ARC: Connections: ELMAR: Posting

areas: management: call

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CALL FOR PAPERS

Journal of Management Studies
Special Issue on
Organisational Innovation for Inclusive Growth

Guest editors:

Gerard George, Imperial College London
Jaideep Prabhu, Cambridge University
Anita McGahan, University of Toronto/Harvard Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness/Harvard Medical School

Over the past decade, a shift in emphasis has occurred in emerging and developing economies towards innovation and entrepreneurship over the Washington Consensus policies of the early 1990s. This new emphasis puts a priority on unleashing creativity through ‘inclusive growth’ initiatives deployed through for-profit and not-for-profit organisations that cater to populations that have remained vastly underserved by products developed for the western economies. Many such product, organisational, or community-level innovations are targeted towards bridging the socio-economic divide between those above and below the poverty line. Professor CK Prahalad’s 2004 book entitled The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty through Profits popularised this phenomenon among executives and academics alike. Much touted recent examples such as Tata Motors’ Nano or the $100 laptop project serve markets through innovations that challenge conventional wisdom. Initiatives such as at the Hrudayalaya Heart Hospital use developed economy knowledge to create products and services that leverage locally available resources. Entrepreneurship by Discovery Health has led to marketing innovations that have been so successful in South Africa that they have been adopted in other parts of the world. Similarly, initiatives such as microfinance have facilitated transitions into self-employment for women and disenfranchised minority communities. These innovations for inclusive social growth are seen in sectors such as rural health and medicine, global pharmaceuticals, banking, consumer products, energy, manufacturing and construction among many other sectors.

We invite papers that adopt multi-level approaches at the individual, community and regional levels of analysis to explain social transformation enabled by innovation and entrepreneurship. Papers that develop conceptual insights into the emergence of specific innovative practices and value creating outcomes are encouraged. Given the limited empirical evidence on this topic, well-developed empirical papers are particularly welcome. Papers solely focused on social and developmental issues are not part of this call. All manuscripts should address the firm and its industry/network or individual entrepreneurs as the unit of analysis.

We encourage manuscripts which explore, but are not limited to, questions such as:

• How can organisational innovation become a tool for social transformation and growth?
• Are there fundamental theoretical and empirical differences between inclusive innovation and entrepreneurship across economic contexts?
• How do organisations respond and innovate to achieve inclusive growth and access?
• What are organisational or community level motives that bring together such innovations?
• What economic sectors have there been greater success in inclusive growth?
• Why and under what conditions does inclusive growth succeed?
• How has business-model innovation occurred under inclusive growth initiatives?
• What empirical relationships arise between inclusive growth and sustainability?

Papers are encouraged from broad disciplinary fields but with a unifying theme of innovation and entrepreneurship with managerial / organisational relevance. For example:

• Social psychology theories to explain motivation, self-efficacy and empowerment in disenfranchised members of society can be used by managers to develop effective outreach programmes.
• Network and social structuration theories that help explain barriers to inclusive growth and innovation.
• Management theories to explain the organisation, strategy, and performance of companies involved in these efforts.
• Resource-based and capabilities views that tie innovation and entrepreneurship to long term organisational development
• Theories of competition, isomorphism and industry change that explain how dominant models emerge to shape economic opportunity over the long run

Papers should be submitted as e-mail attachments to Gerry George (papers should be marked JMS Special Issue and sent to rgcadmin@imperial.ac.uk) by 31st December 2009.

The anticipated publication date is 2011.

Please conform to the normal guidelines for submission to JMS (www.blackwellpublishing.com/jms). Any enquiries relating to this Special Issue can be directed to any of the editors (Gerry — g.george@imperial.ac.uk; Jaideep — jcp31@cam.ac.uk; Anita — Anita.McGahan@Rotman.Utoronto.Ca)

 

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