Strategic participation of social movement organizations
Description
Social movements and related social movement organizations (SMOs) play an important role in the formation of new industries and market niches, as well as the emergence of new organizational forms. I argue that as SMOs become more sophisticated and professionalized, and the boundary between social movements and the businesses they seek to influence becomes increasingly blurred, there is a level of strategic decision-making in SMOs that is not adequately accounted for in existing social movement theory. I use quantitative and qualitative data to examine the strategic trade-offs made by thirteen SMOs in their efforts to influence two US Department of Agriculture meat labels.
I show that the SMO actively seeks to position its activities relative to others in its issue field and relative to others (possibly cross-movement) that are interested in the same campaign. The aim of the SMO's positioning work is two-fold: like for-profit firms, SMOs seek to differentiate themselves in the eyes of supporters. However, SMOs also seek to complement the work of other SMOs, in order to maximize the overall impact of a campaign. Thus, the SMO is different from the for-profit firm in having the simultaneous (and potentially conflicting) goals of strategic differentiation and complementation.
I am also developing a second, theory-only paper in this work stream, which broadens the SMO strategic decision-making framework to show the larger relationship between inputs and outputs, as well as the different type of resource investments made by SMOs, and their respective returns on investment.