Sonia SIRAZ
Assistant Professor

Sonia SIRAZ, InvEnt emlyon

 ” Good research is like putting on your detective hat: ask the right questions, follow the clues, and crack the case! “

Sonia SIRAZ
Assistant Professor

 

I am an Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship. My research explores legitimacy and legitimation dynamics in contested contexts such as cannabis, fracking, foie gras, and immigration. I also specialize in inclusive entrepreneurship, focusing on ethno-racial minorities, women, and Indigenous entrepreneurs. I am actively engaged in the international legitimacy research community, including organizing the 3rd International Legitimacy Workshop here at emlyon.
I earned my PhD at IE Business School (Spain), completed my postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Pittsburgh (US), and was a Lecturer and MBA Deputy Director at the University of Essex (UK). Previously, I specialized in international and EU law, served as an Assistant Professor of Law, and founded my consultancy firm, advising governmental authorities and SMEs (France).
A global soul with local roots, I have lived and worked in France, Mauritius, Spain, the US, and the UK. I enjoy traveling, beaches, dancing, nature hikes, cooking, wine pairing, detective novels… and I am a tea aficionado!

siraz@em-lyon.com

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS

Sonia Siraz's book cover

Community Socioemotional Wealth as the Glue that Binds Distinct Communities in Enterprising: A Tale of Success From Colombia

Recent advances in research have shed light on why and how community-based enterprises (CBEs) emerge. Nevertheless, little is known about the underlying factors that contribute to their success over time. This lack of attention is intriguing, given CBEs’ widespread proliferation as an instrument for socioeconomic development. We contribute to the CBE literature by applying and extending socioemotional wealth (SEW) to the CBE context. Our findings demonstrate how the presence of community socioemotional wealth (CSEW) enables CBEs to achieve enduring success. Beyond the presence of SEW’s five traditional dimensions, we identify two new dimensions (empowerment and holistic mission) unique to CBEs. When jointly present, these seven dimensions explain how CSEW creates a favorable terrain for the CBE to succeed.

Sonia Siraz's book cover

What is the quack about? Legitimation strategies and their perceived appropriateness in the foie gras industry

 

This study contributes to the legitimacy literature by investigating the perceived appropriateness of legitimation strategies used by controversial organizations. Through a mixed-method approach comprising interviews and conjoint experiments, we shed light on how evaluators perceive the appropriateness of five legitimation strategies used by the foie gras industry in France and how evaluators’ environmentalism and media skepticism influence their perceptions. Some strategies favored by the industry are perceived as inappropriate by evaluators and thus may obstruct or, worse, counter the intended goal of legitimacy enhancement. Moreover, we observe that evaluators’ high environmentalism and high media skepticism affect the perceived appropriateness of the strategies, albeit not of all five. Evaluators with high media skepticism favor explanation discourses and strategies that establish a common identity of the industry. Evaluators with high environmentalism favor the use of recognizable quality standards and labels, yet they are wary of high levels of organization through structured representation of industry interests.

OTHER PUBLICATIONS

Theorizing the Grey Area between Legitimacy and Illegitimacy

(Sonia S. Siraz, Björn Claes, Julio O. De Castro, Eero Vaara – 2022)