Building resilience or providing sustenance: Different paths of emergent ventures in the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake

Trenton A. Williams, Dean A. Shepherd

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

379 Scopus citations

Abstract

Disaster events threaten the lives, economies, and wellbeing of those they impact. Understanding the role of emergent organizations in responding to suffering and building resilience is an important component of the grand challenge of how to effectively respond to disasters. In this inductive case study we explore venture creation initiated by locals in response to suffering following the 2010 Haiti earthquake. In exploring six ventures we found that two distinctive groups emerged in terms of their identification of potential opportunities to alleviate suffering, their access to and use of key resources, the action they took, and ultimately their effectiveness in facilitating resilience. We offer an inductive, grounded theoretical model that emerged from our data that provides insight into and an extension of literature on resilience to adversity and the disaster literature on emergent response groups, opening pathways for management scholarship to contribute in a meaningful way to this grand challenge.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)2069-2102
Number of pages34
JournalAcademy of Management Journal
Volume59
Issue number6
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1 2016

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Business and International Management
  • General Business, Management and Accounting
  • Strategy and Management
  • Management of Technology and Innovation

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