Transcript Interests and challenges of networking Fair Trade research

UK-Belgium Scientific Workshop
Performance and legitimacy
in social enterprises
Liege, 3-4 March 2011
Goals of the workshop
As from September 2008, the British Council and WBI/FNRS
jointly run and finance the Partnership Programme in Science,
United Kingdom (UK) & Communauté Française de Belgique
Wallonie Bruxelles (CFB-WB). The aim of this Partnership
Programme in Science (PPS) is to enable early-stage and
talented postdoctoral researchers from higher education
institutions in the two countries to meet, exchange ideas and
engage in scientific and academic research collaboration.
Goals of the workshop


Share extant research – learn together
Identify possible synergies across
countries/disciplines/approaches

Explore trails for future collaborations

Learn to know each other
Social enterprise
 UK
– “A social enterprise is a business with primarily social objectives whose
surpluses are principally reinvested for that purpose in the business or the
community, rather than being driven by the need to maximise profit for
shareholders and owners” (DTI, 2002)
 EMES
– Definition: “not-for-profit private organizations providing goods and
services directly related to their explicit aim to benefit the community. They
rely on a collective dynamics involving various types of stakeholders in their
governing bodies, they place a high value on their autonomy and they bear
economic risks linked to their activity” (Defourny & Nyssens 2008b:5)
– Ideal type (economic activity, social dimension and governance)
Performance
• “Numerous works have been published which directly address
the area of performance but do not explicitly define
performance” (O’Donnell & Duffy, 2005)
• Multiple definitions, including:
• “A task or operation seen in terms of how successfully it is
performed” (OED)
• “Accomplishment of a given task measured against preset
standards of accuracy, completeness, cost, and speed”
(Business Dictionary)
Performance measurement
• “A performance measurement system can be defined as the
set of metrics used to quantify both the efficiency and
effectiveness of actions” (Neely et al., 1995)
• “The measurement problem arises because the performance of
the firm is not entirely measurable” (Meyer, 2002)
• “Social Entrepreneurs and their funders seem untroubled by the
inability to measure fully and precisely all aspects of their social
impact” (Kramer, 2005)
Legitimacy

Definitions:
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Meyer & Rowan, 1977; Meyer & Scott, 1983: “the adequacy of an organization
as theory”
Knoke, 1985: “right to exist and to pursue its affairs in its chosen manner”
Scott, 1995: “condition reflecting cultural alignment, normative support, or
consonance with relevant rules or laws “
Suchman, 1995: “generalized perception or assumption that the actions of an
entity are desirable, proper, or appropriate within some socially constructed
system of norms, values, beliefs, and definitions”
Nicholls, 2010: “the congruence, in multiple stakeholder judgements, of an
organization’s perceived actions with their expectations of its performance”
Legitimacy

Three types of legitimacy (Suchman, 1995; Dart, 2004):
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Pragmatic legitimacy: stakeholders support the SE because it
brings them advantages
Moral legitimacy: stakeholders support the SE because it is “the
right thing to do”
Cognitive legitimacy: stakeholders support the SE because any
other organizational model would be unthinkable
Legitimacy as a source of power (Clegg & Hardy, 1996)
Performance
Is this SE successful?
Observer
Standards
Organizational
behaviour (strategy,
action, method, etc.)
Performance
Is this SE successful?
Observer
Standards
= Objectification
Organizational
behaviour (strategy,
action, method, etc.)
Legitimacy
Prior experience
Education
Vision of the world
Influential opinions
Relationship with SE
Is this SE adequate?
Observer
Organizational
behaviour (strategy,
action, method, etc.)
Legitimacy
Prior experience
Education
Vision of the world
Influential opinions
Relationship with SE
Is this SE adequate?
Observer
Signals
= Subjective reasoning
Organizational
behaviour (strategy,
action, method, etc.)
Comparison
Performance
Legitimacy
-Ambition of objectivity: it « is » there
and needs to be discovered/described
- Subjectivity: it only exists in terms of
stakeholder perceptions
- Epistemology driven by economics
and finance
- Epistemology driven by sociology
- Focus on indicators
Mainly quantitative - rather continuous
- Focus on discourse and narratives
Mainly qualitative - rather dichotomous
- Most ‘legitimate’ approach to
apprehend SE behaviour
- Pervades discourses on ‘performance’
Performance view
Is this appropriate?
SE behaviour
Comparison
with
Standards
Level of
legitimacy
Resources
Legitimacy view
Is this appropriate?
Stakeholder
perception of SE
behaviour
Judgements
Resources
Statement on
performance
‘Best practices’
and indicators
Integration?
• No because of different epistemologies, but bridges:
- Behind SE discourse on performance is a quest for
legitimacy; performance is at least partly subjective
- The construction and measurement of performance
indicators is a crucial legitimating tool
- Multiple congruent stakeholder judgements on an SE
may lead to a certain objectification of SE behaviour
(coherence, efficiency, etc.)
• Connect study of SE to main paradigms and debates in
organization theory – use SE as a case that brings in new insights
THANK YOU!