Abstract
There is, in general, a dearth of empirical inquiries on how institutional voids are filled through institutional work in marginalized communities. Extant studies have focussed on institutional work that addresses solitary institutional void, mostly in formal settings. In this paper, we inquire the case of a social entrepreneurial venture in India that identified two complementary institutional voids (productive ageing void of the urban elderly and rural education void of children) and attempted to simultaneously address the two voids. The issue of physical distance between the two groups was overcome by enacting an ICT platform. We also show how the institutional challenges associated with the ICT implementation led them to pursue different kinds of institutional works in their context. We then identify different theoretical dimensions of institutional works that could be used in marginalized contexts. Finally, we show how the ‘complementary voids’ approach has implications for both theory and practice.
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Notes
Marginalized communities are defined as groups of people who are confined to the lower or peripheral edge of the society due to reasons like age, mental or physical disabilities, economic conditions, access to education, or reside in isolated places or depressed regions (Haihambo 2020; Morato et al. 2016). In rural India, this marginalization extends to lower caste and women (Qureshi et al. 2018).
Institutions refer to both informal establishments such as stable norms, values, customs, beliefs that govern socially acceptable behaviour and formal establishments such as laws, regulations, and their supporting apparatuses (Webb et al. 2009).
Institutional work refers to “the purposive action of individuals and organizations aimed at creating, maintaining and disrupting institutions” (Lawrence and Suddaby 2006, p. 216).
A pseudonym for a social entrepreneurial venture in India.
GenLink provided a platform for online education to rural children wherein remote elderly teachers from urban areas taught them.
In our context, the elderly taught for minimal payments or even on a voluntary basis considering that children from marginalized communities cannot pay much and because this exercise helped them overcome their own social isolation.
Scholars also argued that development related goals by ICTs are not caused by the artefact itself, but by the new forms of informational behaviour it facilitates (Mansell 2010).
Institutions indicate both formal establishments advanced by the government, private or public entities or informal establishments such as stable beliefs, customs, norms, values and recurring behaviour patterns that are accepted and important to the society (Lawrence and Suddaby 2006).
Non-munificence in this context refers to the lack of social resources required to support the initiation of social business (Bhatt et al. 2019).
Institutional entrepreneurship is defined as a set of activities by actors who question the existing institutional norms/beliefs and go on to create new or disrupt existing institutions (Wang and Swanson 2007).
Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan or Education for All Movement is a program by the government of India that makes free and compulsory education for children between the ages of 6–14 as a fundamental right (Kainth 2006).
Mid-Day Meal Scheme is a program by the Government of India that provides free lunch to children on working days as a means to improve the nutritional standing of children (Kainth 2006).
A tuition centre is typically a private institution that serves to supplement the education received in school. Tuition centres usually help students to tackle exams and advocate rote learning.
For urban students taking online tutoring made sense because it helped them save commute time to and fro to offline tutoring centres.
A tuition centre is typically a private institution that serves to supplement the education received in school. Tuition centres usually help students to tackle exams and advocate rote learning.
Ramakrishna Paramahamsa was an Indian saint who lived in nineteenth century Bengal.
Para teacher refers to a teacher who is physically present in the internet school in the villages to augment the virtual teacher who teaches from the city. The para teachers help in the smooth conduct of the classes.
Refers to a place where people gather for conversations.
It is fair/market place that exists for a specific period of time.
The elderly teachers taught between 4 and 6 h a day.
The income came from charging urban students at standard market rates and the rural children at highly subsidized rates.
For instance, teachers who travelled abroad or to other places within the country, showed snow, monuments and new animals to the children during the class.
Distance between urban elderly and rural children, coupled with the elderly’s restricted mobility due to old age made usage of ICT necessary.
Since GenLink was a start-up, it did not have the resources similar to other large scale NGOs to create a physical environment where different stakeholders can come and interact on a sustained basis.
Refer to the quote and text in page 25 (findings section).
The second order themes 1–5 from Table 1 delineate the supporting processes surrounding ICT that were needed for the system to sustain.
Refer to Table 1 (second order, theme 2).
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Parthiban, R., Qureshi, I., Bandyopadhyay, S. et al. Leveraging ICT to Overcome Complementary Institutional Voids: Insights from Institutional Work by a Social Enterprise to Help Marginalized. Inf Syst Front 22, 633–653 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-020-09991-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10796-020-09991-6