Small firms in the sustainable transformation of food industry: entangling entrepreneurship and activism in grassroots innovation processes

Journal title SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO
Author/s Emilie Lanciano, Séverine Saleilles
Publishing Year 2017 Issue 2017/147
Language English Pages 17 P. 111-127 File size 120 KB
DOI 10.3280/SL2017-147006
DOI is like a bar code for intellectual property: to have more infomation click here

Below, you can see the article first page

If you want to buy this article in PDF format, you can do it, following the instructions to buy download credits

Article preview

FrancoAngeli is member of Publishers International Linking Association, Inc (PILA), a not-for-profit association which run the CrossRef service enabling links to and from online scholarly content.

The literature in Social Movement Theory, Organization Studies and Entrepreneurship emphasizes on the linkages between social movement action and economic organization. Indeed, social entrepreneurship and social movement studies tend to be more and more linked: activists and social entrepreneurs do not represent separate and distinct actors with different logics of action, but tend to transfer their tactics, such as framing, mobilization, protest and negation. This paper explores how activism and entrepreneurship can be combined in an innovative way by small firms in order to contribute to an industry’s transformation towards sustainable development. We specially investigate the field of food industry and Alternative Food Networks. In a context of growing interest and sensitivity towards more sustainable food models, how do small firms combine activism and entrepreneurship to frame grassroots innovation processes and translate this frame into organizational model?

Keywords: Grassroots innovation, SME, food industry, cooperation

  1. Akrich M., Callon M., Latour B. (1988). A quoi tient le succès des innovations? Premier épisode: L’art de l’intéressement. Annales des Mines: Gérer et comprendre: 4-17.
  2. Brunori G., Rossi A., Guidi F. (2012). On the New Social Relations around and beyond Food. Analysing Consumers’ Role and Action in Gruppi di Acquisto Solidale (Solidarity Purchasing Groups). Sociologia Ruralis, 52.
  3. Dean T., McMullen J. (2007). Toward a theory of sustainable entrepreneurship: reducing environmental degradation through entrepreneurial action. Journal of Business Venturing, 22(1): 60-76.
  4. Debray C. (2012). Diriger un hypogroupe: évolution du management, et des modes de contrôle. Travail et emploi, 130: 39-55.
  5. Di Domenico M., Haugh H., Tracey P. (2010). Social bricolage: Theorizing social value creation in social enterprises. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 34 (4): 681-703.
  6. Dubuisson-Quellier S., Lamine C., Le Velly R. (2011). Citizenship and Consumption: Mobilisation in Alternative Food Systems in France. Sociologia Ruralis, 51(3).
  7. Fressoli M., Around E., Abrol D., Smith A., Ely A., Dias R. (2014). When grassroots innovation movements encounter mainstream institutions: implications for models of inclusive innovation. Innovation and Development, 4(2): 277-292. DOI: 10.1080/2157930X.2014.921354
  8. Glew D.J., O’Leary-Kelly A.M., Griffin R.W., Van Fleet D.D. (1995). Participation in Organizations: A Preview of the Issues and Proposed Framework for Future Analysis. Journal of Management, 21(3): 395-421.
  9. Hockerts K., Wüstenhagen R. (2010). Greening Goliaths versus emerging Davids. Theorizing about the role of incumbents and new entrants in sustainable entrepreneurship. Journal of Business Venturing, 25(5): 481-492.
  10. Horwitch M., Mulloth B. (2010). The interlinking of entrepreneurs, grassroots movements, public policy and hubs of innovation: The rise of Cleantech in New York City. Journal of High Technology Management Research, 21: 23-30.
  11. Gibbs D. (2009). Sustainability entrepreneurs, ecopreneurs and the development of a sustainable economy. Greener Management International, 55: 63-78.
  12. Goodman D., Dupuis E.M., Goodman M.K. (2012). Alternative Food Networks. Knowledge, Practice and Politics. London and New York: Routledge.
  13. Greenwood D.J., Whyte W.F., Harkavy I. (1993). Participatory action research as a process and as a goal. Human Relations, 46: 175-192. DOI: 10.1177/001872679304600203
  14. Laville J. L. (2009). The Solidarity Economy: An International Movement. RCCS Annual Review, 2.
  15. Lawrence T., Subbady R. (2006). Institutions and institutional work. In: Clegg S., Hardy C., Nord W., Lauwrence T., eds., Handbook of Organization Studies. London: Sage: 215-254.
  16. Le Velly R., Dufeu I. (2016). Alternative food networks as “market agencements”: Exploring their multiple hybridities. Journal of Rural Studies, 43: 173-182.
  17. Mair J., Marti I. (2006). Entrepreneurship in and around institutional voids: A case study from Bangladesh. Journal of World Business, 41: 36-44.
  18. Marchesnay M. (1991). De l’hypofirme à l’hypogroupe: naissance, connaissance, reconnaissance. Cahiers du LERASS, 23: 33-49.
  19. Neumann J.E. (1989). Why people don’t participate in organizational change. In: Woodman R., Pasmore W., eds., Research in organizational change and development, vol. 3. Greenwich: JAI Press: 181-212.
  20. Nicholls A. (2010). Fair Trade: Towards an Economics of Virtue. Journal of Business Ethics, 92: 241-255.
  21. Pacheco D.F., Dean T.J., Payne D.S. (2010). Escaping the green prison: entrepreneurship and the creation of opportunities for sustainable development. Journal of Business Venturing, 25 (5): 464-480.
  22. Parrish B.D. (2010). Sustainability-driven entrepreneurship: principles of organization design. Journal of Business Venturing, 25(5): 510-523.
  23. Pinkse J., Groot K. (2013). Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Corporate Political Activity: Overcoming Market Barriers in the Clean Energy Sector. Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice: 1042-2587.
  24. Renting H., Schermer M., Rossi A. (2012). Building Food Democracy: Exploring Civic Food Networks and Newly Emerging Forms of Food Citizenship. International Journal of Sociology of Agriculture & Food, 19(3): 289-307.
  25. Rossi A. (2017). Beyond Food Provisioning: The Transformative Potential of Grassroots Innovation around Food. Agriculture, 7(6): 1-21.
  26. Schaltegger S. (2002). A framework for ecopreneurship. Leading bioneers and environmental managers to ecopreneurship. Greener Management International, 38: 45-59.
  27. Smith A., Fressoli M., Thomas H. (2014). Grassroots innovation movements: challenges and contribution. Journal of Cleaner Production, 63, 15: 114-124.
  28. Smith A., Stirling A., Berkhout F. (2005). The governance of sustainable socio-technical transitions. Research Policy, 34: 1491-1510.
  29. Smith W.K., Gonin M., Besharov M.L. (2013). Managing social-business tensions: a review and research agenda for social enterprise. Business Ethics Quarterly, 23(3): 407-442.
  30. Spear R. (2010). Social Entrepreneurship and Social Movements. Skoll Colloquium on Social Entrepreneurship, Oxford University.
  31. Torres O., Julien P.A. (2005). Specificity and Denaturing of Small Business. International Small Business Journal, 23(4): 355-377. DOI: 10.1177/0266242605054049
  32. Van den Broek T.A., Ehrenhard M.L., Langley D.J., Groen A.J. (2012). Dotcauses for sustainability: combining activism and entrepreneurship. Journal Public Affairs, 12: 214-223.
  33. Vasi I.B. (2009). New heroes, old theories? Toward a sociological perspective on social entrepreneurship. In: Ziegler R., ed., An Introduction to Social Entrepreneurship: Voices, Preconditions, Contexts. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar: 155-173.
  34. Watts D., Ilbery B., Maye D. (2005). Making re-connections in agro-food geography: alternative systems of food provision. Progress in Human Geography, 29: 22-40.
  35. Weinberg A. (1998). Distinguishing among green businesses: growth, green and anomie. Society & Natural Resources, 11(3): 241-250. DOI: 10.1080/08941929809381076
  36. Zahra S.A., Gedajlovic E., Neubaum D.O., Shulman J.M. (2009). A typology of social entrepreneurs: Motives, search processes and ethical challenges. Journal of Business Venturing, 24(5): 519-532.

  • Industrial Processes Management for a Sustainable Society: Global Research Analysis Emilio Abad-Segura, Manuel E. Morales, Francisco Joaquín Cortés-García, Luis Jesús Belmonte-Ureña, in Processes /2020 pp.631
    DOI: 10.3390/pr8050631

Emilie Lanciano, Séverine Saleilles, Small firms in the sustainable transformation of food industry: entangling entrepreneurship and activism in grassroots innovation processes in "SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO " 147/2017, pp 111-127, DOI: 10.3280/SL2017-147006