► Trust is a vital ingredient in collaborative projects. ► Building and maintaining collaboration across professional cultures presents particular challenges for building trust. ► Trust in ...interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary teams is based on norms, information, sanctions and controls.
With the challenges of researching complex topics such as those related to environmental sustainability and land use, there is a growing interest in transdisciplinary research promoting collaboration between research and industry, between different disciplines in research, and between different types of research organisations. However there is a need to know more about how collaboration is operating and approaches to building trust in these relations. This paper uses the detailed analysis of 10 case studies of research collaborations related to sustainability and environmental land-use to examine the different professional cultures among research collaborators, the incentives they have to cooperate, and the processes of building trust. The paper shows that trust is vital when crossing professional cultural boundaries as people are opening themselves to vulnerability and risk. The results show how trust is built between university researchers, environmental NGOs, private businesses and commercial advisory companies. Trust is shown to be built by having information on others, prior experience of working together, norms of cooperation, and sanctions exerted on those who might transgress norms of behaviour. Having incentives is a necessary but not adequate basis for having trust. These relationships are built up through existing relationships, building trust through progression of projects and the use of intermediaries or guarantors.
This paper contributes to the continuing debate over the multifaceted concept of trust, and its ability to provide a richer explanation of processes of economic activity. Using case studies of ...agricultural production, marketing and financing systems in Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana, the analysis documents the means by which trust is created among farmers, traders and agricultural input suppliers. The mechanisms include formal and informal networks of working relations, customer friendships, pre-existing networks and intermediaries. The study shows that trust is necessary for the development of a vibrant private sector based on microenterprises, in conditions where actors cannot rely on formal legal institutions at present.
The impacts of the global economic crisis of 2008, the intractable problems of persistent poverty and environmental change have focused attention on organizations that combine enterprise with an ...embedded social purpose. Scholarly interest in social enterprise (SE) has progressed beyond the early focus on definitions and context to investigate their management and performance. From a review of the SE literature, the authors identify hybridity, the pursuit of the dual mission of financial sustainability and social purpose, as the defining characteristic of SEs. They assess the impact of hybridity on the management of the SE mission, financial resource acquisition and human resource mobilization, and present a framework for understanding the tensions and trade‐offs resulting from hybridity. By examining the influence of dual mission and conflicting institutional logics on SE management the authors suggest future research directions for theory development for SE and hybrid organizations more generally.
Abstract
Non-technical summary
Transdisciplinary approaches for sustainability brings natural and social science researchers together with non researchers to fill gaps in scientific knowledge and ...catalyze change. By connecting diverse academic fields and sectors, it addresses complex problems and enables learning for problem solving. However, institutional barriers, funding constraints, time limitations, and evaluation criteria hinder collaborative progress. Our review reveals tensions at institutional and individual levels. Our findings underscore the significance of soft skills in assembling effective transdisciplinary teams. Embracing transdisciplinary science, as suggested by our review, can enhance problem-solving, and foster transformations for sustainability and resilience.
Technical summary
Sustainability challenges in the age of the Anthropocene require researchers and practitioners to collaborate across multiple academic disciplines and multiple professions outside of universities. In this paper we draw on theories of institutional logics to explore how those involved in transdisciplinary environmental research and practice draw on particular sets of values and norms but encounter challenges to collaboration. These institutional logics include (among others) seeking societal/environmental impact, commercial objectives, and academic knowledge generation. In this paper we review the growing literature on the research experience of transdisciplinarity in sustainability; discuss the processes of managing such research; and present a framework that outlines the challenges and tensions at each stage of the innovation/research process. We set out an agenda for managing tension that calls for recognizing the challenges, learning how to work with tensions, and building capabilities for future careers involving transdisciplinary research. The paper shows a key competence or skill for transdisciplinarians is the ability to develop complex collaborative relationships for sustainability drawing together different institutional logics, approaches, methods, goals, and values.
Social media summary
Transdisciplinary science: bridging disciplines, solving challenges. Soft skills and collaboration key to success.
The article examines the strategies by which environmentally-motivated social enterprises seek to scale up their positive impacts, drawing on a theoretical understanding of the role of ...entrepreneurial agency in transitions to a more sustainable economy and society. Case study evidence is used to explore different forms of enterprise growth, contributions to economic, environmental and social value, and the capabilities involved in their realisation. A typology of three distinct approaches or modes is introduced to help explain orientations and strategies that reflect both conventional conceptions of growth and alternative ways of growing social and environmental value. The role of values, capabilities and relational learning in shaping strategies and addressing the tensions and challenges encountered within each category is highlighted.
Non-profit organisations are under increasing pressure to demonstrate their social impact. This paper examines the experience and behaviour of non-profit organisations in the UK in relation to a ...demand for social impact evaluations. External resource providers request organisations to present evidence on how resources are used and what organisations have achieved. While most organisations are willing to comply and accept this control, they can also resist through using their discretion in deciding what to measure, how to measure and what to report. Nonprofit organisations can proactively and voluntarily use social impact measurement for learning and promotional purposes, and as a way of exerting control over their environment. The analysis develops the concept of strategic decoupling to explain the differences observed between what organisations are asked to do, what they plan to do and what they are doing in practice. On attend de plus en plus souvent des organisations à but non lucratif qu'elles démontrent leur impact social. Cet article examine l'expérience et l'attitude d'organisations à but non lucratif au Royaume Uni vis-à-vis de cette exigence d'auto-évaluation. Les fournisseurs de ressources externes demandent des organisations qu'elles apportent des preuves de la façon dont elles utilisent les ressources et des objectifs qu'elles atteignent. Même si la plupart des organisations sont prêtes à se conformer à ces exigences et à accepter ce contrôle, elles peuvent aussi résister par le choix de ce qu'elles mesurent, comment elles le mesurent, et ce qu'elles incluent ou non dans leurs rapports. Les organisations à but non lucratif peuvent activement et délibérément utiliser revaluation de leur impact social pour apprendre ou pour promouvoir leur action et comme un moyen de maîtrise de leur environnement. L'analyse développe le concept de découplage stratégique pour expliquer les différences constatées entre ce qu'on attend des organisations, ce qu'elles projettent de faire et ce qu'elles font en pratique. Nonprofit-Organisationen stehen unter zunehmenden Druck, ihren sozialen Einfluss zu demonstrieren. Dieser Beitrag untersucht die Erfahrungen und Verhaltensweisen von Nonprofit-Organisationen in Großbritannien in Bezug auf eine Nachfrage nach einer Beurteilung sozialer Auswirkungen. Externe Ressourcenanbieter fordern von den Organisationen, Nachweise darüber zu erbringen, wie die Ressourcen verwendet werden und was die Organisationen geleistet haben. Zwar sind die meisten Organisationen bereit, dieser Forderung nachzukommen, und sie akzeptieren diese Art von Kontrolle; doch können sie auch Widerstand leisten, indem sie nach eigenem Ermessen entscheiden, welche Aspekte sie erfassen, wie sie sie erfassen und worüber sie Bericht erstatten. Nonprofit-Organisationen können die Messung des sozialen Einflusses auf eigene Initiative und freiwillig zu Lern-und Werbezwecken nutzen sowie zur Ausübung von Kontrolle auf ihren Wirkungskreis einsetzen. Die Untersuchung entwickelt das Konzept der strategischen Entkopplung, um die beobachteten Unterschiede zwischen den Anforderungen an die Organisationen, ihren Plänen und dem, was sie tatsächlich in der Praxis tun, zu erläutern. Las organizaciones sin ánimo de lucro sufren la creciente presión de demostrar su impacto social. El presente documento examina la experiencia y el comportamiento de las organizaciones sin ánimo de lucro en el Reino Unido en relación con la exigencia de evaluaciones de su impacto social. Los proveedores de recursos externos solicitan a las organizaciones que presenten pruebas de cómo se utilizan los recursos y qué han logrado las organizaciones. Aunque la mayor parte de las organizaciones están dispuestas a cumplir y aceptar este control, también pueden resistirse utilizando su criterio para decidir qué medir, cómo medir y de qué informar. Las organizaciones sin ánimo de lucro pueden utilizar proactiva y voluntariamente la medición del impacto social con fines de aprendizaje y promocionales, y como forma de ejercer control sobre su entorno. El análisis desarrolla el concepto de separación estratégica para explicar las diferencias observadas entre lo que se pide a las organizaciones que hagan, lo que ellas planean hacer y lo que están haciendo en la práctica.
•Businesses require different forms of finance as they grow, including grants, debt and equity.•Public finance stimulates the green finance escalator for early stage low carbon innovation.•A holistic ...green finance ecosystem requires supply and demand-side enabling policy.•Lack of effective evaluation of low carbon public finance initiatives limits lessons learnt.
Rapid transformation to meet the Paris 1.5°C climate target requires greater attention to be given to the role of innovative low carbon early stage businesses and the public sector's role in addressing finance gaps for longer horizon investment requirements. As entrepreneurs require different forms of finance as their businesses grow and move up the ‘finance escalator’, we explore the role of public sector support for grant, equity, debt and new forms of crowd funding finance in higher and lower income countries. These funds can enable individual sustainability focussed businesses to access finance and encourage finance into new areas through having a demonstration effect. We conclude that a finance ecosystem approach is required that ensures complementary forms of finance for low carbon investment are connected at local, national and international scales, alongside support to build entrepreneurial skills and investment readiness. There is also a need for better evidence of the role of public sector support and where there is greatest impact on climate change.
How might a Green New Deal be applied to the early stage financing of Cleantechs? Amidst rising interest and adoption of Green New Deals in the US, the paper explores the need for more focused policy ...to address early stage long horizon financing of Cleantechs. We argue that insufficient focus has been applied to early stage investing into these types of innovative SMEs that could lower CO2 emissions across a range of sectors (including renewable energy, recycling, advanced manufacturing, transport and bio-science). Adopting a resource complementarity lens and borrowing from transaction cost theory, we illustrate and build theory through longitudinal UK case studies. These demonstrate how government policy can scale-up through international collaboration public-private, principally venture capital, co-finance to facilitate cleantech innovation with potentially game changing impacts on reducing CO2 emissions in order to meet the Paris 2015 Climate Change targets.
•We show how public service innovation is shaped by logics of the state, market and civil society.•Specific strategies and practices which enable creative interplay between logics are ...identified.•Innovation can be encouraged by developing strategies and recruiting staff who can work with multiple logics.•Public sector commissioners can play a key role by investing in innovation and encouraging scaling.
Public sector organisations are confronted with growing health and social care needs in combination with severe resource constraints, prompting interest in innovative responses to such challenges. Public service innovation is poorly understood, particularly where innovators must navigate between the norms, practices and logics of public, private and civil society sectors. We contribute to the understanding of how innovating hybrid organisations are able to creatively combine co-existing logics. Case study evidence from newly established social enterprise providers of health and wellbeing services in England is utilised to examine how innovations are shaped by (i) an incumbent state or public sector logic, and two ‘challenger’ logics relating to (ii) the market and increasing competition; and (iii) civil society, emphasising social value and democratic engagement with employees and service users. The analysis shows how a more fluid and creative interplay of logics can be observed in relation to specific strategies and practices. Within organisations, these strategies relate to the empowerment of staff to be creative, financial management, and knowledge sharing and protection. The interplay of logics shaping social innovation is also found in relationships with key stakeholders, notably public sector funders, service users and service delivery partners. Implications are drawn for innovation in public services and hybrid organisations more broadly.
Through an investigation of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) exporting in contexts which lack a formalised institutional environment in a less developed country, this article shows how ...entrepreneurs cope with institutional deficiency. By drawing on an analysis of 12 SMEs exporting from Ghana to other West African countries, the findings reveal how entrepreneurs and their organisations avoid recourse to the courts and instead, use culturally specific relationships to settle disputes when exporting. Institutional forms operating in parallel to the formal legal system are examined. These are shown to be hybrid forms drawing on traditional cultural institutions such as chieftaincy and religion, combined with forms of corporations and cooperatives. Assumptions around the different roles of family and kinship also are explored. The study contributes to the ongoing development of a theoretical understanding on trust and relationship building in international entrepreneurship, and the importance of understanding cultural context.
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