Simulating the Cause: How Grassroots Organizations Advance Their Credibility Through the Dramaturgical Curation of Events

Theodore A. Khoury (), Yuliya Shymko () and Jacob Vermeire ()
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Theodore A. Khoury: The School of Business, Portland State University, Portland, Oregon 97201
Yuliya Shymko: Audencia Business School, 44312 Nantes, Cedex 3, France
Jacob Vermeire: Ghent University, 9000 Gent, Belgium

Organization Science, 2022, vol. 33, issue 4, 1470-1500

Abstract: To survive, nascent grassroots organizations—and their respective causes—must earn the trust of various audiences that can impact credibility advancement. However, it can be quite difficult for grassroots organizations to access suitable settings, times, and collocated audiences. One context that can yield this type of access is an event as it constitutes a rare opportunity for organizations to engage in practices that impact credibility advancement. We investigate how a volunteer-based grassroots organization orchestrates a high-profile event at the United Nations to promote African diaspora entrepreneurs as a valuable force in the mitigation of development challenges in their home countries. We employ qualitative data collected from ethnographic observations, interviews, and secondary sources and apply grounded theory approaches to demonstrate how organizational credibility can be advanced through performative strategizing within event settings. Drawing from heuristics used in theatrical performances, we found that the grassroots organization mobilized specific audience groups in participative role-playing across two acts, thereby producing and consecrating a temporary simulacrum of a cause-related community it claimed to represent. Our findings demonstrate how an unproven organization can strategically use audience mobilization to convert event settings into performative spaces for simulacrum creation and credibility advancement.

Keywords: nonprofit organizations; grassroots organizations; social movements; simulacrum; simulacra; qualitative methodologies; credibility advancement; practices; performative strategizing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:33:y:2022:i:4:p:1470-1500

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