2015/02/24 by Fabrizio Ferraro, Dror Etzion, Joel Gehman · 1,300 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Decision Sciences · Economics, Econometrics and Finance · #Action (physics) #Action research #Citizen journalism #Complex Systems and Decision Making #Economic Theory and Institutions #Epistemology #Grand Challenges #Grand strategy #Law #Management and Organizational Studies #Participatory action research #Political science #Pragmatism #Sociology
paper · doi:10.1177/0170840614563742
published in Organization Studies 36(3), 363-390 (SAGE Publishing)
openalex publication_date 2015/02/24 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06
In this article, we theorize a novel approach to addressing the world’s grand challenges based on the philosophical tradition of American pragmatism and the sociological concept of robust action. Grounded in prior empirical organizational research, we identify three robust strategies that organizations can employ in tackling issues such as climate change and poverty alleviation: participatory architecture, multivocal inscriptions and distributed experimentation. We demonstrate how these strategies operate, the manner in which they are linked, the outcomes they generate, and why they are applicable for resolving grand challenges. We conclude by discussing our contributions to research on robust action and grand challenges, as well as some implications for research on stakeholder theory, institutional theory and theories of valuation.