Marjo Siltaoja | University of Jyväskylä (original) (raw)

Papers by Marjo Siltaoja

Technology Analysis & Strategic Management

Academy of Management Proceedings, 2018

This is a self-archived version of an original article. This version may differ from the original... more This is a self-archived version of an original article. This version may differ from the original in pagination and typographic details.

Academy of Management Proceedings, 2018

Scandinavian Journal of Management, 2018

With climate change becoming ever-present as a huge environmental issue for the modern era to add... more With climate change becoming ever-present as a huge environmental issue for the modern era to address, pro-environmental behavior (PEB) is becoming an increasingly relevant area. There seems to be a divergence between how different actors try and encourage PEB when using emotion as the motivational tool. Therefore, the current study aimed to explore this effect of (negative) emotion on decision making. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was used as the theoretical framework, with the primary research aim testing whether emotion affects the theory, and if this is a direct effect on intentions. Within the existing research, environmental values are also found to be potentially linked with the TPB variables, and as such the secondary research aim was based around this, determining if emotion has an indirect effect through values. The analysis found that the TPB holds for the control and sadness group in this setting, even with emotion as a 4th predictor. However, invoked fear adversely impacted intentions and subsequently the theory. Implications for this are discussed, with sadness being suggested as a more rational emotion than fear. For the secondary research aim the analysis found no link between values and the TPB, but the effect of emotion on values provided additional contradictory insight to existing value theories. Invoked fear was found to adversely affect biospheric values, leading to a discussion around coping mechanisms. Future areas of research were highlighted, specifically based on individual emotions and values.

Organization Studies, 2020

This study finds that it is possible for organizations in emerging categories to resist stigmatiz... more This study finds that it is possible for organizations in emerging categories to resist stigmatization through discursive reconstruction of the central and distinctive characteristics of the category in question. We examined the emerging market of organic farming in Finland and discovered how resistance to stigmatization was both an internal and an external power struggle in the organic farming community. Over time, the label of organic farming was manipulated and the practice of farming was associated with more conventional and familiar contexts, while the stigma was diverted at the same time to biodynamic farming. We develop a process model for removal of stigma from a nascent category through stigma diversion. We find that stigma diversion forces the core community to (re)define themselves in relation to the excluded community and the mainstream. We also discuss how notoriety can be an individuating phenomenon that helps categorical members conduct identity work and contributes t...

Appetite, 2019

Status considerations have recently been linked to prosocial behaviors. This research shows that ... more Status considerations have recently been linked to prosocial behaviors. This research shows that even everyday consumer behaviors such as favoring organic foods serve as prosocial status signaling. Key ideas from the continuum model of consumer impression formation and the theories of costly signaling and symbolic consumption are synthetized to make sense of this phenomenon. Two web-surveys (Ns = 187, 259) and a field study (N = 336) following experimental designs are conducted. This approach allows the analysis of both the more and less conscious reactions of consumers. Study 1 shows that the image of consumers favoring organic product versions is marked by characteristics consistent with prosocial status signaling. Study 2 replicates these findings with another sample and a wider range of products and demonstrate that observers' conservative values influence the image formed of organic food users. Study 3 establishes that similar image effects also emerge through a less conscious formation process and that they extend to how organic food users are socially treated. This research advances the current understanding concerning the interlinkages between organic food usage, prosocial status signaling, consumer impressions and reputation management. Substantively, the studies provide novel compelling empirical evidence for the ability of non-luxurious everyday consumer behaviors to qualify as prosocial status signaling. Conceptually, the integration of evolutionary and sociocultural perspectives represents a major contribution. More specifically, this research yields new understanding as regards the role of individual variation in sensing and interpreting status symbols.

Journal of Business Ethics, 2017

This paper advances stakeholder salience theory from the viewpoint of small businesses. It is arg... more This paper advances stakeholder salience theory from the viewpoint of small businesses. It is argued that the stakeholder salience process for small businesses is influenced by their local embeddedness, captured by the idea of social proximity, and characterised by multiple relationships that the owner-manager and stakeholders share beyond the business context. It is further stated that the ethics of care is a valuable ethical lens through which to understand social proximity in small businesses. The contribution of the study conceptualizes how the perceived social proximity between local stakeholders and small business owner-managers influences managerial considerations of the legitimacy, power and urgency of stakeholders and their claims. Specifically, the paradoxical nature of close relationships in the salience process is acknowledged and discussed.

Academy of Management Proceedings, 2019

We explore community identity construction and dynamics in response to moral scandals. Utilizing ... more We explore community identity construction and dynamics in response to moral scandals. Utilizing a 49-interview study of the elite sport community of a country, we analyze how community identities are (re)constructed following accusations of fostering old-boy networks. Taking a discursive perspective, we shed light on the dark side of identification.

Organization, 2018

In this article, we build on postcolonial studies and discourse analytical research exploring how... more In this article, we build on postcolonial studies and discourse analytical research exploring how the ‘world-class’ discourse as an ideology and a fantasy structures neocolonial relations in international branch campuses. We empirically examine how international branch campuses reproduce the fantasy of being so-called world-class operators and how the onsite faculty members identify with or resist this world-class fantasy through mimicry. Our research material originates from fieldwork conducted in business-school international branch campuses operating in the United Arab Emirates. Our findings show the ambivalent nature of mimicry towards the world-class fantasy to include both compliance and resistance. Our contributions are addressed to postcolonial management studies by discussing the ambivalent nature of mimicry in international branch campuses and the significance of grandiose constructions in organizations for neocolonial relations.

Business & Society, 2018

Fringe stakeholders with limited resources, such as grassroots organizations (GROs), are often ig... more Fringe stakeholders with limited resources, such as grassroots organizations (GROs), are often ignored in business and society literature. We develop a conceptual framework and a set of propositions detailing how GROs strategically gain legitimacy and influence over time. We argue that GROs encounter specific paradoxes over the emergence, development, and resolution of an issue, and they address these paradoxes using cognitive, moral, and pragmatic legitimacy strategies. While cognitive and moral strategies tend to be used consistently, the flexible and paradoxical use of pragmatic strategies has important consequences, both for GROs’ legitimacy and for their potential influence over powerful organizations associated with them. We enrich our framework with the help of two illustrative cases and discuss the implications of the framework for GROs’ legitimacy strategies in business and society literature.

Journal of Rural Studies, 2018

Pioneers of organic farming often faced social challenges as their innovative ideas on agricultur... more Pioneers of organic farming often faced social challenges as their innovative ideas on agriculture not only encountered opposition in the conventional farming community, but led to stigmatization of organic farmers as social deviants. In this study, we examine what kind of stigma management strategies pioneer organic farmers engage with in order to cultivate an alternative positive image of themselves. Our research is based on the interviews with 14 pioneer organic farmers. Based on a qualitative analysis of the interviews, we provide a model of those strategies that the creation from a stigmatized to valued identity requires. Our study increases the understanding of the institutionalization process of organic farming by demonstrating how pioneer organic farmers overcame the negative attributes associated with their farmer identities while actively building a new agricultural category which was different from that of conventional farming.

Journal of Rural Studies, 2018

Understanding how farmers are resilient is critical for effective government and individual manag... more Understanding how farmers are resilient is critical for effective government and individual management responses in an increasingly uncertain world. Through an inter-temporal focus on Finnish organic farmers, we explore changing identities, attitudes and practices, and reflect on ramifications for farming resilience. Despite the essentialising binaries perpetuated by discussions of conventionalisation and bifurcation in the organic movement, organic production systems are, and always have been, heterogeneous. This paper offers a nuanced analysis of the fluctuating and mixed practices and identities that compose the sector. Considering the experiences of oth pio ee a d o te po a o ga i fa e s highlights the ultiple, ha gea le a d, iti all , o te tual atu e of strategies for resilience at the farm level. It emphasizes too the fluid, hybrid and strategic subjectivities of the organic producers themselves that are always dependent on the demands of pa ti ula o te ts; the efo e, although est p a ti es a offe possi le path a s fo a tio , varying spatialities and temporalities cannot be homogenised into an ideal type resilience.

Appetite, 2018

As the current research suggests that there are links between prosocial acts and status signaling... more As the current research suggests that there are links between prosocial acts and status signaling (including sustainable consumer choices), we empirically study (with three experiments) whether food consumers go green to be seen. First, we examine how activating a motive for status influences prosocial organic food preferences. Then, we examine how the social visibility of the choice (private vs. public) affects these preferences. We found that when consumers' desire for status was elicited, they preferred organic food products significantly over their nonorganic counterparts; making the choice situation visible created the same effect. Finally, we go beyond consumers' evaluative and behavioral domains that have typically been addressed to investigate whether this (nonconscious) "going green to be seen" effect is also evident at the level of more physiologically-driven food responses. Indeed, status motives and reputational concerns created an improved senso-emotio...

Academy of Management Proceedings, 2015

Research universities worldwide are engaged in a positional status competition accompanied by a p... more Research universities worldwide are engaged in a positional status competition accompanied by a policy shift towards ‘academic capitalism’. We argue that, in general, this status competition has in...

Psychology & Marketing, 2016

Even though consumers’ status signaling is a heavily researched topic, empirical contributions fr... more Even though consumers’ status signaling is a heavily researched topic, empirical contributions from two important research areas—the mundane food context and prosocial status signaling between male consumers—to signaling literature are still scarce. Thus, this study empirically investigates how a male signaling about his status through favoring organic foods is perceived and treated by other males in two different sociocultural settings (urban vs. rural). In an urban area—but not in a rural—the pro-organic signaler was perceived as more respected, altruistic, and affluent than a male who did not signal about this (he also received statistically more money in a charity donation task). This may indicate that signaling about this tendency—because it can be viewed as use of one's own resources for the benefit of others—is not only a way to attain status, but can also make others behave more positively toward the signaler.

European Journal of Forest Research, 2016

Technology Analysis & Strategic Management

Academy of Management Proceedings, 2018

This is a self-archived version of an original article. This version may differ from the original... more This is a self-archived version of an original article. This version may differ from the original in pagination and typographic details.

Academy of Management Proceedings, 2018

Scandinavian Journal of Management, 2018

With climate change becoming ever-present as a huge environmental issue for the modern era to add... more With climate change becoming ever-present as a huge environmental issue for the modern era to address, pro-environmental behavior (PEB) is becoming an increasingly relevant area. There seems to be a divergence between how different actors try and encourage PEB when using emotion as the motivational tool. Therefore, the current study aimed to explore this effect of (negative) emotion on decision making. The Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) was used as the theoretical framework, with the primary research aim testing whether emotion affects the theory, and if this is a direct effect on intentions. Within the existing research, environmental values are also found to be potentially linked with the TPB variables, and as such the secondary research aim was based around this, determining if emotion has an indirect effect through values. The analysis found that the TPB holds for the control and sadness group in this setting, even with emotion as a 4th predictor. However, invoked fear adversely impacted intentions and subsequently the theory. Implications for this are discussed, with sadness being suggested as a more rational emotion than fear. For the secondary research aim the analysis found no link between values and the TPB, but the effect of emotion on values provided additional contradictory insight to existing value theories. Invoked fear was found to adversely affect biospheric values, leading to a discussion around coping mechanisms. Future areas of research were highlighted, specifically based on individual emotions and values.

Organization Studies, 2020

This study finds that it is possible for organizations in emerging categories to resist stigmatiz... more This study finds that it is possible for organizations in emerging categories to resist stigmatization through discursive reconstruction of the central and distinctive characteristics of the category in question. We examined the emerging market of organic farming in Finland and discovered how resistance to stigmatization was both an internal and an external power struggle in the organic farming community. Over time, the label of organic farming was manipulated and the practice of farming was associated with more conventional and familiar contexts, while the stigma was diverted at the same time to biodynamic farming. We develop a process model for removal of stigma from a nascent category through stigma diversion. We find that stigma diversion forces the core community to (re)define themselves in relation to the excluded community and the mainstream. We also discuss how notoriety can be an individuating phenomenon that helps categorical members conduct identity work and contributes t...

Appetite, 2019

Status considerations have recently been linked to prosocial behaviors. This research shows that ... more Status considerations have recently been linked to prosocial behaviors. This research shows that even everyday consumer behaviors such as favoring organic foods serve as prosocial status signaling. Key ideas from the continuum model of consumer impression formation and the theories of costly signaling and symbolic consumption are synthetized to make sense of this phenomenon. Two web-surveys (Ns = 187, 259) and a field study (N = 336) following experimental designs are conducted. This approach allows the analysis of both the more and less conscious reactions of consumers. Study 1 shows that the image of consumers favoring organic product versions is marked by characteristics consistent with prosocial status signaling. Study 2 replicates these findings with another sample and a wider range of products and demonstrate that observers' conservative values influence the image formed of organic food users. Study 3 establishes that similar image effects also emerge through a less conscious formation process and that they extend to how organic food users are socially treated. This research advances the current understanding concerning the interlinkages between organic food usage, prosocial status signaling, consumer impressions and reputation management. Substantively, the studies provide novel compelling empirical evidence for the ability of non-luxurious everyday consumer behaviors to qualify as prosocial status signaling. Conceptually, the integration of evolutionary and sociocultural perspectives represents a major contribution. More specifically, this research yields new understanding as regards the role of individual variation in sensing and interpreting status symbols.

Journal of Business Ethics, 2017

This paper advances stakeholder salience theory from the viewpoint of small businesses. It is arg... more This paper advances stakeholder salience theory from the viewpoint of small businesses. It is argued that the stakeholder salience process for small businesses is influenced by their local embeddedness, captured by the idea of social proximity, and characterised by multiple relationships that the owner-manager and stakeholders share beyond the business context. It is further stated that the ethics of care is a valuable ethical lens through which to understand social proximity in small businesses. The contribution of the study conceptualizes how the perceived social proximity between local stakeholders and small business owner-managers influences managerial considerations of the legitimacy, power and urgency of stakeholders and their claims. Specifically, the paradoxical nature of close relationships in the salience process is acknowledged and discussed.

Academy of Management Proceedings, 2019

We explore community identity construction and dynamics in response to moral scandals. Utilizing ... more We explore community identity construction and dynamics in response to moral scandals. Utilizing a 49-interview study of the elite sport community of a country, we analyze how community identities are (re)constructed following accusations of fostering old-boy networks. Taking a discursive perspective, we shed light on the dark side of identification.

Organization, 2018

In this article, we build on postcolonial studies and discourse analytical research exploring how... more In this article, we build on postcolonial studies and discourse analytical research exploring how the ‘world-class’ discourse as an ideology and a fantasy structures neocolonial relations in international branch campuses. We empirically examine how international branch campuses reproduce the fantasy of being so-called world-class operators and how the onsite faculty members identify with or resist this world-class fantasy through mimicry. Our research material originates from fieldwork conducted in business-school international branch campuses operating in the United Arab Emirates. Our findings show the ambivalent nature of mimicry towards the world-class fantasy to include both compliance and resistance. Our contributions are addressed to postcolonial management studies by discussing the ambivalent nature of mimicry in international branch campuses and the significance of grandiose constructions in organizations for neocolonial relations.

Business & Society, 2018

Fringe stakeholders with limited resources, such as grassroots organizations (GROs), are often ig... more Fringe stakeholders with limited resources, such as grassroots organizations (GROs), are often ignored in business and society literature. We develop a conceptual framework and a set of propositions detailing how GROs strategically gain legitimacy and influence over time. We argue that GROs encounter specific paradoxes over the emergence, development, and resolution of an issue, and they address these paradoxes using cognitive, moral, and pragmatic legitimacy strategies. While cognitive and moral strategies tend to be used consistently, the flexible and paradoxical use of pragmatic strategies has important consequences, both for GROs’ legitimacy and for their potential influence over powerful organizations associated with them. We enrich our framework with the help of two illustrative cases and discuss the implications of the framework for GROs’ legitimacy strategies in business and society literature.

Journal of Rural Studies, 2018

Pioneers of organic farming often faced social challenges as their innovative ideas on agricultur... more Pioneers of organic farming often faced social challenges as their innovative ideas on agriculture not only encountered opposition in the conventional farming community, but led to stigmatization of organic farmers as social deviants. In this study, we examine what kind of stigma management strategies pioneer organic farmers engage with in order to cultivate an alternative positive image of themselves. Our research is based on the interviews with 14 pioneer organic farmers. Based on a qualitative analysis of the interviews, we provide a model of those strategies that the creation from a stigmatized to valued identity requires. Our study increases the understanding of the institutionalization process of organic farming by demonstrating how pioneer organic farmers overcame the negative attributes associated with their farmer identities while actively building a new agricultural category which was different from that of conventional farming.

Journal of Rural Studies, 2018

Understanding how farmers are resilient is critical for effective government and individual manag... more Understanding how farmers are resilient is critical for effective government and individual management responses in an increasingly uncertain world. Through an inter-temporal focus on Finnish organic farmers, we explore changing identities, attitudes and practices, and reflect on ramifications for farming resilience. Despite the essentialising binaries perpetuated by discussions of conventionalisation and bifurcation in the organic movement, organic production systems are, and always have been, heterogeneous. This paper offers a nuanced analysis of the fluctuating and mixed practices and identities that compose the sector. Considering the experiences of oth pio ee a d o te po a o ga i fa e s highlights the ultiple, ha gea le a d, iti all , o te tual atu e of strategies for resilience at the farm level. It emphasizes too the fluid, hybrid and strategic subjectivities of the organic producers themselves that are always dependent on the demands of pa ti ula o te ts; the efo e, although est p a ti es a offe possi le path a s fo a tio , varying spatialities and temporalities cannot be homogenised into an ideal type resilience.

Appetite, 2018

As the current research suggests that there are links between prosocial acts and status signaling... more As the current research suggests that there are links between prosocial acts and status signaling (including sustainable consumer choices), we empirically study (with three experiments) whether food consumers go green to be seen. First, we examine how activating a motive for status influences prosocial organic food preferences. Then, we examine how the social visibility of the choice (private vs. public) affects these preferences. We found that when consumers' desire for status was elicited, they preferred organic food products significantly over their nonorganic counterparts; making the choice situation visible created the same effect. Finally, we go beyond consumers' evaluative and behavioral domains that have typically been addressed to investigate whether this (nonconscious) "going green to be seen" effect is also evident at the level of more physiologically-driven food responses. Indeed, status motives and reputational concerns created an improved senso-emotio...

Academy of Management Proceedings, 2015

Research universities worldwide are engaged in a positional status competition accompanied by a p... more Research universities worldwide are engaged in a positional status competition accompanied by a policy shift towards ‘academic capitalism’. We argue that, in general, this status competition has in...

Psychology & Marketing, 2016

Even though consumers’ status signaling is a heavily researched topic, empirical contributions fr... more Even though consumers’ status signaling is a heavily researched topic, empirical contributions from two important research areas—the mundane food context and prosocial status signaling between male consumers—to signaling literature are still scarce. Thus, this study empirically investigates how a male signaling about his status through favoring organic foods is perceived and treated by other males in two different sociocultural settings (urban vs. rural). In an urban area—but not in a rural—the pro-organic signaler was perceived as more respected, altruistic, and affluent than a male who did not signal about this (he also received statistically more money in a charity donation task). This may indicate that signaling about this tendency—because it can be viewed as use of one's own resources for the benefit of others—is not only a way to attain status, but can also make others behave more positively toward the signaler.

European Journal of Forest Research, 2016