Collective Action Perspective Research Articles

Motivations for a firm's willingness to standardize: A perspective based on collective action theory

AbstractStandards allow companies to improve their competitiveness and achieve their strategic goals. Encouraging a strong willingness among firms to develop and implement standards is a complex task; consequently, the linkages between internal and external factors influencing this willingness require further exploration. This study considers interorganizational learning as an intermediate mechanism for empirical research and investigates the relationship between external motivation for collective action and a firm's willingness to participate in standards development. To verify the proposed theoretical model, this study used a questionnaire to collect 205 responses from companies belonging to the Zhejiang Brand Building Association. Structural equation modeling was conducted to verify the research framework. The results of this study reveal that an association's organizational capability has a direct positive effect on its willingness to develop and implement standards; however, government support and industrial scale have no significant positive direct effects on collective action willingness. Moreover, knowledge acquisition and knowledge application have mediating effects on the relationship between external motivation for collective action and willingness for collective action. This study analyzes the factors influencing a firm's participation in standardization activities on the basis of a collective action perspective and the mediating role of interorganizational learning. This study contributes to the literature by developing collective action and interorganizational learning theories.

Turning narratives into collective action through projects

Narratives are to be turned into commitment and collective action to create a tangible impact and achieve set goals. In this essay a framework is developed that helps us to comprehend how narratives can result in collective action. The framework is applied in a project organising context that demonstrates the related processes of narrating, projecting, action through time, engaging stakeholders, and creating shared identity. A collective action perspective offers a theoretical lens to understand these processes. From this essay, the research agenda is provided, and broader practical implications are discussed.

From personal convictions to collective action: Predicting employees’ pro-environmental behaviors in public and private spheres

Promoting changes in human behavior is crucial for mitigating and reducing environmental damage. While there is much research focused on private-sphere or generalized pro-environmental behavior, there is a relative dearth of research explicitly examining public-sphere pro-environmental behavior from a collective action perspective. In response to the mixed empirical results from previous applications of the value-belief-norm model in organizational contexts, this study explores the full value-belief-norm model, taking into account public-sphere and private-sphere pro-environmental behaviors. A sample of 504 hospitality industry employees in Kazakhstan and 515 hospitality industry employees in the United States participated in this study. The results indicate a hierarchical relationship between values, beliefs, and behaviors and confirm that values indirectly influence pro-environmental behaviors through belief variables. The findings suggest that these beliefs play vital roles in translating values into actionable behaviors. Theoretical and practical implications are provided.

Descriptive or injunctive? The effect of sustainable normative appeals and advertising orientations on environmentally responsible consumption behavior in a collective action perspective

This research investigates the relationship between sustainable normative appeals and advertising orientations on environmentally responsible consumption behavior from a collective action perspective. It is based on attribution theory and construal level theory. The research, which involved four studies (N = 951), found that a descriptive appeal is appropriate for a product-oriented advertisement, and an injunctive appeal is suitable for a cause-oriented advertisement. The match between sustainable normative appeals and advertising orientations encourages caring and responsibility attribution, leading to environmentally responsible consumption behavior. Collective goal attributes also moderated the interaction effect, especially in the abstract collective goal, and only caring mediated the interaction between descriptive appeal and product-oriented advertisement on behavior. This study provides a new perspective and advertising strategies that can be applied to corporate sustainability marketing.

Whose forest? A two-level collective action perspective on struggles to reach polycentric governance

Natural resources management often entails accommodating competing cross-scale interests. Polycentricity literature offers a potential solution: value heterogeneity can reflect in an institutional architecture that allows the coexistence of multiple management priorities, appeasing conflicts. However, this literature has largely endorsed a static perspective focusing less on the function conflicts can play ex ante for reaching such a more participated governance. This paper addresses this gap by focusing on the micro-processes of conflict that precede the potential instalment of polycentric governance. We present a two-level collective action framework that emphasizes key moments of such processes and use it to read forest-related conflicts. In a comparative analysis of four illustrative case studies from Finland, Canada, Brazil and Indonesia, we focus on common dynamics of conflict reification and its eventual transformation into an agreement on common procedural rules, which can sustain polycentric governance. We work iteratively to enrich our two-level collective action framework with insights from other corollary theories, notably the Social Movements, Bargaining, and Deliberative theories. We find that conflict serves the purpose of marginalized parties to reshuffle power imbalances and force stronger parties to the negotiation table, corroborating other literature. Yet, conflict must be followed by negotiations and integrative bargaining on procedural rules for institutional innovation, that can lead to the accommodation of value heterogeneity. Our study can help practitioners in contextualizing current conflict scenarios within a longer-term perspective, and evaluating ongoing conflict episodes and the costs associated to certain strategies versus the prospect of longer-term consequences of these struggles.

Civic Engagement Intention and the Data-Driven Fan Community: Investigating the Motivation Behind Chinese Fans’ Online Data-Making Behavior From a Collective Action Perspective

Enabled by social media, the data frenzy in the data-driven fandom culture in China has attracted widespread attention. Unlike most forms of data labor and fan activities, Chinese fans’ online data-making behavior ( zuoshuju) appears tedious, time- and money-consuming, and overwhelmingly irrational. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the sociopsychological motivation of fans’ online data-making behavior from a collective action perspective. Based on survey data from 588 respondents with fandom experiences online in China, this study (1) distinguished two types of online data-making (operational and monetary); (2) suggested that celebrity worship and civic engagement intention were antecedents of online data-making; and (3) found that fan communities facilitated by social media bridged the effects of sociopsychological factors and data-making behavior. This research introduced the collective action perspective and constructed a quantitative path model to test the underlying mechanism and impetus of fans’ data-making practices in China, adding quantitative support to the knowledge of the hybrid pattern of collective actions embedded in the datafication world. It contributes to the understanding of Chinese youth culture and civic engagement through social media.

Paradox incentive structures and rules governing sharing of coastal and marine data in Kenya and Tanzania: Lessons for the Western Indian Ocean

Comprehensive and timely data-sharing is essential for effective ocean governance. This institutional analysis investigates pervasive data-sharing barriers in Kenya and Tanzania, using a collective action perspective. Existing data-sharing rules and regulations are examined in respect to boundaries, contextuality and incentive structures, compliance and settlement mechanisms, and integration across scales. Findings show that current institutional configurations create insufficient or incoherent incentives, simultaneously reducing and reproducing sharing barriers. Regional harmonisation efforts and strategically aligned data-sharing institutions are still underdeveloped. This article discusses proposals to increase capacities and incentives for data-sharing, as well as the limitations of the chosen analytical framework. The debate is extended to aspects beyond institutional issues, i.e., structural data-sharing barriers or ethical concerns. Key recommendations include the establishment of more compelling incentives structures for data-sharing, increased funding of capacity-building and sharing infrastructure, and further awareness creation on the importance of data-sharing.

Trust, Identity, and Public-Sphere Pro-environmental Behavior in China: An Extended Attitude-Behavior-Context Theory.

Changing human behavior is critical to mitigating the increasingly severe environmental harm. Although numerous studies focus on private-sphere or generalized pro-environmental behavior (PEB), relatively little research examines explicitly public-sphere PEB from a collective action perspective. This study incorporates trust and identity into the Attitude-Behavior-Context (ABC) theory to investigate Chinese residents’ participation in public-sphere PEB. Primary data collected from 648 residents in China tested the model empirically. The results indicate that social trust, environmentalist self-identity, and politicized identity positively predict public-sphere PEB and that institutional trust positively impacts non-activist behaviors but negatively relates to environmental activism. There is also evidence that trust and identity are moderators of attitude and public-sphere PEB. Specifically, social trust and environmentalist self-identity strengthen the effect of attitude on public-sphere PEB. Politicized identity increases the impact of attitude on environmental activism but not on non-activist behaviors, and there is no significant moderating effect of institutional trust. The findings deepen the understanding of public-sphere PEB and make more targeted policies accordingly.

Implementing policy interventions to support farmer cooperation for environmental benefits

In policy and academic literature, landscape-scale agri-environment schemes (AES) are discussed in conjunction with farmer collaboration, reflecting the assumption that the two concepts are synergistic. However, farmers cooperate in different ways and for different purposes, with agri-environmental collaboration representing a different, more unique, case in relation to cooperation. Collective action among farmers may occur as cooperation (often facilitated by a third party) or as direct collaboration between farmers. Farmers’ general willingness to cooperate should not be conflated with collaboration under the demands and constraints of a landscape-scale AES. This paper investigated the Countryside Stewardship Facilitation Fund (CSFF) in England as a policy intervention to develop cooperation amongst farmers and agree the agri-environmental management priorities that they plan to take forward across their holdings. Data from empirical research on the actual operation of six CSFF-funded groups in Cumbria and East Anglia was analysed from a social capital and collective action perspective. We found that key elements of social capital (connectedness, trust, norms) differed between cases, leading to different starting points for establishing groups. The resulting cooperation in agri-environmental management also varied depending on pre-existing networks. The CSFF supported steps to increase the capacity of individuals (and in some cases groups) to deliver agri-environmental outcomes via a facilitator, but struggled to create self-sustaining groups of farmers collaborating on agri-environmental management. The design of similar policy interventions needs to be explicit what kind of farmer cooperation is aimed for. It also needs to take into account the time required for building the prerequisite social capital, tensions between priorities of farmer-led groups and state-funded AES, and trade-offs between group cohesion and landscape-scale working.

DOES COLLECTIVE ACTION INSTITUTIONALIZE RATIONAL CHOICE? CANDIDATE SELECTION IN INDONESIAN POLITICAL PARTIES

The selection process for local head candidates in the electoral democracy in Indonesia is still closed and confidential. Recruitment regulations are insufficient to control the informal actions of the candidate selection process, which is based on political pragmatism. (1.) This paper examines the dynamics of local head candidate selection from the rational choice institutionalism approach, with the collective action perspective. (2.) The research method uses content analysis, with analyzed interpretively using the NVivo 12 plus application. (3.) Research findings show that candidate selection in political parties is not entirely based on supply and demand but as a rational choice formed from the collective actions of party elites. In deciding the mayoral candidate in Makassar City in Indonesia 2020, political parties are influenced by collective mentality, individual quality, group size, and resources in political parties. (4.) The conclusion is that the rational choice institutionalism approach through the practices of principal-agent, game-theory, and rule-based models occurs in the selection of local head candidates. This rational choice institutionalism approach explains the tension between political actors to maximize personal and group interests in political party institutions.

Changing the Turkish Constitution: An Institutionalist and Collective Action Perspective

Understanding change and/or resistance to change is critical in studying institutions. We argue in this paper that the supply of expressible alternatives to the status quo, as well as the provision of incentives for political parties and other socio-political formations to participate in collective action for institutional change, are essential. These can be described as “ideational monopoly” of specific actors or “supreme legitimacy” of established institutions, but the latter can be described as “institutional handicaps” in a problematic way. According to a survey of the literature, institutional transformation follows a largely isomorphic pattern for the most part. In Turkey, it is undeniable that the European Union associated Turkish objectives have been the primary engine of institutional transformation in the country for a long time. Some historical turning moments in Europe-Turkey ties, as well as the associated actions of governments and public opinion towards the Turkish constitution, imply that there is almost a visible correlation between constitutional change and EU-Turkey relations, at least in the short term. As a result of this affinity, we have argued in favor of isomorphic approach as the most successful means of bringing about structural change. 

Street Fighters with Insurance Coverage: The Insurance System of the Nazi Storm Section (Sturmabteilung)

AbstractThe Storm Section (Sturmabteilung, or SA) was organized throughout the Weimar Republic as a paramilitary force entrusted with the ‘fight for the streets’ during the so‐called ‘time of struggle’ (Kampfzeit). To offset the potentially paralyzing effects of activism entailing risks of injury or death, the leaders of the movement devised and implemented an insurance system, which was retained throughout the following years. This insurance system smoothed the way for the most radical uncivility to hold sway without restriction during the final years of the Republic. Starting from late 1926, the National Socialist mechanism for overcoming the barriers to participation in violent activities that could potentially involve a high cost was to introduce an insurance system to facilitate their activists' willingness to ‘sacrifice’ themselves. The visceral anti‐Semitism of the Nazis was central to the negotiations and agreements reached with different insurers. The Nazis introduced an insurance policy for their activists that would cover them while carrying out their obligations as militants in the ‘fight’ against Social Democrats and, more often, Communists. By lowering the potential costs of participation in a high‐risk instance of activism, the insurance system contributed to stoking a ‘latent civil war’ in the German streets during the final years of the Republic. Relaying on archival and other primary sources and looking at them from a collective action perspective, this paper delves into the history of the SA insurance system, as well as on its functions.

Can industries be parties in collective action? Community energy in an Iranian industrial zone

The industrial sector plays a huge role in creating economic growth. While energy is vital for industries to thrive, various factors are undermining the availability of energy including phasing out of fossil fuels, CO2 emission caps and, the large gap between the fast developments of industrial clusters and the energy supply, especially in developing countries.Recently, enabled by renewable energy technologies, a transition process is taking place towards decentralized settings for energy provision where households in neighbourhoods initiate renewable electricity cooperatives. The question addressed in this research is if or to what extent the model of collective action deployed by citizen cooperatives is applicable to collaborations between industries in an industrial cluster.We identified the conditions for the establishment of Industrial Community Energy Systems (InCES) from a collective action perspective by using Ostrom’s Institutional Analysis and Development Framework. The case study selected is the industrial city of Arak, one of the largest and most diversified industrial clusters in Iran. Besides desk research, data was also collected by conducting semi-structured interviews and by holding stakeholder workshops.The results of this study highlight the importance of community spirit and trust for the establishment of InCES, unlike citizen cooperatives where finance and environmental attitude are essential. A transparent legal framework to resolve conflicts that might emerge in industrial partnerships is another crucial element given the many differences among industries such as differences in energy demand and in usage patterns.

Municipal carbon reduction policy in Taiwan: A collective action perspective

ABSTRACT This study took the analytical unit of municipalities to investigate the effect of collective action context, resources in action arenas, and municipal policy preference on the implementation outcomes of energy conservation and carbon reduction (ECCR) policies. In addition to adopting the open data from the bureaucratic information systems, the author surveyed municipal case officers in Taiwan, who responded according to the actual situation of the policy implementation. There are 179 valid observations with a response rate of 79.2%. Structural equation modeling was employed to analyze the effects between each variable and examine the mediating effect of municipal policy preference on ECCR policy implementation. The causal path analysis reported that a supportively collective action context effectively improved policy preference, and resources in action arenas generated a positive effect on policy implementation outcomes. In addition, municipal policy preference had a significant mediating effect on the relationship between collective action context and policy implementation outcomes.

Sustainable occupational opportunities in protected areas in Brazil

ABSTRACT Protected Areas (PAs) are central to environmental conservationism. Nonetheless, their implementation affects life circumstances and opportunities of communities living within and nearby their borders. Aim: To layout situational maps of PAs in four Brazilian biomes to understand wicked problems of living nearby or inside PAs and discuss how occupational therapy can promote sustainable occupational opportunities. Methods: We used case study and Situational Analysis to deal with data from 20 PAs, 82 interviews and four months of observations. Results: PAs have a negative effect on people’s life by limiting job and income options, promoting unequal access and use of PA for different economic groups, among others. However, some positive aspects of PAs include the development of sustainable income practices, access to information, leisure and tourism to urban populations, and fostering social organisation of traditional communities. We, finally argue that occupational therapists can engage in this debate and practice with occupational-based projects guided by critical education and collective action perspective.

An investigation of an Expanded Encapsulate Model of Social Identity in Collective Action (EMSICA) including perception of threat and intergroup contact to understand support for Islamist terrorism in Indonesia

Although there have been many empirical studies of terrorism within the psychology literature, relatively few studies have theorized terrorism from the perspective of collective action theory. The present study aimed to understand factors that predict support for Islamist terrorism by using the Encapsulate Model of Social Identity in Collective Action (EMSICA) perspective. To extend previous studies, we added perception of threat and intergroup contact to the model. A correlational study using 66 terrorism detainees in Indonesia as participants found solid support for our expanded EMSICA. The models extending EMSICA with perception of threat and quantity of contact as predictors had improved fit indices and explained more variance in the dependent variable support for Islamist terrorism, as compared to the standard model. Social identity had a significant direct effect on support for Islamist terrorism and mediated the effect of intergroup contact, perception of threat, perceived injustice, and group efficacy on support for Islamist terrorism.

Source effects and cause involvement in prosocial online crowdfunding: A collective action perspective

This study investigates individual motivations to contribute to charitable crowdfunding campaigns from the collective action perspective. A three-group post-test with control experiment (personal source: close friends, family v. impersonal: organizational source v. control: no known source) accounting for individual predispositions (cause involvement, altruism, attitude toward crowdfunding, prior experience) was done. No significant effect of source personalness was found. Instead, a main effect on likelihood to donate to a charitable crowdfunding campaign depends on whether there was a source or not to begin with — with no known source being less influential than a personal and an impersonal source. Post-hoc analysis revealed a moderation effect of cause involvement to motivate greater donation likelihood when the source is perceived to be more personal. Theoretical implications for future research and practical suggestions for prosocial online crowdfunding for charitable purposes are discussed.

Structured relations between higher education institutions and external organisations: opportunity or bureaucratisation?

This paper explores the introduction of centrally coordinated initiatives aimed at formalising universities’ relationships to external organisations. Such initiatives are referred to as structured relations. Based on a review of nine Swedish Universities, we identify three types of structured relation initiatives (network events, collaboration platforms, partnership agreements). In common for all structured relations identified are that they offer new opportunities to manage external expectations on universities, in particular as regards their ability to demonstrate their commitment to outreach activities. The formalisation of outreach activities challenges the academic tradition of giving individual professors discretionary mandates to enter and manage external relationships. Drawing on a collective action perspective, we analyse the tensions that are generated when universities introduce new elements of support and central coordination of outreach activities. The introduction of structured relations potentially contributes to changing the nature of the university as an organisation.

Social Capital of Parak and Rimbo Management in West Sumatra

The topic of social capital has been gaining many concerns from social researchers throughout the world, especially in collective action perspective. This study aimed to describe the organizational activities of the local forest management practices ( parak and rimbo ) as a social capital in collective action perspective. The research method is a case study of Koto Malintang and Simancuang people in West Sumatra. Collecting data was conducted by unstructured interviews, field observations, and document studies. Data analysis uses categorization and coding, document analysis, and historical analysis. Our findings were described in the context of decision-making, resources management and mobilization, communication, and conflict resolution. Collective action for decision-making involved the acquisition, allocation, and distribution mechanisms to divide land and forest product among local people. In the context of resources management and mobilization, they applied kinship relations among families, sub-clans, and clans to manage their resources. They then communicated their needs in any formal and informal meetings. When a conflict occurred in related to forest utilization, they applied an adat court to make a win-win solution. Nevertheless, the challenges of collective action are still about the resources availability, benefit equity, and external supports

Archetypical barriers to adapting water governance in river basins to climate change

AbstractCan we explain barriers to adaptation of collective action to changes in the natural environment? One reason for adaptation is the impacts of climate change. Ample case study evidence shows that such adaptation is rarely a smooth process. However, generalisable patterns of how and why barriers arise remain scarce. The study adopts a collective action perspective and the archetypes approach in a meta-analysis of 26 selected publications to explain how barriers arise in specific conditions. Focusing on adaptation of water governance in river basins, the study finds 21 reappearing patterns. Less well-established patterns relate to water property rights, hydrological standards, adaptation externalities, non-climatological uncertainty and vertical coordination. Results further show how barriers impede collective action in specific ways. The paper precisely introduces the archetypes approach, and shows that reported problems in adapting collective action under climate change arise from attributes of actors and pre-existing institutions rather than biophysical characteristics.