Nevertheless, They Persisted: How Patterns of Opposition and Support Shaped the Survival of U.S. Abortion Clinics

Abstract

Stigmatized organizations are generally assumed to face a variety of unique operational challenges. This paper examines the survival of stigmatized organizations in light of such challenges. Specifically, we investigate how patterns of opposition and support from multiple external stakeholders and audiences affect organizational survival within the context of abortion provision in the United States. We use a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to examine the causal linkages between the above factors and the survival outcomes of the full identifiable industry of 983 abortion clinics that were in operation in the U.S. between 2011 and 2017. Our results reveal the existence of multiple paths to survival, based primarily on either the absence of overt opposition or the presence of factors like political support that enabled organizations to overcome other threats to survival. Our findings show how socio-political factors affect the survival of organizations in stigmatized industries.

Standing on the Shoulders of Goffman: Advancing a Relational Research Agenda on Stigma

“…Despite the accumulation of efforts, the boundaries between some social evaluations are not sharp, and at times, these concepts can be confounded—especially so when they share the same valence, as is the case for stigma and illegitimacy (Ashforth, 2018; Devers & Mishina, 2019; Hampel & Tracey, 2019; Helms et al, 2019; Patterson et al, 2019). In this sense, opportunities remain to differentiate stigma from negative concepts such as disapproval, deviance, misconduct, and wrongdoing (Grattet, 2011; Piazza & Augustine, 2022; Reuber & Fischer, 2010), as well as showing how they are related to stigma (Kassinis et al, 2022; Naumovska & Lavie, 2021). We believe that such efforts can bring essential insights into the study of social evaluations and enrich prior work with the opportunity to uncover the mechanisms by which social evaluations have tangible effects on targets and by revealing the relational antecedents to different types of social evaluations (see e.g., Zietsma & Winn, 2007).…”

Organizational Stigma: Taking Stock and Opening New Areas for Research

“…On the other end of the methodological spectrum, new forms of media offer opportunities for research. Qualitative researchers have already started drawing from those sources (Frandsen and Morsing, 2022; Gümüsay et al, 2022; see also Piazza and Augustine, 2022). While social media has been brought into reputation research (Etter et al, 2019), there is great potential in considering it for stigma research, especially because of the decentralized nature of interactions, and the potential richness and diversity of voices that can be captured on those platforms.…”

“…Three of the studies (Frandsen and Morsing, 2022;Goodrick et al, 2022;Kvåle and Murdoch, 2021) unpack micro-level dynamics caused by organizational stigma, but also unveil core outcomes and reactions to stigma. Finally, the papers connect organizational stigma with other core mechanisms and concepts in and around the social evaluations literature, such as location (Cowden et al, 2022), disapproval (Piazza and Augustine, 2022), spectacularization and performativity (Campana et al, 2022), as well as managing multiple sources of stigma (Tsui-Auch et al, 2022) and multiple sources of support to manage stigma (Piazza and Augustine, 2022). Those studies illuminate new contexts that were often understudied in organization theory such as US cities, or television shows.…”

Aspectos temporais do trabalho sócio-simbólico para a continuidade do Museu Nacional

“…Em situações de crise, como escândalos, graves acidentes, desastres ou catástrofes, organizações podem perder a perspectiva da continuidade. Surgem questionamentos e dúvidas a respeito das chances de recuperação, como no caso de falência iminente (Probst & Raisch, 2005) e acidentes graves na organização (Gregg et al, 2022), ou ainda dúvidas quanto à capacidade dos líderes para conduzir um processo de reconstrução, como no caso de perda séria de legitimidade decorrente de casos de escândalos ou estigma (Piazza & Augustine, 2022).…”

“…O caso em questão trata de "organizações que perdem a visão da continuidade" quando há uma interrupção da expectativa dessa continuidade pelos atores centrais. Isso pode acontecer em um ponto da existência de uma organização quando surge uma condição de falência iminente (Probst & Raisch, 2005), ou como consequência dos efeitos de catástrofes naturais ou acidentes graves na organização (Gregg et al, 2022), ou até mesmo pela perda séria de legitimidade, como casos de estigma e escândalos (Piazza & Augustine, 2022). Em situações como essas, organizações podem seguir pela trajetória do fim de suas atividades, como dissolução e venda de ativos, ou pela reinvenção, recuperação, em uma nova trajetória.…”