Establishing the liminal-liminoid distinction in organization studies: How individuals pursue a liminoid transition in a social venture incubator

While the notion of liminality has improved our understanding of individuals going through transition, its widespread use in a variety of organizational contexts has led to a dilution of the concept’s analytical precision. By analysing ‘liminoid’ transitions we simultaneously widen our field of vision and narrow down the precise meaning of the twin terms liminal and liminoid. Following Turner’s original understanding, ‘liminality’ focuses on a pre-planned change of an individual within a conventional organizational structure, whereas liminoid addresses individuals seeking to make changes to the structure itself from ‘outside’. Through an ethnographic study of individuals in a UK-based social venture incubator, we address the question: what practices do individuals engaged in a liminoid transition adopt? Our analysis suggests venturers deploy five practices: detaching and reorienting, exploring, structuring, compromising, and self-evaluating. We make three contributions. First, our empirical account of individuals’ practices provides a deeper insight into the specific social dynamics that unfold in a liminoid transition. Second, we contribute greater analytical precision and conceptual grounding for theorising liminoid transition processes and practices by detailing their distinguishing features from liminal transitions in terms of motivation, context, and conditions. Third, we contribute by discussing how different degrees of detachment from conventional organizational structures may impact the possibilities for social change and the personal lives of the transitioning individual.