THE UNIVERSITY OF HULL KNOWLEDGE FOR DEVELOPMENT: ENHANCING PEOPLE’S CAPABILITIES. A case-study of Knowledge Management and Social Entrepreneurship based on a Mexican community experience being a Thesis submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the University of Hull by Mario Alain González-Hernández Supervisors: Dr. Zhichang Zhu Dr. Ashish Dwivedi April, 2016 Dedication To Mara, my daughter, whose perseverance in learning and developing has inspired me to understand knowledge in action from a whole new perspective. To Naza, my wife, for her strength and companionship that have been a rock during this long journey. To Lucy and Mario, my parents, whose life-long example of congruence have always been a model. To the memory of Benito Manrique, the social entrepreneur, for he taught me through his actions that one determined person is truly capable of creating a better life for many. ii Acknowledgements I would like to express my deep appreciation to the many persons that were involved in one way or another in the process of writing this dissertation. To my supervisor, Dr. Zhichang Zhu, for his teaching and guidance through the whole process. His precise and opportune advice was essential to arrive to this point. To the directors of Tecnológico de Monterrey who trusted that I would be a good candidate to pursue an academic journey and have sponsored me with great patience. Particularly I’d like to express my gratitude to Claudia Gallegos and Sergio Martínez for their support. To Roberto Palacios, for his invaluable help since the beginning of this journey and all the way until its termination. His love for academy, for his family, and for his friends are a source of inspiration. To the academic thinkers that I had the great opportunity to meet during this journey. I have tried to integrate their teachings and advice in this dissertation. Particularly to my professors from Hull University Business School: Ashish Dwivedi, Anne Cunliffe and Andrew Abbot. To my colleagues from Tecnológico de Monterrey: Carlos Gil, Julio Noriega, Fernando Sandoval and Ciro Flores. To colleagues from other institutions: Guillermo Granados, Charlie Euchner, Jaan Elias, Kathy Hoghart and Mahesh P. Joshi. To the community of Tecnológico de Monterrey. To my colleagues, co-workers, bosses and specially to my students. They all have been a source of motivation to continue walking this academic path. iii Abstract This thesis presents a case-study based on the academic fields of Development Theory, Knowledge Management and Social Entrepreneurship that portrays the development history of a Mexican rural community (Huixcazdhá) that hosts a food processing company (San Miguel). The analysis uses concepts of human centered development and the Capability approach by Amartya Sen to describe the history of improvement of the wellbeing of people from the community thanks to the presence of the amaranth processing company. It also shows how despite the limitation in resources present in the environment where the business operates, San Miguel may be considered a knowledge creating company under the framework of Nonaka. Finally, it presents the personal history of the social entrepreneur in the establishment of a company with a strong social vision that completely integrates its business operations with the dynamics of the community. The research paradigm that provides light to the study is pragmatism; using case-study as research strategy and an inductive research approach, limitations intrinsic to these elements are discussed and tackled in the methodological design. The data collection stage included on-site observations in the company and community for a period of six months, carrying out thirty in-depth interviews to collect personal views of persons from the community who work in the company, and the analysis of different documents produced by the company, social entrepreneur, and external agents such as the media, government and other institutions. A Computer-Aided Qualitative Analysis Software (NVivo) was used to analyze all data obtained and to give shape to the conclusions drawn from the research. The main findings obtained in relationship to each of the fields of knowledge considered in the thesis are: In relation to Social Entrepreneurship, the ethical fiber as a personal characteristic of the entrepreneur is a major element that has not received enough attention; additionally the process to develop a social vision that captures a collective purpose with a transformative effect and a widespread reach to create and sustain social value is stressed. Regarding the field of Knowledge Management, the process of adapting the elements of a knowledge-creating firm in a rural environment with major limitations regarding the human and material resources is shown. In the field of Development Theory, a process view where primary assets of a community are turned into an expanded capability set that changes into a choice process to convert it into achieved functionings is introduced. Furthermore, the elements that connect the three fields based on pragmatism is introduced; particularly the spirits of bricolage, phronesis and distributed agency are analyzed and extracted from the empirical evidence as relevant elements in the construction of a successful experience of development. iv Contents Dedication ..................................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... iii Abstract .........................................................................................................................................iv Contents ........................................................................................................................................ 1 List of Tables .................................................................................................................................. 4 List of Figures ................................................................................................................................ 4 List of Images ................................................................................................................................. 5 Chapter 1. Introduction ................................................................................................................. 6 1.1 Development, Knowledge Management and Entrepreneurship: Is there a connection among the three? ...................................................................................................................... 9 1.2 A cohesive component for the three elements: Pragmatism ........................................... 11 1.3 A story of knowledge development through social entrepreneurship ............................. 16 1.4 Research questions ........................................................................................................... 19 1.5 Structure of the dissertation ............................................................................................. 21 1.6 Relevance and potential contribution of the research work ............................................ 23 Chapter 2. Literature Review ...................................................................................................... 25 2.1 A critical review of Development ...................................................................................... 25 2.1.1 Economic-based theories of Development ................................................................ 26 2.1.2 Interdisciplinary and cross disciplinary theories of Development ............................. 30 2.1.3 Human-centered Development: The Capability Approach ........................................ 38 2.2 From Knowledge Management to Knowledge-based Development ................................ 50 2.2.1 Knowledge .................................................................................................................. 51 2.2.2 Knowledge Management ........................................................................................... 52 2.2.3 Knowledge Transfer ................................................................................................... 58 2.2.4 Knowledge-based Development ................................................................................ 62 2.3 Social entrepreneurship .................................................................................................... 68 2.3.1 The concept of Social Entrepreneurship .................................................................... 68 2.3.2 Characteristics of the Social Entrepreneur ................................................................ 73 2.3.3 Bricolage in social entrepreneurship .......................................................................... 80 2.4 The issue of agency ........................................................................................................... 82 Chapter 3. Research Methodology ............................................................................................. 87 1 3.1 Research paradigm ............................................................................................................ 87 3.2 Methodological design ...................................................................................................... 90 3.2.1 Inductive research approach .....................................................................................