Leveraging ICT to overcome complementary institutional voids: Insights from institutional work by a social enterprise to help marginalized
(2020). Information Systems Frontiers, 22(3), 633–653.
Cited 104 times · OpenAlex, 2026-11-07
What the paper shows
In short
A social enterprise in India linked two groups, elderly people in cities who wanted to stay productive and children in villages who lacked good schooling, through an online platform. The paper follows how the enterprise worked through the institutional obstacles it met. It shows that tackling two connected gaps at once can work for social ventures serving marginalised communities.
Abstract
There is, in general, a dearth of empirical inquiries on how institutional voids are filled through institutional work in marginalized communities. Extant studies have focussed on institutional work that addresses solitary institutional void, mostly in formal settings. In this paper, we inquire the case of a social entrepreneurial venture in India that identified two complementary institutional voids (productive ageing void of the urban elderly and rural education void of children) and attempted to simultaneously address the two voids. The issue of physical distance between the two groups was overcome by enacting an ICT platform. We also show how the institutional challenges associated with the ICT implementation led them to pursue different kinds of institutional works in their context. We then identify different theoretical dimensions of institutional works that could be used in marginalized contexts. Finally, we show how the ‘complementary voids’ approach has implications for both theory and practice.
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