MIB Seminar by Dr Chenjian Zhang (University of Bath)

Abstract: Organizational categories are socially constructed systems of classification that group organizations perceived by external audiences as similar. Most early studies have focused on stable and institutionalized categorization systems and examined their constraining and disciplinary functions. More recently, studies have started to examine categories in the making. However, they tend to portray a simplified two-stage approach to a complex, ongoing process. We argue, at the core of this ongoing process is the recognition and resolution of the tension between internal coherence and external distinctiveness of the emerging category.

Internal coherence refers to the perceived association and resemblance among the entities that constitute a category’s membership. External distinctiveness reflects the relative position of a category in the broader classification and captures the degree to which the category differentiates from other categories in the system. Addressing this tension underpins the process of category emergence and achieving viability. In this paper, we ask: how does an organizational category emerge and become viable? Specifically, how do actors find an appropriate balance between internal coherence and external distinctiveness as the category emerges and evolves?

Our research is contextualized in the emergence and growth of social enterprise in China. Employing a qualitative and longitudinal research method, we show how intermediary organizations played an essential role in defining and championing the emerging social enterprise category, the process we label as optimal distinctiveness work. Specifically, we show that intermediary organizations attend to and address the shifting tension between coherence and differentiation to facilitate category emergence and achieve viability in a political environment that is unfavourable due to the government’s ambivalent attitude toward this new organizational category.

Bio: Chenjian Zhang is an Associate Professor in Strategy and Entrepreneurship in Strategy and Organisation Division, University of Bath, School of Management. He earned his PhD degree from University of Bremen, Germany. His research interests include institutional theory, social entrepreneurship, and social network. His research focuses on understanding organisations’ and entrepreneurs’ strategic responses to the external environment. Specifically, he is interested in investigating the following two questions: What are the enabling and constraining factors for strategic action? How do organisations and entrepreneurs make strategic responses when they are socially embedded in their context? He combines qualitative and quantitative analysis to pin down the mechanisms that determine organisational and entrepreneurial strategy. Among others, he has published in Strategic Management Journal, Journal of International Business Studies, and Management and Organization Review. He is a senior editor of Management and Organization Review.