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Miss Cagla Yavuz MA, BA.

PhD Student

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PhD thesis title: The role of organizational habitus in organizational responses to institutional complexities

My doctoral research explores how organizational distinctiveness (habitus) is influential in the ways that organizational members interpret, make sense and respond to institutional complexities in the field of higher education in Turkish, Canadian and UK contexts. Relying on constructivist paradigm, I carry out a cross-cultural comparative study, which is based on qualitative comparative cases, with the aim of comparing data derived from six different universities, which are situated in different socio-political fields. I have conducted over 100 interviews with academics holding senior positions at various institutions.

Supervisors: Professor Mine Karatas-Ozkan, Professor Jeremy Howells

Funding Agencies: PGR Faculty Scholarship, Faculty of Business and Law, University of Southampton

My visits to Alberta Business School as a visiting scholar in 2013/Fall and 2015/Spring were funded by World Universities Network and PGR Conference and Research Support Grant, University of Southampton.

I am currently a doctoral researcher at Southampton Business School, University of Southampton, UK, where I have been working as a research fellow over three years. I received my B.A and M.A degrees in Business Administration at Mugla University and Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, respectively.

During the doctorate process at Southampton Business School, I was fortunate to get acceptance as a visiting researcher from Alberta Business School, in the periods of 2013/Fall and 2015/Spring. This experience helped me to not only advance my doctoral research theoretically and methodologically, but also built strong connections with eminent institutional scholars and doctoral researchers at the University of Alberta, which will continue throughout of my academic career and facilitate collaborative work for joint publications.

My research interests include issues such as organisational culture, history, leadership, strategy and role of the inter-organisational and organisational dynamics on organisational formation, and, in turn responses to institutional change processes (complexities) from process-relational and multi-dimensional perspective in the field of higher education, sharing economy and social entrepreneurship. I pursue a research active career, which is reflected in my research outputs and publications. I have presented my research at the leading conferences (e.g. EGOS, EURAM), published book chapters and articles in the refereed journals. Research projects that I have been working on were funded by prestigious research institutions, namely, British Council, British Academy and Newton Fund. I also have manuscripts in the pipeline to be submitted to highly ranked and impactful journals.

Research interests

My research interests focus on two different yet intersecting areas. First, specific interest areas revolve around the dynamics of organisational response strategies to institutional complexities from perspective of different actors in various fields including higher education, social entrepreneurship and sharing economy.

Second, I research entrepreneurial eco-systems through underpinning mechanisms that facilitate or hinder entrepreneurial orientation and innovativeness of organisations. My MA thesis was on innovation which drew my attention to entrepreneurial activities of change makers and innovators. I have also worked as a research fellow on a research project exploring entrepreneurial dynamics of agricultural small and medium size enterprises (SMEs) in Turkish context. Empirical findings from this project have been published as policy report and book chapter in the Sustainable Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation. Currently, I have been working on a research project, which explores role of the technology transfer offices (TTOs) in building entrepreneurial universities in emerging economies. We have been preparing an article reporting on qualitative empirical outcomes of this project to submit to the journal, Research Policy.

Broader research interests

Area of interest: Institutional theory with particular focus on meso and micro-foundations of institutional change processes, Bourdieu`s social theory of practice, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial eco-systems, social entrepreneurship, social innovation, leadership, NGOs, methodology (constructivism),

Industries: higher education, shared economy, non-profit, animal trafficking, agriculture

Geographies: Turkey, Canada, UK, Brazil

Research papers-in-progress

[Title withheld],with M. Karatas-Ozkan, V. Grinevish and F. Huber, Special Issue of Small Business Economics: An Entrepreneurship Journal (ABS 3*) (Submitted)

Drivers for entrepreneurial universities and role of technology transfer offices in emerging economies, with Serdal Temel, Mine Karatas-Ozkan, Vadim Grinevich, Jeremy Howells, in preparation for Research Policy

Socio-materiality and strategy practice in higher education, with M. Karatas-Ozkan, J. Howells and M. Atiq, in preparation for Human Relations

The role of organizational habitus in organizational responses to institutional complexities, (will be extracted from my PhD thesis) targeted for Academy of Management Journal

Conference papers/presentations

Yavuz, C., Karatas-Ozkan, M., and Howells, J. (July, 2016-accepted). The role of organizational habitus in organizational responses to institutional complexities. 32nd EGOS Colloquium, Naples, Italy.

Karatas-Ozkan, M., Howells, J., Yavuz, C., and Atiq, M. (September, 2015). Socio-materiality and strategy practice in higher education: Bridging multiple layers through a Bourdieuan lens. 29th British Academy of Management Conference, Portsmouth, UK, (Best Full Paper Award from Strategy-as-Practice track).

Karatas-Ozkan, M., Howells, J., Yavuz, C., and Atiq, M. (June, 2015). Socio-materiality and strategy practice in higher education: Bridging multiple layers through a Bourdieuan lens. 14th EURAM Conference, Warsaw, Poland.

Yavuz, C., Karatas-Ozkan, M., and Ometto, M. P. (July, 2014). Institutional voids in emerging markets: A case of animal trafficking. 30th EGOS Colloquium, Rotterdam, Netherlands.

Tunalioglu R., Cobanoglu F., Cankurt M., Cınar G., Ozkan M.K., Bektas T., Howell J., and Yavuz C. (September, 2014). Aydın İlinde Tarıma Dayalı Gıda Sektöründeki İşletmelerde Yöneticilerin Girişimcilik Eğilimleri Arasındaki Farklılıkların Belirlenmesine Yönelik Bir Araştırma (A research investigating differences of managers` entrepreneurial orientations in agricultural sector in Aydin) XI. Ulusal Tarım Ekonomisi Kongresi (National Agricultural Economics Congress), 497-506, 3, Samsun, Turkey.

Yavuz, C., Karatas-Ozkan, M., and Howells, J. (July, 2013). Multi-layered understanding of institutional entrepreneurship in emerging markets: A Bourdieuan framework. 29th EGOS Colloquium, Paper Development Workshop, Montreal, Canada.

Yavuz, C., Karatas-Ozkan, M., and Howells, J. (June, 2013). Institutional entrepreneurship from relational and diversity perspectives. 13th EURAM Conference, Istanbul, Turkey.

Yavuz, C., Karatas-Ozkan, M. (March, 2013). Understanding Embedded Agency in Institutional Entrepreneurship: Emerging Market Perspective. 9th New Institutionalism Workshop, Warsaw, Poland.

Yavuz, C., Karatas-Ozkan, M. (October, 2012). Mapping the Institutional Entrepreneurs’ Activities from a Social Perspective. 2nd Interreg Conference, Southampton, UK.

Culpan, R., Koç, O., Yavuz, C. (July, 2011). A Critical Examination of Innovators’ Common Dilemmas: A Conceptual Model and Three Case Studies. 20th Annual World Business Congress (IMDA) (ISBN:1-888624-10-8), Poznan, Poland.

Culpan, R., Culpan, O., Koç, O., Yavuz, C. (June, 2011). A Meta-Analysis of Corporate Sustainability: Scope, Level, Methodology, and Contributions of Previous Studies. 10th International Academy of Management and Business (IAMB) Conference (ISSN 1949-9108), Istanbul, Turkey.

Koc, O., Yavuz, C. (June, 2011). Managerial Perceptions of and Attitudes towards Corporate Sustainability: The Case of Turkey. 7th Strategic Management Conference, (accepted for presentation but not presented), Paris, France.

Koc, O., Yavuz, C. (October, 2010). İnovasyonun Yaratımı Açısından Kızıl Kraliçe Etkisi Oyun Dışı Aktörler Üzerinden Keşifsel Bir Araştırma [Red Queen Effect in terms of Innovation Creation: An Explorative Study via Outside Actors of the Game]. International Conference on Entrepreneurship, Family Business and Innovation (ISBN 978-9756734-08-7) Ankara, Turkey (in Turkish).

Koc, O., Yavuz, C. (October, 2010). How to Innovate Socially? A Study to Analyze Relationship between Entrepreneurial Competencies and Innovative Behaviours of Social Entrepreneurs. Innovation Driven Entrepreneurship Congress, Baltic Management Research Academy (BMRA) (ISSN 2029-5448), Vilnius, Lithuania.

Koc, O., Yavuz, C. (May, 2010). Work Innovation or Innovation Work: A Comparative Analysis of Innovation Activities among EU Countries. 6th International Scientific Symposium on Business Administration, (ISBN 978-80-7248594-9) Karvina, Czech Republic.

Affiliate research group

Centre of Excellence for Innovation and Enterprise

Research Fellow (2015-2017)

Project title: Drivers for entrepreneurial universities and role of technology transfer offices in emerging economies

Funding organisation: British Academy, UK Newton Advanced Fellowship Scheme, GBP 71,000

Main responsibilities: Conducting Skype interviews with TTO managers in Turkey (approximately 20); transcribing interviews; analysing the interview data; contributing theoretical framing of the project; writing up the report and publications

Research Fellow (2012-2014)

Project title: Improving management capacity and environmental sustainability strategies of Turkish SMEs in agriculture through strategic partnerships with HEIs in Turkey and the UK

Funding organisation: British Council, GBP 24,925

Main responsibilities: Conducting face-to-face interviews with SME managers in agricultural sector in Aydin region (approximately 30); transcribing interviews; analysing the interview data and policy documents relevant to the field; contributing theoretical framing of the project; writing up the report and publications.

Miss Cagla Yavuz
Southampton Business School, University of Southampton, Highfield, Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK
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