Social entrepreneurship mechanisms for systems change: A structuration approach

Poverty is widely believed to cause violence. The general public treats this notion as a truism, and most academics also accept it as such. Debates among the latter tend to be over which social mechanisms cause poverty to affect violence. But there are other positions to be sure. Poverty has been linked to violence in a number of ways. Most scholars as well as lay persons believe that those who live in poverty more frequently engage in acts of violence as a consequence of conditions that they are subjected to. There is, however, disagreement among scholars about which conditions are important and how and why they lead to violence. These conditions may include poor housing (Stark, 1987), distressed neighborhood (Krivo & Peterson, 1996), and disrupted families (Sampson & Groves, 1989). Living conditions of this sort are ordinarily defined as social structural consequences of poverty. While this structural approach has usually viewed poverty as the independent variable and violence as the dependent, some scholars have also argued that violence can cause poverty at the aggregate level by creating an unstable or dangerous environment which is not conducive to economic development or growth (Staley, 1992). It may also be that those who are financially better off will move out of areas with high rates of violence leaving only those who are economically unable to relocate (Wilson, 1996).

Using the concept of gendered social closure mechanisms, we aim at identifying the social practices and agents involved in the limited access to what we call men's worlds. To do so, we study the ways that women have to access to seven highly male‐dominated occupations in Spain through the analysis of qualitative data based on in‐depth interviews. We propose an analytical model that integrates the structural approach with the microsociological approach and considers that the social closure mechanisms happen at three levels (structural level, occupational/professional level, and organizational level). We state that the time frame of closure mechanisms (pre‐existing, prior to, or threshold of access) is key to understand the impact of such closure mechanisms. The results enable us to show how the mechanisms are cumulative in character rather than exclusive, and to propose a categorization of occupations according to their closure mechanisms. We conclude that any analysis that aims to understand segregation by sex in each profession or occupation must involve a mapping of the gendered social closure mechanisms, as only through a detailed knowledge of the mechanisms and their specific dynamics can we propose changes in practices and policies addressed to improve women's access to male‐dominated occupations

This study is aimed at analyzing the relationship between social entrepreneurship, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and organizational performance in the context of economic and social economy companies in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Such incorporates investigating the mediating effects of CSR on the relationship between social entrepreneurship and organizational performance. Consequently, a structural equation modelling approach was applied in conjunction with Smart PLS to analyses questionnaire responses collected from 133 social companies in Erbil, Kurdistan. The study results show that social entrepreneurship is vital for enhancing the effectiveness of CSR activities and programs. Additionally, social entrepreneurship was noted as enhancing ways of improving an organization’s non-financial indicators leading to improved overall organizational performance. Similar suggestions were also provided regarding the positive interaction between CSR on the relationship between CSR and organizational performance. Lastly, the study findings implied that there is a need to supplement and reinforce social entrepreneurship with CSR programs and activities to enhance organizational performance. This includes engaging in corporate activities aimed at preserving the environment, protecting shareholders’ interests and meeting stakeholders’ expectations. Ideas provided in this study are originally derived from Erbil, Kurdistan and offered novel ideas about the structural connections linking social entrepreneurship, CSR and organizational performance. The study enhances understanding concerning the use and implications of social entrepreneurship in organizations.

This study is aimed at analyzing the relationship between social entrepreneurship, corporate social responsibility (CSR) and organizational performance in the context of economic and social economy companies in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq. Such incorporates investigating the mediating effects of CSR on the relationship between social entrepreneurship and organizational performance. Consequently, a structural equation modelling approach was applied in conjunction with Smart PLS to analyses questionnaire responses collected from 133 social companies in Erbil, Kurdistan. The study results show that social entrepreneurship is vital for enhancing the effectiveness of CSR activities and programs. Additionally, social entrepreneurship was noted as enhancing ways of improving an organization’s non-financial indicators leading to improved overall organizational performance. Similar suggestions were also provided regarding the positive interaction between CSR on the relationship between CSR and organizational performance. Lastly, the study findings implied that there is a need to supplement and reinforce social entrepreneurship with CSR programs and activities to enhance organizational performance. This includes engaging in corporate activities aimed at preserving the environment, protecting shareholders’ interests and meeting stakeholders’ expectations. Ideas provided in this study are originally derived from Erbil, Kurdistan and offered novel ideas about the structural connections linking social entrepreneurship, CSR and organizational performance. The study enhances understanding concerning the use and implications of social entrepreneurship in organizations.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationship between organizational performance and the pattern of strategic decisions formalized in the planning of a Brazilian heavy construction company between 2006 and 2014. In this period, the company experienced a recurrent pattern of maintaining strategic decisions, despite the systematic decrease in performance and investments in the formal strategic planning (SP) and monitoring of results. The research focus is on strategic inertia and the influence of social determinants on the relationship between performance and the strategic actions negotiated in formal planning.Design/methodology/approachThis is a single-case study. The exploratory-descriptive research comprises data collection on performance and strategic decisions from the period between 2006 and 2014. The analysis was guided through documentary material and data collected from 16 interviews conducted with members of the middle to top management concerning performance, goals, and strategic initiatives. The interviewees’ statements were used to apprehend the interpreted dimension of SP expressed in the meanings attributed to this process. The analysis adopts a sociological base, and strategic inertia is the underlying phenomenon that guides this analysis.FindingsThe results show the interactive effect caused by political, cognitive, discursive, and ceremonial mechanisms obstruct the company’s strategic decisions. This case study illustrates that the conditions for the phenomenon of path dependence were created, reinforcing the strategic inertia observed in the maintenance of a reproduced pattern of strategic initiatives and goals, even though the performance was recurrently unsatisfactory. In this case, strategic inertia showed a complex relationship between the interpreted performance and strategic actions negotiated in formal planning, conditioned by mechanisms of trajectory reinforcement that interfered with the conditions for strategic change.Research limitations/implicationsStrategic inertia demonstrates a complex relationship between the interpreted performance and strategic actions negotiated in formal planning, conditioned by mechanisms of trajectory reinforcement that interfere with the conditions for strategic change. Future research on social mechanisms from the perspective of strategy-as-practice could be developed to capture the tacit components, language, power games, and other relevant categories in the social interaction of strategy development at the organizational level. In addition, future research could focus on investigating the extent to which path dependence is contingent, assuming that it is a temporary and, therefore, reversible process.Practical implicationsThis work contributes to the view of SP from the social perspective and shows that the relationship between performance and strategy has biases that can compromise performance. The work highlights implications for maintaining strategic initiative patterns, which shape a path whose function is less associated with its effects on performance and more associated with the commitment to instrumental results, due to the social nature of organizations.Social implicationsThis work deals with social mechanisms that influence strategic decisions. Since organizational performance depends on strategic decisions, the social nature of strategic inertia has causal implications to economic and social impact of organizations.Originality/valueThis work argues in favor of the influence of self-reinforcing mechanisms of path dependence in the relationship between performance and strategic decisions. The results extended the predominantly structural approach of path dependence by considering interpretive aspects related to the political, discursive, cognitive, and ceremonial dimensions of strategic inertia.

The fundamental problem of linking human agency and social structure stalks through the history of sociological theory. Basically it concerns how to develop an adequate theoretical account which deals simultaneously with men constituting society and the social formation of human agents. For any theorist, except the holist, social structure is ultimately a human product, but for any theorist, except advocates of psychologism, this product in turn shapes individuals and influences their interaction. However successive theoretical developments have tilted either towards structure or towards action, a slippage which has gathered in momentum over time. Initially this meant that one element became dominant and the other subordinate: human agency had become pale and ghostly in mid-century functionalism, whilst structure betook an evanescent fragility in the re-flowering of phenomenology. Eventually certain schools of thought repressed the second element almost completely. On the one hand structuralist Marxism and normative functionalism virtually snuffed-out agency-the acting subject became increasingly lifeless whilst the structural or cultural components enjoyed a life of their own, self-propelling or self-maintaining. On the other hand interpretative sociology busily banished the structural to the realm of objectification and facticity-human agency became sovereign whilst social structure was reduced to supine plasticity because of its constructed nature. Although proponents of these divergent views were extremely vociferous, they were also extensively criticized and precisely on the grounds that both structure and action were indispensable in sociological explanation.2 Moreover serious efforts to re-address the problem and to re-unite structure and action had already begun from inside 'the two Sociologies',3 when they were characterized in this manichean way. These attempts emerged after the early sixties from 'general' functionalists,4 'humanistic' marxists5 and from interactionists confronting the existence of strongly patterned conduct.6 Furthermore they were joined in the same decade by a bold attempt

This study used data from the Seattle Social Development Project (SSDP) to compare social developmental mechanisms predictive of violence at age 18 for youth who initiated violence in childhood and those who initiated violence during adolescence. The SSDP is a theory-guided longitudinal study of youth development and behavior, which has followed a panel of children since they entered the fifth grade in 1985. A multiple-group structural equation modeling approach was used to test relationships among social development model constructs hypothesized to predict violence and other forms of antisocial behavior. Analyses revealed that during adolescence, socialization pathways leading to violence at age 18 were similar for those who initiated violence in childhood and those who initiated violence in adolescence, suggesting that during adolescence, the same preventive interventions may be effective for individuals in both groups.

This research aims to find out how PJTV as one of the local televisions in Bandung socializes Sundanesse culture through television media, and also to determine the factors that support and hinder PJTV in socializing Sundanese culture as an effort to preserve it. The research method used is descriptive qualitative method. Sampling was done by purposive sampling, namely selecting certain people who are considered important and representative. This research uses a structural functional approach by Talcott Parsons which states that in explaining functional structural existence it can be observed from the existence of individuals who are integrated in a system, and this condition occurs from functional and structural relationships and is supported by the existence of socializatiuon and social control mechanisms that run constantly.

This article provides the first empirical evidence of the theoretical model by Badaan et al. (2020) that proposes social psychological mechanisms whereby utopian thinking, which activates the social imagination, could enhance collective action intentions geared toward progressive social change. We anticipated that imagining better societies via utopian thinking would (a) increase social hope, (b) promote an abstract mindset that bridges psychological distance between the status quo in the present and the imagined, better future, (c) attenuate system justification motives, and (d) enhance social change-oriented collective action intentions. Using a structural equation modeling approach, our study provides preliminary support for some postulates of the theoretical model, paving the way for future research to further disentangle the psychological mechanisms by which utopian thinking influences collective action geared toward social change.

Données actuelles et perspectives futures dans l’étude des liens entre soutien social et santé : vers une prise en compte des attitudes à l’égard du réseau de soutien en psychologie de la santé

The role of structural social capital in driving social-oriented sustainable agricultural entrepreneurship

The progressive business community understands that social responsibility will eventually become mandatory. The social responsibility concept changes essentially the image about the role of entrepreneurship in the modern society. It generates the modern request of all world society - the social entrepreneurship phenomenon. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the best practices of implementing social entrepreneurship in the current macroeconomic conditions in Russia and in the world. As a theoretical background of the research, systemic, structural and functional approaches were applied to the analysis of social entrepreneurship in Russia and in the world as elements of the economic system, related to other elements of the social system - civil society and government.

Regions of War and Peace. By Douglas Lemke. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002. 252 pp., $65.00 cloth (ISBN: 0-521-80985-1), $23.00 paper (ISBN: 0-521-00772-0). Before the current popularity of strategic models, the study of world politics in the United States after World War II was dominated by structural approaches. Structural arguments took the centrality of the major powers as determinants of the international system as a given. Indeed, relative capabilities among the major powers supposedly held the key to international stability (Waltz 1979; Thompson 1988). The dominant parity school of thought held that the international system was stable when major power capabilities were in rough equivalence, with stability being the absence of system-changing major power war (Morgenthau 1948; Waltz 1959, 1979). Even though parity scholars held much sway in academic circles, they did not go unchallenged. At the end of the 1950s, A. F. K. Organski developed his power transition theory, which held, contrary to the parity argument, that a preponderance of capabilities in the hands of one dominant power is coincident with system stability, and that movements toward rough equivalence lead to war (Organski 1958; Organski and Kugler 1980; Kugler and Organski 1989). The power transition theory, however, is not just another structural approach to international stability. It also speaks to issues of political and economic development, and even state strategy. Indeed, whereas parity scholars talk about system change resulting from the fluidity of alliance patterns, Organski and his followers look domestically at the major states themselves as the source of system change. Although the economic potential for growth exists in most societies, the political organization to harness that potential varies across both time and space. The states that become better organized politically can better harness, direct, and guide economic production, which creates growth. Growth in turn creates power or enhanced …

Vaccine apartheid: global cooperation and equity

Objectives. The aim of this paper is to reflect on the legislation of the European Union (hereinafter EU) regarding human capital, human values and social cohesion by presenting two main approaches: (1) the relevant legislation underlining the protection of human capital, human values and social cohesion in the European society; (2) the social mechanisms and related concepts of governance, social entrepreneurship and active citizenship of the EU, focusing on providing different approaches to the economic, historical and legal phenomena and processes. Methodology. The research uses the qualitative methods of thematic analysis and legal documentation and it focuses on (1) the legal collection provided by the EUR-Lex database depending on the selected period (2006-2023) and the domain of the document by using the legal and network analysis of EU documents using the selection criteria of document number and document type; (2) the exploration of the systematic bibliography involving documentation and research on the links between human capital, human values and social cohesion. Results and discussion. The results of the research highlight the role of EU legislation and scientific knowledge in a multidisciplinary and multifaceted analysis. Conclusions: In conclusion, the subject of the study is an open debate, involving both the theoretical understanding and the mechanisms of EU multi-level governance.