Re-examining the Travel of Ideas: Of Editing, Generativity & Temporality

Abstract

Management research has demonstrated a striking interest in diffusion research over the past decades. Our conceptual understanding of how diffusion happens has been greatly altered from deterministic to probabilistic models as well as from realist to phenomenological perspectives by drawing on an eclectic theoretical toolkit. It is time to revisit these theoretical advancements vis-à-vis contemporary socio-political and economic developments and charter new territory. This symposium brings together a range of perspectives from scholars studying diffusion across a variety of seemingly unconventional contexts (including the transformation of yoga into a market, the importation of technology entrepreneurship ideals into Kenya, the establishment of active ownership in Switzerland after an earlier failure at importing the idea and the semiotic negotiations of transparency in the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative). Taken together, these papers wrestle with the dynamic nature of diffusion processes and shed new light on the role that editing, generativity and temporality play when ideas, concepts and innovations “get from here to there.” From Patañjali to the Gospel of Sweat: Yogas Transformation into a Multi-Billion Dollar Market Presenter: Kamal A Munir; U. of Cambridge Presenter: Shahzad Ansari; Cambridge U. Presenter: Deborah Brown; U. of Cambridge Globalization in Action: Templates and Strategies of Action in Kenyan ICT Entrepreneurship Presenter: Tim Weiss; Stanford U. Presenter: Klaus Weber; Northwestern U. Legacy Effects of Social Movements: Activists in Abeyance and the Diffusion of Active Ownership Presenter: Daniel Waeger; Wilfrid Laurier U. Presenter: Sébastien Mena; Cass Business School, City, U. of London Negotiating and Editing Transparency in a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative Presenter: Lisa Baudot; U. of Central Florida Presenter: Joel Bothello; John Molson School of Business, Concordia U. Presenter: David Cooper; U. of Alberta