Speaker Series:Insurgents Activists & Entrepreneurs: Strategies for Making Positive Social Change_Dr. Charlene Zietsma Feb 25

In our interconnected world, social and environmental issues such as climate change, fair trade, and human rights are increasingly challenging collective
action problems.  Making significant and lasting changes in business practices and market logics is difficult.  Businesses tend to be caught in inertial forces, and they face criticism for breaking with accepted norms and practices.   While the idea of responsible business is attractive, uncertainty about the path to responsible business creates both opportunities for creative action and excuses for resistance and inaction. 
Dr. Zietsma will discuss three different and often complementary pathways to responsible business:  the critical, institution-destroying outsider strategies often used by activists, the institution-building strategies of insider change agents and the different-path strategies used by entrepreneurs.  She will provide examples of each and discuss the challenges, contingencies and rewards associated with each style of change.  


Dr. Charlene Zietsma teaches entrepreneurship and strategy at the University of Victoria’s Faculty of Business.  Dr. Zietsma's research focus on multiple pathways to social change, including processes of institutional change, especially in the context of stakeholder conflicts; intra-organizational processes of learning and change; and the effects of cognition and passion on entrepreneurial opportunity recognition and start up decisions. She has published in Organization Science, the Journal of Business Venturing, Business & Society, and Corporate Reputation Review among others, and has received several research awards. Dr. Zietsma has also served on a number of boards and committees for non-profit, professional and government organizations and she consults with entrepreneurial organizations.