Leaping into real-world relevance: An “abduction” process for nonprofit research
- Authors: Taylor, Rachel , Torugsa, Nuttaneeya , Arundel, Anthony
- Date: 2018
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Nonprofit and voluntary sector quarterly Vol. 47, no. 1 (2018), p. 206-227
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Positioned in the midst of the heated debate about the production of relevant and usable knowledge for practitioners in the nonprofit sector and a serious shortage of high-impact research that speaks to practice, the purpose of this Research Note is to direct nonprofit scholarship toward embracing “abduction,” which is the initial creative stage in scientific inquiry that facilitates the formulation of testable explanatory hypotheses and makes new discoveries in a sensory and logically structured way. We use an emerging interest in social innovation by the nonprofit sector as an illustrative example to show the advantages of using abductive reasoning as the primary method of reasoning for discovering new knowledge of a nascent but vital phenomenon. The novel contribution of this Research Note lies in encouraging scholarship on the nonprofit sector to an applied “practice-led” research process that is intellectually relevant and has the potential to bridge the scholar–practice divide.
Organizational pathways for social innovation and societal impacts in disability nonprofits
- Authors: Taylor, Rachel , Torugsa, Nuttaneeya , Arundel, Anthony
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Voluntas Vol. 31, no. 5 (2020), p. 995-1012
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Using data from a sample of 301 Australian disability nonprofit organizations (NPOs), this study applies configurational thinking to identify combinations of organizational capabilities that lead to Nonprofit Social Innovation (NSI)—a new service or process that promotes social inclusion of people with disabilities—and examines whether NSI is a sufficient condition for high societal impacts to be achieved. The conceptualization and components of the NSI framework were developed in our previous research through a two-month researcher-in-residency at disability NPOs. In this study, we employ fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to identify several “recipes” of capabilities (varying by organizational size and geographical location) for NSI development. The analyses find that high societal impacts from NSI occur when organizations adopt diverse perspectives, and embrace either person-focused approaches or operate in a risk-tolerant environment. These findings provide valuable linkages to managerial practice in nonprofits and advance emerging theoretical understandings of social innovation. © 2019, International Society for Third-Sector Research.
Social Innovation in Disability Nonprofits: An Abductive Study of Capabilities for Social Change
- Authors: Taylor, Rachel , Torugsa, Nuttaneeya , Arundel, Anthony
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly Vol. 49, no. 2 (2020), p. 399-423
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: This study uses an abduction-based approach to identify the capabilities harnessed by nonprofit organizations (NPOs) as they develop social innovations. The context of this study is the Australian disability sector currently undergoing a once-in-a-generation social policy reform with the implementation of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. Data from extensive field observation and 52 interviews were collected during “researcher-in-residences” at two disability NPOs and analyzed using thematic coding and practice–theory iteration to arrive at a “working” hypothesis. The findings reveal many capabilities used by disability NPOs on the path to social innovation development. The complex interplay of these capabilities forms five pivotal capabilities (i.e., transformational empathy, place-based relationing, diversity learning, paradoxical change making, and complexity leadership) for eliciting nonprofit social innovation (NSI) with community and system-level impacts. © The Author(s) 2019.
Transformed management scholarship and ways forward for exploring social innovation in organizations
- Authors: Taylor, Rachel , Torugsa, Nuttaneeya , Arundel, Anthony
- Date: 2020
- Type: Text , Journal article
- Relation: International Studies of Management and Organization Vol. 50, no. 2 (2020), p. 107-129
- Full Text: false
- Reviewed:
- Description: Inspired by recent calls for a transformation of management scholarship, we conduct a scoping review of empirical studies during 1998–2015 on the phenomenon of social innovation within organizations. Social innovations are novel solutions that address social problems and create value for society as a whole. We make several problem-based observations and suggest how the social innovation phenomenon can be empirically grounded and contextualized to make future research intellectually relevant and meaningful for practice. We propose that the way forward lies in using abduction as a logic of discovery, adopting complexity theorizing, and using set-theoretic analytical methods to reflect multiple realities. The application of these three methods will help link theory and research methods with practice, thereby improving the ability of research to tackle managerial and societal issues and hence strengthening management scholarship. © 2020, © 2020 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.