How Social Entrepreneurs Facilitate the Adoption of New Industry Practices

• Author: Greg Fisher,Theodore L. Waldron,Michael Pfarrer
• Date: 01 July 2016
• Published date: 01 July 2016
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12187

How Social Entrepreneurs Facilitate the Adoption of

New Industry Practices

[1]

Theodore L. Waldron, Greg Fisher and Michael Pfarrer

Baylor University; Indiana University; The University of Georgia

ABSTRACT This paper explores how social entrepreneurs use rhetoric to facilitate the pervasive

adoption of new, socially focused, industry practices. Our conceptualization proposes that the

nature of social entrepreneurs’ rhetoric hinges on perceptions of their relationships to the

industry members they seek to influence. We develop a framework that explains the effects of

two cognitive structures – identity and power – on social entrepreneurs’ perceptions of

industry members and, in turn, the social entrepreneurs’ rhetorical strategies for persuading

the industry members to adopt new practices. Our framework specifies mechanisms through

which social entrepreneurs facilitate systemic social change and, in doing so, informs theory at

the intersection of social entrepreneurship, sustainable social change, and rhetoric.

Keywords: entrepreneurship, rhetoric, social change, social cognition, sustainability

Social entrepreneurs are acto rs who seek to create social value by innovating industry

practices that address socia l needs (Austin et al., 2006; Bo rnstein, 2007; Dacin et al.,

2010; Dees, 1998; Martin and Osberg, 2007; Miller et al., 2012 ; Short et al., 2009;

Zahra et al., 2009). Such actors focus on a diverse range of issues (e.g., the environ-

ment, poverty, and education), t ake various forms (e.g., individuals, non-profits, for-

profits, and B-Corps), and operate from different industry pos itions (e.g., insiders or

outsiders).

Prior research has provided ample illustrations of social entrepreneurs in action. For

instance, Muhammed Yunus, the founder of Grameen Bank, sought to reduce poverty

by providing microloans to the poor (Battilana and Dorado, 2010; Bornstein, 1996;

Zhao, 2014); 4CORE and other environmental organizations sought to limit environ-

mental degradation by introducing ‘clean’ energy solutions (Pacheco et al., 2014; York

et al., 2015); and Gloria de Souza, the founder of Parisar Asha, sought to improve edu-

cational systems by replacing rote-learning methods with experiential-learning methods

(Bornstein, 2007).

Address for reprints: Theodore L. Waldron, Baylor University, One Bear Place #98006, Waco, TX 76798,

USA (theodore_waldron@baylor.edu).

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C2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and Society for the Advancement of Management Studies

Journal of Management Studies 53:5 July 2016

doi: 10.1111/joms.12187

Such work has largely focused on how social entrepreneurs enact new, socially

focused, industry practices (Austin et al., 2006; Zahra et al., 2009). However, in

order to achieve their core objective of systemic social change (Bornstein, 2007;

Dees, 1998; Mair and Marti, 2006; Martin and Osberg, 2007; Zahra et al., 2009),

social entrepreneurs must involve broader sets of industry members in their efforts

(Dacin et al., 2011). For instance, to enhance the impact of Grameen Bank’s micro-

lending practices on poverty in Bangladesh, Muhammed Yunus called for national-

ized banks to adopt comparable practices. The tendency of research to focus on

social entrepreneurs’ efforts to innovate practices indicates that extant theory may

not adequately explain social entrepreneurs’ efforts to facilitate the pervasive adop-

tion of these practices by industry members. Our objective is to develop theory that

explains the latter phenomenon.

Recent research has suggested that rhetoric, which describes persuasive language,

may play a crucial role in social entrepreneurs’ efforts to generate systemic social change

(see Dacin et al., 2011; Green et al., 2009; Waldron et al., 2015). The core function of

an actor’s rhetoric is to persuade audiences that new practices are preferable to existing

versions by manipulating their values and beliefs (Berkenkotter and Huckin, 1995;

Miller, 1994; Orlikowski and Yates, 1994). Effective rhetoric shifts audiences’ percep-

tions of ‘normal’ and ‘appropriate’, prompting them to enact change (Burke, 1969

[1945]; Green et al., 2009; Suddaby and Greenwood, 2005). Muhammed Yunus, for

instance, used a variety of arguments to legitimize microlending among the senior man-

agers of Bangladeshi nationalized banks, prompting the managers to adopt versions of

this practice (Bornstein, 1996). Given the utility of rhetoric in influencing actors’ efforts

to facilitate how communicators’ think and act, we examine the rhetoric that social

entrepreneurs use to persuade industry members to adopt socially focused practices.

Our conceptualization proposes that the nature of social entrepreneurs’ rhetoric

hinges on their perceptions of the industry members they seek to influence. Two cogni-

tive structures with sensemaking utility – identity and power – inform these perceptions

and, in turn, affect the rhetorical tactics used by social entrepreneurs. We first propose

that differences in the self-definitions that social entrepreneurs perceive between them-

selves and industry members – which we label identity differentials – affect how the

social entrepreneurs frame and argue for new practices. We then propose that the differ-

ences in influence that social entrepreneurs perceive between themselves and industry

members – which we label power differentials – affect how the social entrepreneurs vali-

date and tailor messages to the industry members. We conclude by developing a frame-

work that conveys the joint effects of identity and power differentials on social

entrepreneurs’ rhetorical tactics. As illustrated in Table I, the framework identifies four

combinations of identity and power differentials, recognizes the rhetorical tactics associ-

ated with each combination, and highlights the rhetorical strategy enacted through these

tactics.

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Overall, by explaining how social entrepreneurs persuade industry members

to adopt new practices, we advance theory germane to social entrepreneurship, sustain-

able social change, and rhetoric.

Themanuscriptunfoldsinthreeparts.Inthefirstpart,weelaborateandexemplify

the distinct effects of identity and power differentials on social entrepreneurs’ rhetori-

cal tactics. In the second part, we depict the joint effects of identity and power

822 T. L. Waldron et al.

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C2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd and Society for the Advancement of Management Studies