Research Seminar – Christian Seelos

This Research Seminar was organized by the Management & Organizations department and the ERA Chair in Social Innovation.

Christian Seelos is a Distinguished Fellow and Director of the Global Innovation for Impact Lab at the Stanford University Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society. Previously, he was the Director of Social Innovation Practice at the Harvard Kennedy School Social Innovation for Change Initiative and Academic Visitor at the Skoll Center for Social Entrepreneurship, served as the Leo Tindemans Chair for Business Model Innovation at KU Leuven, and was the Director of the IESE Platform for Strategy and Sustainability and faculty at the Strategic Management Department at IESE Business School.

Title: Realist Theorizing – Causal Models as Analytical Scaffoldings

Abstract: Organizational scholarship often revolves around discourses that use ambiguous terms that lack the characteristics of analytically potent concepts. Examples include terms like business models, social entrepreneurship, hybrid organizations, social innovation, system change, or grand challenges. In this seminar, I share insights from my scholarly journey that began in the natural sciences (molecular biology) and led me to study social phenomena. A central objective of this journey was to challenge and overcome the limitations of scholarly discourses. I reflect on adopting causal models as analytical scaffoldings for theorizing phenomena. I also discuss the implications of a realist philosophy of science for the validity of knowledge claims and their practical usefulness. Recent studies illustrate the learning journey of this style of theorizing, its characteristics, potential, and challenges.