Local Venturing as Compassion Organizing in the Aftermath of a Natural Disaster

43 Pages·2014·1.64 MB·English

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JournalofManagementStudies51:6September2014
doi:10.1111/joms.12084
Local Venturing as Compassion Organizing in the
Aftermath of a Natural Disaster: The Role of
Localness and Community in Reducing Suffering
Dean A. Shepherd and Trenton A. Williams
Indiana University
ABSTRACT Incontrasttomodelsofcompassionwithinexistingorganizations,thisgrounded
theorystudyexamineshowventuresemergerelyingonlocalnessandcommunityindirect
responseto‘opportunities’toalleviatesufferingintheaftermathofanaturaldisaster.Whilea
naturaldisasterisasurprisingdisruptiveeventdevastatingalocalcommunity,thatlocal
communityisnestedwithinabroadercommunity,whichcanbeasourceofabundant
resources.Venturescreatedintheaftermathofanaturaldisaster,givenlocalknowledgeand
unencumberedbypre-existingsystems,procedures,andcapabilities,arehighlyeffectiveat
connectingthebroadercommunitywiththelocalcommunitythroughcustomizingresources
tomeetvictims’needsandtoquicklydeliveringtheseresourcestoalleviatesuffering.
Keywords: community,compassionorganizing,disasterresponse,localness,resourcefulness,
resourcemanagement,venturing
INTRODUCTION
Therearemanyincidentsthatcancausehumansuffering.Althoughtheyaresurprising
totheharmed/affectedpeople,naturaldisasters,inparticular,arefrequentoccurrences
causingsufferingtolargenumbersofpeople.Forexample,theInternationalFederation
of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ 2011 annual report states that in 2010, there
were 406 natural disasters (not including wars, conflict-related famines, technological
disasters, diseases, or epidemics) across the world (Armstrong etal., 2011). These disas-
terscausedover$123billionindamages,tookthelivesof304millionpeople,andfurther
displacedorotherwiseadverselyimpactedanother304millionpeople(Armstrongetal.,
2011). While 2010 was unique in terms of the number of people impacted, the data
suggestthatnaturaldisastersconsistentlycauseconsiderablesuffering(Armstrongetal.,
Address for reprints: Dean A. Shepherd, Kelley School of Business, Indiana University, 1309 E. Tenth St.,
Bloomington,IN47405,USA([email protected]).
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Local Venturing as Compassion Organizing 953
2011).Researchhasfoundthatestablishedorganizationsareoftenunabletomeetallof
the victims’ critical needs and therefore suffering persists (e.g., Schneider, 1992; Van
Wart and Kapucu, 2011).
Using a positive psychology perspective (Cameron and Caza, 2004), organizational
scholars have increased our understanding of how compassion can be organized to
alleviate the suffering of individuals (e.g., Dutton, 2003; Dutton etal., 2006; George,
2014; Kanov etal., 2004; Lilius etal., 2008). Positive organizational scholarship (of
which compassion organizing is part; Dutton etal., 2006)is an emerging stream of
organizational research that explores how individuals and organizations shape ‘positive
statesandpositiveoutcomesforindividuals,groups,andwholeorganizations...which
hasmuchtocontributetoorganizationalstudies,thebasedisciplinesofpsychologyand
sociology,andtotheworldofpolicyandpractice’(FredricksonandDutton,2008,p.1;
seealsoCameronetal.,2003a,2003b;SutcliffeandVogus,2003).Researchonpositive
psychology, and especially compassion in organizations, has been expanding, as is
evidenced by a recent special issue in the Academy of Management Review (Rynes etal.,
2012), which describes compassion as a ‘timely topic’ because ‘suffering is everywhere’
and ‘a sharpened focus on care and compassion in organizations is consistent with a
paradigm shift in the social sciences that emphasizes neurological, psychological, and
sociological bases of human interrelating that have other-interest as opposed to self-
interest at their core’ (Rynes etal., 2012, pp. 503–04).
Anindividual’ssufferingcanresultfromdisasters,personaltragedies,mistakes,and/or
work-relatedevents(Frost,2003;Rynesetal.,2012)andinvolves‘theexperienceofpain
or loss that evokes a form of anguish that threatens an individual’s sense of meaning
about his or her personal existence’ (Dutton etal., 2006, p. 60; see also Sutcliffe and
Vogus, 2003). Compassion organizing is ‘a collective response to a particular incident of
human suffering that entails the coordination of individual compassion’ and acknowl-
edgesthatthesamestructuresandroutinesusedforanorganization’snormalworkcan
be redirected to alleviate a member’s suffering (Dutton etal., 2006, p. 62). To enact
compassion organizing, organizations recognize members impacted by painful or trau-
matic events generally due to pre-existing relationships or connections, feel the pain of
their team members, and respond to the painful events by channelling existing structures
and communication processes to coordinate relief efforts (Dutton etal., 2006; Kanov
etal., 2004; Lilius etal., 2011; Rynes etal., 2012).
Unsurprisingly,organizationaltheoryscholarsstartwiththeexistenceofanorganiza-
tion and then seek to explain why some organizations are able and willing to use their
‘normal’structurestorespondtomembers’pain(Duttonetal.,2006)andwhyothersareless
ableand/orlesswillingtodoso(Delbecq,2010;Hazen,2003,2008;Kanovetal.,2004).
However,whathappenswhentheabilityofestablishedorganizationstoextract,generate,
and coordinate resources is itself substantially diminished? Indeed, we were driven to
conductthisresearchbecausethedisasterresponseliteraturehasfoundthatestablished
organizations are often ineffective in responding to large-scale disasters, and has found
thatdisasterresponsegroupsappeartoemergetorespondwhereestablishedorganizations
do not (Drabek, 1987; Drabek and McEntire, 2002, 2003). There have been calls for
researchto‘openuptheinternaldynamicsoftheemergentresponsegroup’(Majchrzak
etal.,2007,p.159).Webelievethatby‘openingtheblackbox’ofnewventuresformedto
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954 D. A. Shepherd and T. A. Williams
alleviatevictimsufferingintheaftermathofanaturaldisaster,wehavetheopportunityof
takingasteptowardsimprovingthecompassionorganizingprocessestoalleviatemoreof
thesufferingexperiencedbyvictimsofnaturaldisasters.Specifically,wewereinterestedin
thequestionofhowcompassionorganizing,throughlocalventuring(i.e.,thecreationof
newventures)alleviatesvictimssufferingintheaftermathofanaturaldisaster.
To gain a deeper understanding of compassion organizing through local venturing,
andspecificallytoextendcompassionorganizingtheorybeyonditscurrentboundsinthe
literature(i.e.,intraorganizational;e.g.,Duttonetal.,2006;Rynesetal.,2012),weusea
grounded theory approach (Gioia etal., 2013). A grounded theory approach is particu-
larlyusefulwhenthepurposeistobuildtheoryonaphenomenonrarelyexploredinthe
literature, when the extant literature does not appear to be highly useful, and when the
context can be considered unusual (Siggelkow, 2007). Under these circumstances,
groundedtheorybuildingismorelikelytogeneratenovelandaccurateinsightsintothe
phenomenon under study than reliance on past research (Strauss and Corbin, 1998).
Theprimaryfocusofthepaperisamodeloflocalventuringascompassionorganizing
in the aftermath of a natural disaster that combines insights that emerge from the data
with theories of compassion, resourcefulness, and social capital to explain how this
venturing, through locals’ emergent actions that utilize compassionate resources (local
and non-local), can alleviate victim suffering in the aftermath of a natural disaster. This
form of compassion organizing is effective because it is locally driven, speedy, and
customized to victim needs. In uncovering these findings, we offer four primary contri-
butions to the literature.
First, although existing organizations can adapt their normal structures and routines
toalleviateindividuals’suffering(Duttonetal.,2006;Kanovetal.,2004)andthereexist
organizations purposefully built to alleviate suffering (e.g., The Red Cross (Australian
RedCross,2012),thereareconditionsunderwhichestablishedorganizationswiththeir
normal structures and routines are unable to fully alleviate suffering (Drabek and
McEntire, 2002, 2003; Majchrzak etal., 2007). Scholars have not paid sufficient atten-
tion to the role of compassion organizing through local venturing. Specifically, rather
than the organization as the primary source of resources for compassionate responding
toalleviatesuffering(Frostetal.,2006),weexplorehowanabundanceofresources(large
scale and broad scope) from outside the ‘disaster’ zone are customized and rapidly
delivered to meet the needs of victims of a natural disaster through local venturing.
Second, previous research on compassion organizing has focused on ‘situations in
which (organizations’) members suffer’ (Dutton etal., 2006, p. 59; see also Gittell etal.,
2006; Powley, 2009). We explore individuals’ suffering beyond existing organizational
boundaries, and specifically how local, disaster impacted individuals facilitate compas-
sion organizing to address needs of community members. Indeed, many individuals
suffering in the aftermath of a natural disaster are separated and isolated from their
organization (Van Wart and Kapucu, 2011) and/or their organization’s resources nec-
essary for compassion organizing have been devastated (e.g., Dutton etal., 2006;
Goodman etal., 2007).
Third,centraltotheconceptofcompassionisthatitisother-regarding–thefortunate
can provide resources to the less fortunate (Dutton etal., 2006; Lilius etal., 2011). We
explore the situation where the locals venturing (as compassion organizing) are them-
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Local Venturing as Compassion Organizing 955
selves suffering, which represents a self-organizing aspect to compassion, that is, from
within the sufferers comes a solution to the suffering.
Finally, in the disaster response literature, it has been proposed that because local
volunteers are close to the disaster, they are among the first to respond (Bui and
Sebastian,2011;SebastianandBui,2009),andbecausetheyhaveknowledgeofthearea
andthecommunity,theirresponsesareofteneffective(SebastianandBui,2009;Waugh
and Streib, 2006). Our findings extend this recognition of the importance of local
volunteersbyprovidingadeeperunderstandingof‘what’aspectsoflocalnessareimpor-
tant and ‘how’ this localness is used. In doing so, it meets a call for research on the role
of innovation in the wake of crises (Filippetti and Archibugi, 2011).
Consistent with other multiple case studies focused on building theory (Eisenhardt,
1989), we next explain our research design and data collection approach.
METHODS
Context and Theoretical Sampling
Thepurposeofthisstudyistobuildtheoryonlocalventuringasavehicleofcompassion
organizingandwedosointheaftermathofanaturaldisaster.Astheresearchsettingfor
this study, the natural disaster is ‘Black Saturday’, which occurred on 7 February 2009,
when bushfires ravaged the state of Victoria in south-eastern Australia. At the peak of
Black Saturday, more than 400 fires burned across the state (Teague etal., 2010). The
BlackSaturdayfiresweretheworstinAustralia’shistoryandforeveralteredthelivesand
livelihood of many Australians. We chose Black Saturday as the target natural disaster
(and our research setting) for three main reasons: (1) the lead author indirectly experi-
enced its devastation; (2) there was a Royal Commission into the disaster, which gener-
atedarichsourceofprimarydata(describedbelow);(3)andtherewasextensivereal-time
andpost-disasterprintandvideonewscoverage.BlackSaturdayprovidedauniquebasis
for exploring our research question because it created considerable destruction and
suffering and substantially disrupted and disabled the physical resources in the path of
destruction. In addition, as a result of Black Saturday, there were instances of extensive
local venturing to meet the sudden and urgent needs of those impacted by the fire,
allowing us to analyse these efforts and shedding light on this organizing process.
While many rural residents were prepared for bushfires at varying degrees, nobody
waspreparedfortheextremeviolenceoftheBlackSaturdayfires.Traditionalbushfires
are fires in which grass and other bush burn uncontrollably, moving across the land
seekingmorefuel.OnBlackSaturday,Victoriansfacedaviciousbushfireinwhichtrees,
grass, and other flammable items often caught fire 20–30 minutes before the main fire
front passed through. This fire was unique in that (1) fires crowned in forested areas,
which inhibited ground control, and (2) large columns of gas, smoke, and ash were
generated above the fire, combusting fuel in its path and launching burning bark
downwindformanymiles.Atitsworst,thetemperatureofthefirereachedupto1200°C
(2192°F) and travelled up to 121 kilometres per hour (75 miles an hour), leaving a path
of destruction. Black Saturday resulted in extreme devastation, killing 173 people and
destroying more than 3500 structures. Many more people were injured, displaced, or
otherwise incapacitated due to the fires. In addition, it is estimated that more than one
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956 D. A. Shepherd and T. A. Williams
millionanimals(wildanddomestic)perishedinthefires.Inamatterofjustafewhours,
entire townships were lost, acres of farmland were destroyed, and billions of dollars of
damage was caused (Teague etal., 2010).
Whileexploringourprimarydatasource(i.e.,witnesstestimonytotheRoyalBushfire
Commission), we discovered that ventures were created in the immediate aftermath of
the Black Saturday bushfires to alleviate victim suffering. This discovery shaped and
focused our research questions and drove us to explore the questions outlined in this
study, a process that is common in qualitative research (e.g., Gersick, 1988; Glaser and
Strauss,1967;Locke,2001;MilesandHuberman,1994;StraussandCorbin,1998).As
we developed an interest in how compassion organizing occurred in response to a
disaster,wegatheredandstudiedavailabledataonlocalventuringfrombefore,during,
and after the bushfires to build a more complete picture for our analysis. We selected
eightlocalventuringendeavoursforanalysisfollowingEisenhardtandGraebner’s(2007)
recommended practice for theoretical sampling. That is, we selected cases that ‘are
particularly suited for illuminating and extending relationships and logic among con-
structs’ofinterest(EisenhardtandGraebner,2007,p.27).Theeightselectedcaseswere
unusually revelatory, extreme exemplars (Eisenhardt and Graebner, 2007; Glaser and
Strauss,1967;LincolnandGuba,1985)inthattheywerethemostrobust(i.e.,theywere
describedingreatdetailinfirsthandwitnessstatementsandhadstrongenoughsecondary
data),weremore‘extreme’intermsofthescaleandscopeoftheiractivities(Eisenhardt,
1989; Yin, 1994), and were representative of the range of compassion organization
activitiesweobservedintermsofduration,objectives(socialversussocial-economicmix),
andorganizinggroupsize.Throughoutthispaper,werefertolocalventuringtomeanthe
collectionofgroupedactionstakenbyoneormorelocalstoaddressthesufferingofthe
victims of a natural disaster when this was not their primary role/activity of emphasis
priortothenaturaldisaster.Whereapplicable,weretainedthenameofthenewventure
(e.g., MATDG [The Marysville and Triangle Development Group], re-Growth Pods);
otherwise,wecreatednamesfortheprocessesrepresentingtheirprimaryactivityand/or
location (e.g., Whittlesea Farm Relief, Bayles Relief Centre).
Taken together, the Black Saturday context and the nature of venturing provide an
idealopportunitytoextendtheory.IntheAppendix,weprovidedetailsoftheeightnew
ventures analysed.
Data Collection
We gathered information about Black Saturday from multiple perspectives, including
both real-time observations and retrospective data. To capture these perspectives, we
used several sources when collecting data – 95 victim statements to the Royal Bushfire
Commission, expert statements and testimony at the Royal Bushfire Commission, hun-
dreds of news and press reports, organizational statements (e.g., on organizations’ web-
sites), and personal observations – culminating in hundreds of pages of primary and
secondary accounts relating to the fire. This vast collection of data served as the ‘data-
bank’fromwhichwedevelopedhistoriesforeachnewventuretoconductouranalyses.
Victim statements. The primary source of our data was victim statements at the Royal
Commission(seeGephart,2007forjustificationoftheuseofpublicinquiresasdatafor
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Local Venturing as Compassion Organizing 957
investigating crises and disasters). The victim statements came from 95 locals who
experiencedthefire,ofwhom10hadlostfamilymembersonBlackSaturday;47hadlost
theirhomes;78hadsubstantialpropertyloss;andallhadexperiencedthelossofafriend,
neighbour, or community member. All the individuals involved in the new ventures
studiedwerealsovictimsandwererepresentedinthevictimstatements.Thetranscripts
varied in length from 4 to 36 pages of single-spaced text, with a mean of 14 pages. As
described by the Royal Commission, ‘The lay witness stories (transcripts) are by defini-
tion personal accounts’ (Teague etal., 2010). In addition, the statements were given
underoath.Insomecases,minorchangesweremadebywitnesses(primarilytypographi-
cal)followingthestatements(Teagueetal.,2010).Thewitnessstatementsareretrospec-
tiveinthattheywereprovidedbetweenMay2009andApril2010–22to267daysafter
Black Saturday. The salience of the event as well as the detailed description of what
happenedonthedayandthesubsequentdaysfollowingtheeventsuggestthevictimshad
littleproblemrecallingdetails.Statementsgenerallyfollowedaformatofdescribingthe
pre-fire situation, what occurred the day of the fire, reflections of any warnings and
preparation, the immediate aftermath, and the long-term aftermath of overcoming the
bushfire. Often accompanying the statement were various records, such as personal
photographs, videos, aerial photographs and maps, news footage, additional statements
given to police, archival records, and newspaper articles supporting their accounts.
Secondarydata. Whilethewitnessstatementsservedastheprimarydatasource,thesedata
weresupplemented(toconfirmandextendaccountsgiveninthewitnessstatements)by
secondary data. Our secondary dataset includes real-time reports, such as live news
reporting and newspaper articles that include interviews and photographs with locals
(i.e., those responsible for the new ventures, ‘suppliers’, recipients of services, and
victims). Where possible, we also gathered additional information about compassion
organizingbyusinginformationcontainedinthewebsitesofthoseresponsibleforthese
new ventures. Gathering data from multiple informants from a variety of sources leads
to richer and potentially more reliable emergent theory and also allowed the authors to
triangulate data points to provide a rich view (Glaser and Strauss, 1967; Miles and
Huberman, 1994) of the processes. Our use of multiple sources also mitigates any
potentialinformantbiasinthe95victimstatementsaswegatheredhundredsofpagesof
secondary data from the sources mentioned above and captured real-time news reports
that could be compared and validated with the retrospective victim accounts. The data
represented374single-spacedpagesintotal.Finally,wefollowedtheestablishedpractice
in grounded theory research in collecting secondary data, gradually matching our
data-collection strategy to the emerging theoretical insights until further data collection
and analysis provided no explanation beyond the categories or themes that emerged
(whatGlaserandStrauss(1967)describeas‘theoreticalsaturation’;seealsoDey,1999).
It was in moving between the victim testimony, the literature, secondary data, and our
emerging theoretical analysis (Miles and Huberman, 1994) that we solidified the eight
newventuresforourstudyandbegantounderstandpotentialtheoreticalcontributions.
InFigure1,weillustratethedatasourcesforthisstudyaswellasanexampleofmultiple
points of data collection from multiple sources (note: throughout the paper, primary
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958 D. A. Shepherd and T. A. Williams
1a. Periods Covered by Multiple Sources of Data
Newspaper Articles
Amateur Video / Photographs
Live News Reporting
Live News Interviews with Victims
Corroborating Witness Archival Records
Archival Official Records
Written Statements to Royal Commission
Witness Testimony to Royal Commission
Spontaneous Venture Websites
Institutional Reports
Pre-Black Saturday Real-Time During Post Black Saturday
Black Saturday
Black Saturday
1b. Period Data was Recorded and / or Collected
Real-Time Pre-Black Real-Time During Black Post-Black Saturday
Total Total Total
Saturday Saturday
News Articles [NA] 15 News Articles (NA] 63 News Articles [NA] 132
Amateur Photographs [AP] 11 Amateur Photographs [AP] 38 Amateur Photographs [AP] 43
Amateur Videos [AV] 3 Amateur Videos [AV] 9 Live News Reports [LN] 57
Live News Reports [LN] 32 Live News Victims Interviews 78
[LNI]
Live News Victims Interviews 27 Written Statements to Commission 95
[LNI] [WS]
Archival Witness Records (Texts, 29 Witness Testimony to Commission 18
Picture messages, phone records) [WT] 27
[ARP] Archival Official Records (Police /
Parliamentary Records) [ARO]
Emergent venture websites [SW) 3
Institutional Reports (Red Cross, 13
Salvation Army, BCG, etc.) [IR]
TOTAL 29 TOTAL 198 TOTAL 466
1c. An Example of Data For aNew Venture
ARP AP ARP NA LN NA ARO WS WT NA
NAAVNAAPAP NA LNNA AVLNI AVNA LN LNI NAARO SW WSNA WT IR IR
Pre-Black Saturday Real-Time During Post Black Saturday
Black Saturday
Black Saturday
Figure1. Multiplesourcesofdata:timecoveredandpointintimecollected:(a)periodscoveredbymultiple
sourcesofdata;(b)perioddatawasrecordedand/orcollected;(c)anexampleofdataforanewventure
references are followed by the individual’s name [e.g., Karleen Elledge]. For secondary
references, we provide the reference to the source [e.g., news article, news report]).
Data Analysis
Ouroverallanalysisisstructuredfollowingestablishedproceduresforinductive,theory-
building research (Gioia etal., 2013; Locke, 2001; Miles and Huberman, 1994; Strauss
andCorbin,1998),followingguidelinesforconstantcomparisontechniques(Glaserand
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Local Venturing as Compassion Organizing 959
Strauss, 1967) and working recursively between the data and emerging theory. This
approach assisted us in completing four primary steps in the data-analysis phase, in
which we assessed ideas discussed by informants as well as compared various process
events. These steps were to delineate first-order codes, sub-theoretical categories, theo-
retical categories, and aggregate theoretical dimensions within the data (Gioia etal.,
1994,2013;LincolnandGuba,1985;seealsoCorleyandGioia,2004;Prattetal.,2006).
Identifying first-order codes. First, we began the analysis using ‘open coding’ (Locke, 2001),
looking to identify initial categories or first-order codes (Van Maanen, 1979) regarding
howvictimsdescribedtheirexperiencebefore,during,andafterBlackSaturday.Atthis
stage,webeganlooselytryingtoidentifyconsistentissues,dilemmas,solutions,oractions
taken by our informants (Gioia etal., 1994; Isabella, 1990) using constant comparison
techniques(GlaserandStrauss,1967).Aswebegantouncoverfirst-ordercodesthatwere
similar(VanMaanen,1979),weusedNVivo(version10)toorganizeandanalysethedata.
Wedidthisbyhighlightingportionsoftextandassigningthattexttoaspecificnode(or
first-ordercode).Whileperformingthisanalysis,wemetregularlytorefinecodingschemes
forfutureiterationsofcodingandtodiscusspotentialthemesthatwereemerging.After
namingthecodes,webeganconstructingcategoriesorgroupingsofcodes.Thisallowed
ustorefineouranalysisaswerevisitedthedata.Asthecodingprogressed,welookedfor
similaritiesanddifferencesamongtheemergingcategories,and,inconsideringthearray
ofdatabeforeus,searchedfordeeperrelationalstructurewithinthedatawhilesimulta-
neouslynarrowingourcategorizationofemergingthemes(Gioiaetal.,2013).Intheend,
werecodedalldatafourtimesintheirentirety,eachtimerefiningthecodesandsolidifying
categoriesandsub-categories.Inaddition,weconductedmany‘spot-codingadjustments’
inourNVivocodingapproachwhenwediscoveredsub-categoriesinanexistingcodeor
otherimportantnuances.Aswithallstepsintheanalysisprocess,thisapproachwasnot
linearbutwasa‘recursive,process-oriented,analyticprocedure’(Locke,1996,p.240;see
also Glaser and Strauss, 1967; Lincoln and Guba, 1985) that continued until we began
graspingimportantthemes.Asaresult,wesolidifiedsomecategories,removedcategories
thatwereirrelevant,andbeganidentifyingtheoreticalcategories(Gioiaetal.,1994).
Aggregating first-order codes to sub-themes and themes. In the second and third steps of our
analysis,wemovedfromopencoding(Locke,2001)tomoreabstractcodingofdatainto
theoretical categories and sub-categories, or axial coding (Locke, 2001; Strauss and
Corbin, 1998). In doing so, we were able to compare differences across informants to
isolate‘outlier’statementsfrommorethematiccategories.Thisprocessinvolvedconsid-
eringmultiplelevelssimultaneously(i.e.,boththerawdataincludinginformanttermsas
well as abstractions of the raw data including ‘theoretical levels of themes, dimensions,
and the larger narrative – answering the important question “What’s going on here?”
theoretically’(Gioiaetal.,2013,p.20)).Asthisprocesscontinued,webegandeveloping
tentativeanswerstoouroverarchingquestion,byidentifyingcommonthemesorlinkages
within and between cases (i.e., how and why concepts were connected) (Gioia and
Chittipeddi, 1991; Gioia etal., 2013).
Aggregating theoretical dimensions. As the final step of our analysis, we raised the level of
abstractiontoformatentativeviewofaggregatetheoreticaldimensionsaswellasamore
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960 D. A. Shepherd and T. A. Williams
solidified and formalized view of the relationships between dimensions. This final step
enabled us to develop a theoretical framework that linked the various concepts that
emergedfromthedata(Gioiaetal.,2013).Webeganarrangingthetheoreticalconcepts,
iteratingagainbetweenthedataandtheemergingdimensionstoexaminefit(Glaserand
Strauss,1967;Locke,2001)untilweachievedaworkablesetofthemesandconcepts,as
determined by arriving at a point of ‘theoretical saturation’ (Glaser and Strauss, 1967).
For example, we found that there were obstacles to moving resources outside the fire
zone into locally impacted areas, which were at least partially overcome by the local
venturing. As four primary dimensions emerged, we developed several iterations of
working papers to describe concepts found in the data (Strauss and Corbin, 1998) until
settling on the framework and findings presented here.
InFigure2weshowourdatastructure,comprisedofthefirst-ordercodes,theoretical
sub-categories, theoretical categories, and aggregate theoretical dimensions (consistent
with Corley and Gioia, 2004; Gioia etal., 1994, 2013; Pratt etal., 2006) that emerged
fromouranalysis.AsillustratedinFigure2,therearefivemaindimensionsthatemerged
from our data, which serve as the constitutive elements of our model of venturing as
compassion organizing: (1) local sources of compassionate resources, (2) non-local
sources of compassionate resources, (3) obstacles to non-local compassionate resources,
(4) local emergent actions, and (5) victim suffering. Because of their direct relevance to
venturingascompassionorganizing,thesefivetheoreticaldimensionsservedasthebasis
forthesubsequenttheoreticaldevelopmentandformationofourmodel.Figure2isnot
a causal or dynamic model, but rather is a representation of the concepts and their
relationships that emerged from the data.
Havingexplainedourdatastructure,wecontinuewithanoverviewoffindingswhere
we explain recurrent themes (substantiated by representative quotations presented in
TablesI–IV)inouranalysisandhowthesethemes(intheformoftheoreticalcategories
and sub-categories), balanced with extent literature, led us to develop our theoretical
model(consistentwithGioiaetal.,2013).Wethenfollowwithadiscussionofourmodel,
or how venturing as compassion organizing following a natural disaster, and the role
localandnon-localactorsplayinfacilitatingthisaction.Whilewepresentthefindingsin
some detail, it is important to note that the main contribution of the study is a general
process framework, or sketch of a process theory of local venturing as compassion
organizing in the aftermath of a natural disaster. Finally, we conclude by discussing the
implications of our model to theory and research on entrepreneurship, compassion
organizing, and disaster response.
FINDINGS: LOCAL VENTURING AS COMPASSION ORGANIZING
AFTER A NATURAL DISASTER
The Black Saturday bushfire eliminated or disabled many key resources, including
shelter, food, water, transportation, communication, emergency support, industrial
equipment, and means of accessing financial resources. This loss of resources caused
three primary types of victim suffering: psychological, physical, and financial (as
illustrated in Figure2). Representative quotes as well as dimensions of this victim
suffering are detailed in TableI. In response to victim suffering, local and non-local
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Local Venturing as Compassion Organizing 961
Figure2. Datastructure
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