and social-commercial alliance. As methodologies, I have adopted interpretive cases studies and conducted three case studies in an emerging market, Bangladesh to collect empirical data. One of the papers is based on single case while two others are drawn on two cases. The first paper investigates two digital innovation projects in emerging markets drawing on liminality to explore how contexts and entrepreneurial agency in emerging markets co-evolve through digital technologies. Drawing on a single case, the second paper examines the transformation of an organization that adopts ICT. And finally, the third paper explores the process of co-creation and emanation IT value in two social-commercial alliances that embeds IT as their key resources for innovation. Overall, the thesis has several contributions to the theories and for practice. Specifically, the key theoretical contributions of the thesis are: 1) illustrating that digital innovations in emerging markets offer liminal space for entrepreneurs, 2) conceptualizing digital entrepreneurship and innovation as a constitutive process, 3) developing a process framework for digital innovation and entrepreneurship in emerging markets, 4) offering three practices for digital innovation in emerging markets, 5) conceptualizing ICT-based enterprise transformation in emerging market as a process of path creation, 6) offering ‘mindful deviation’ as a key practice for enterprise transformation, 7) developing a theoretical model for co-creation of IT value in social-commercial alliances and 8) building theoretical propositions related to firms‘ motivations for co-creation through IT. Further to that, I discuss several practical implications of the findings and also offer few implications for future research