Aline Gatignon

Aline Gatignon, Julien Clement, Leandro S. Pongeluppe, Luk Van Wassenhove (Under Review), Resource-Poor but Network-Rich: A Configurational Approach to Stakeholder Engagement for Scaling Social Innovation.

Abstract: We investigate how local managers in social organizations can leverage internal and external stakeholder relationships to deliver healthcare services to underserved populations, focusing on the North Star Alliance’s HIV/AIDS clinics in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using qualitative and survey data from 17 clinics between 2015 and 2016, we employ fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to explore how different configurations of stakeholder relationships impact service delivery. We identify two successful approaches for resource-constrained clinics. A "potluck" model combines external resource contributions with internal support for managing donors, leveraging resource synergies between internal and external relationships. A "community kitchen" model acts as a hub for more diverse external partners who contribute fewer resources, using internal support to grow these networks through relational synergies. Conversely, clinics underperform when they fail to build strong relationships or attempt to engage stakeholders indiscriminately. The study’s contribution lies in demonstrating how effective stakeholder management enables social innovations to scale across countries under resource constraints, offering insights into stakeholder synergies for social organizations seeking to address global challenges such as healthcare access.

Description: We investigate how local managers in social organizations can leverage internal and external stakeholder relationships to deliver healthcare services to underserved populations, focusing on the North Star Alliance’s HIV/AIDS clinics in Sub-Saharan Africa. Using qualitative and survey data from 17 clinics between 2015 and 2016, we employ fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to explore how different configurations of stakeholder relationships impact service delivery. We identify two successful approaches for resource-constrained clinics. A "potluck" model combines external resource contributions with internal support for managing donors, leveraging resource synergies between internal and external relationships. A "community kitchen" model acts as a hub for more diverse external partners who contribute fewer resources, using internal support to grow these networks through relational synergies. Conversely, clinics underperform when they fail to build strong relationships or attempt to engage stakeholders indiscriminately. The study’s contribution lies in demonstrating how effective stakeholder management enables social innovations to scale across countries under resource constraints, offering insights into stakeholder synergies for social organizations seeking to address global challenges such as healthcare access.

Aline Gatignon, Marina A.B. Gama, Rodrigo B. DeMello (2023), The Returns to Nonmarket Strategies during Institutional Transitions: Investor Reactions to Actor and Tie Characteristics, Organization Science, 18.

Abstract: We explain how investor perceptions of nonmarket strategies’ legitimacy, and thereby value, change during institutional transitions toward greater legal compliance. Indirect influence strategies should be better aligned with the transition and therefore become more legitimate than those associated with direct co-optation and control. Moreover, investors should assess this alignment based on two defining characteristics of firms’ nonmarket strategies, namely, the nonmarket actors and the ties involved. We, therefore, expect investors to value firms’ ties to nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) more than to political actors and ties formed via donations more than board ties. We test our hypotheses in the context of seven police raids that took place in Brazil in 2014; these raids launched “Operation Car Wash,” an anticorruption probe that signaled to investors a shift toward greater legal compliance at that point in time. Ultimately, we find that firms benefited the most when both nonmarket actors and ties were aligned with the institutional transition (i.e., NGO donations), and they suffered the most when both characteristics were misaligned (i.e., political board ties). Our findings integrate nonmarket strategies’ political and social facets by showing how actor and tie characteristics jointly explain their success or failure. They also contribute to explaining which firms will be better positioned to weather institutional transitions between legal capture and legal compliance.

Aline Gatignon and Christiane bode (2023), When few give to many and many give to few: Corporate social responsibility strategies under India’s legal mandate, Strategic Management Journal.

Abstract: We investigate firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies under India's 2013 legal mandate. We study 12,086 firms and 86,755 projects from 2014 to 2017. Using an abductive approach, we examine firms' choices of social causes, geographic locations, implementation channels, and number of projects through four theoretical lenses. Firms adopt two main CSR strategies: the first and most common has a narrow focus, while the second, pursued by few (typically leading firms and State-owned enterprises), is broader. Both strategies appear primarily driven by instrumental stakeholder concerns. While the second leads to stronger differentiation and holds greater potential for social impact, neither strategy leverages firms’ comparative efficiency over nonprofit actors. These insights shed light on how firms address grand challenges and can inform CSR regulations.

Description: We investigate firms’ corporate social responsibility (CSR) strategies under India's 2013 legal mandate. We study 12,086 firms and 86,755 projects from 2014 to 2017. Using an abductive approach, we examine firms' choices of social causes, geographic locations, implementation channels, and number of projects through four theoretical lenses. Firms adopt two main CSR strategies: the first and most common has a narrow focus, while the second, pursued by few (typically leading firms and State-owned enterprises), is broader. Both strategies appear primarily driven by instrumental stakeholder concerns. While the second leads to stronger differentiation and holds greater potential for social impact, neither strategy leverages firms’ comparative efficiency over nonprofit actors. These insights shed light on how firms address grand challenges and can inform CSR regulations.

Marina A.B. Gama and Aline Gatignon (Under Review), The Anatomy of Relational Realignments after a Government Corruption Scandal: Checking the Instrumentalization of Corporate-Nonprofit Partnerships.

Abstract: This paper explores how government corruption scandals impact the formation of corporate-nonprofit partnerships, in the setting of Brazil’s Operation Carwash investigation. We consider how the net benefits of partnerships to firms and nonprofits change after such events. Using data on all publicly listed firms and registered nonprofits in Brazil from 2010 to 2017, we show evidence of a new separating equilibrium. After Operation Carwash, firms, in general, turn to nonprofits as more legitimate socioeconomic development partners than before. However, those firms tainted, directly or indirectly, struggle to form partnerships due to suspicions by nonprofits about their motives. Moreover, nonprofits that are more exposed to corporate co-optation for political influence also become less likely to partner. Hence, we show that the underlying rationales for corporate-nonprofit partnerships change after a government corruption scandal, in ways that limit the instrumentalization of nonprofits for corporate interests. These findings provide new insights into the interplay between corporate political and social activity in response to institutional change.

Description: This paper explores how government corruption scandals impact the formation of corporate-nonprofit partnerships, in the setting of Brazil’s Operation Carwash investigation. We consider how the net benefits of partnerships to firms and nonprofits change after such events. Using data on all publicly listed firms and registered nonprofits in Brazil from 2010 to 2017, we show evidence of a new separating equilibrium. After Operation Carwash, firms, in general, turn to nonprofits as more legitimate socioeconomic development partners than before. However, those firms tainted, directly or indirectly, struggle to form partnerships due to suspicions by nonprofits about their motives. Moreover, nonprofits that are more exposed to corporate co-optation for political influence also become less likely to partner. Hence, we show that the underlying rationales for corporate-nonprofit partnerships change after a government corruption scandal, in ways that limit the instrumentalization of nonprofits for corporate interests. These findings provide new insights into the interplay between corporate political and social activity in response to institutional change.

Aline Gatignon (2022), The double-edged sword of boundary-spanning Corporate Social Responsibility programs, Strategic Management Journal, 29. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.3403

Abstract: This paper builds theoretical arguments and shows empirical evidence of the direct benefits and indirect costs of corporate volunteering in developing countries. Spanning corporate and humanitarian sectors to work in challenging environments should activate motivational and learning benefits for participating employees. However, results from a field study of a 10-year partnership between logistics provider TNT and the United Nations World Food Program show that such boundary-spanning corporate social responsibility (CSR) can be a double-edged sword. Task interdependence with nonprofit peers while volunteering strengthens employees' partnership identification and institutional learning. However, institutional learning triggers identity strain (associated with attrition) when they return, unless firms foster a sense that they recognize CSR experiences as valuable. The findings inform the behavioral and micro-foundations of the potential consequences of CSR.

Aline Gatignon and Laurence Capron (2020), The Firm As an Architect of Polycentric Governance: Building Open Institutional Infrastructure in Emerging Markets, Strategic Management Journal, 44 (), pp. 48-85. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.3124

Abstract: Research Summary: We apply pattern-matching techniques to contrast qualitative case study data with perspectives from strategic management and institutional economics about how a firm can address voids in market-based institutions. We identify a novel approach whereby the firm builds an open institutional infrastructure (OII) by investing in a pool of resources widely accessible beyond its exchange partners. To collectively govern OII, the firm must empower other actors within multilateral cross-sector partnerships. And it must enforce the resulting rules through relational norms based on alignment between public and private value creation. These findings, achieved by adapting Elinor Ostrom’s principles of polycentric governance to corporate actors who take the lead in building OII, advance our understanding of new organizational forms that transcend the traditional boundaries of firms and markets. Managerial Summary: Emerging markets typically present additional obstacles for business operations, because they lack the necessary underlying institutional infrastructure such as access to capital and labor markets. We introduce a new way for firms to overcome these obstacles— which we call building an open institutional infrastructure (OII)—by investing in such infrastructure themselves and making it available to their commercial partners, local communities and even to competitors. Firms must empower those actors to take the lead in collectively defining the rules for accessing this infrastructure, by orchestrating cross-sector partnerships. This process creates relational norms around the alignment of public and private interests, which ultimately can promote firms’ competitive advantage.

Luis Ballesteros and Aline Gatignon (2019), The Relative Value of Firm and Non-Profit Experience: Tackling Large-Scale Social Issues across Institutional Contexts, Strategic Management Journal, 40 (), pp. 631-657.

Abstract: Research Summary Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) are often identified as a natural vehicle for the engagement of firms in large‐scale social issues. We evaluate this argument by examining the conditions under which NPO experience is more valuable than firm experience in overcoming the key challenges associated with corporate disaster giving. Findings from a quasi‐experiment across the 4,396 natural disasters worldwide between 2003 and 2015 demonstrate that firms could donate more by implementing the aid through NPOs (on their own) in countries with low (high) institutional development, especially where they lack (have) market operations. However, we also observe that firms more frequently than not opted into the allocation mode that yielded comparatively low aid, raising questions about incentive alignment and communication across the business and nonprofit sectors. Managerial Summary Firms are increasingly tackling social issues across the world. Nonprofit organizations (NPOs) are often identified as natural channels for facilitating such engagement, but we have no systematic evidence to confirm this. We tackle this question by outlining the conditions under which allocating company aid for disaster relief and recovery through NPOs results in greater donations than when the firms disburse its aid directly to victims. We analyze all major natural disasters that affected the world between 2003 and 2015 and observe that firms would have donated more through an NPO (directly) in countries with low (high) institutional development where they lacked (had) local operations. Yet, firms frequently chose the channel that yielded lower donations.

Aline Gatignon and H. Gatignon (2011), Transaction Costs in Action: Erin Anderson and the Path-Breaking Work of TCE in New Areas of Business Research, Journal of Retailing, 86 (3), pp. 232-247.

Abstract: This review article synthesizes Erin Anderson's academic contribution, with an emphasis on two path breaking aspects of her work, namely the operationalization of TCA in different contexts and the refinement of the theory. We review the measures that she developed to reflect key TCE constructs, and identify five contexts in which Erin Anderson's application of TCE concepts broke new paths. These are employee or representative salesforces, choice of foreign entry mode, new market entry and innovation, countertrade, and ethics. We highlight a number of ways in which her research integrates other theories to transaction cost economics, thereby deepening our understanding of key issues involving make or buy decisions. Finally, we draw attention to directions for future research identified through her work.

Aline Gatignon, A. Charles, L. N. Van Wassenhove (2010), The Yogyakarta Earthquake: Humanitarian Relief through IFRC’s Decentralized Supply Chain, International Journal of Production Economics, 126 (1), pp. 102-110.

Abstract: Humanitarian operations rely heavily on logistics in uncertain, risky, and urgent contexts, making them a very different field of application for supply chain management principles than that of traditional businesses. We illustrate how optimal supply chains can be designed and implemented within this sector via a study of the process through which the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) decentralized its supply chain. We examine how the process was implemented through a 10-year retrospective of the organization's evolution. We then evaluate the decentralized supply chain's performance in responding to humanitarian crises through an analysis of the IFRC's operations during the Yogyakarta earthquake in 2006. This was the first operation to benefit from the support of Regional Logistics Units (RLUs), the core element of the IFRC's new decentralized supply chain for disaster relief. Our analysis demonstrates the benefits of the decentralized model in humanitarian operations. We find that its implementation requires an alignment between organizational readiness and the adoption of fundamental logistics components, namely standardized tools and processes, traceability through adapted information systems, and appropriate competencies within the organization.