IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/jocore/v66y2022i4-5p836-866.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Ideological Ambiguity on Terrorist Organizations

Author

Listed:
  • Susan Olzak

Abstract

Organizations that have a clear and unambiguous focus acquire greater legitimacy, which raises their capacity for mobilization. Using data on terrorist organizations, this paper explores two empirical implications of this claim: A terrorist organization’s survival and lethality will be threatened to the extent that it has an ambiguous ideological identity. Analyses using panel data from the Extended Data on Terrorist Groups (EDTG) test these arguments for 474 global terrorist organizations observed over 1970–2016. The key empirical predictions are that ambiguity inhibits lethality and curtails survival. This paper finds support for these claims, controlling for competition from rivals and allies, ethno-nationalist or Islamic ideological orientation, and a variety of other measures of organizational capacity.

Suggested Citation

  • Susan Olzak, 2022. "The Impact of Ideological Ambiguity on Terrorist Organizations," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 66(4-5), pages 836-866, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:jocore:v:66:y:2022:i:4-5:p:836-866
    DOI: 10.1177/00220027211073921
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/00220027211073921
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/00220027211073921?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cameron,A. Colin & Trivedi,Pravin K., 2013. "Regression Analysis of Count Data," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9781107667273.
    2. Dongfang Hou & Khusrav Gaibulloev & Todd Sandler, 2020. "Introducing Extended Data on Terrorist Groups (EDTG), 1970 to 2016," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 64(1), pages 199-225, January.
    3. Michael C. Horowitz & Philip B. K. Potter, 2014. "Allying to Kill," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 58(2), pages 199-225, March.
    4. Khusrav Gaibulloev & Todd Sandler, 2019. "What We Have Learned about Terrorism since 9/11," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 57(2), pages 275-328, June.
    5. Todd Sandler, 2014. "The analytical study of terrorism," Journal of Peace Research, Peace Research Institute Oslo, vol. 51(2), pages 257-271, March.
    6. Sophia Rabe-Hesketh & Anders Skrondal, 2012. "Multilevel and Longitudinal Modeling Using Stata, 3rd Edition," Stata Press books, StataCorp LP, edition 3, number mimus2, March.
    7. Michael T. Hannan & László Pólos & Glenn R. Carroll, 2007. "Language Matters, from Logics of Organization Theory: Audiences, Codes, and Ecologies," Introductory Chapters, in: Logics of Organization Theory: Audiences, Codes, and Ecologies, Princeton University Press.
    8. Greta Hsu & Giacomo Negro & Fabrizio Perretti, 2012. "Hybrids in Hollywood: a study of the production and performance of genre-spanning films," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 21(6), pages 1427-1450, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Lucas, David S. & Park, U. David, 2023. "The nature and origins of social venture mission: An exploratory study of political ideology and moral foundations," Journal of Business Venturing, Elsevier, vol. 38(2).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wukki Kim & Todd Sandler, 2020. "Middle East and North Africa: Terrorism and Conflicts," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 11(4), pages 424-438, September.
    2. Gaibulloev, Khusrav & Hou, Dongfang & Sandler, Todd, 2020. "How do the factors determining terrorist groups’ longevity differ from those affecting their success?," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    3. Subhayu Bandyopadhyay & Todd Sandler, 2022. "Effects of Defensive and Proactive Measures on Competition Between Terrorist Groups," Journal of Conflict Resolution, Peace Science Society (International), vol. 66(10), pages 1797-1825, November.
    4. Wukki Kim & Todd Sandler, 2021. "Foreign aid and terrorist groups: incidents, ideology, and survival," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 189(1), pages 139-160, October.
    5. Bandyopadhyay, Subhayu & Sandler, Todd, 2021. "Counterterrorism policy: Spillovers, regime solidity, and corner solutions," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 188(C), pages 811-827.
    6. Michael Lounsbury & Christine M. Beckman, 2015. "Celebrating Organization Theory," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 52(2), pages 288-308, March.
    7. Athina Economou & Christos Kollias, 2019. "Security policy preferences of EU citizens: Do terrorist events affect them?," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 178(3), pages 445-471, March.
    8. Subhayu Bandyopadhyay & Todd Sandler, 2024. "A Theoretical Treatment of Foreign Fighters and Terrorism," Working Papers 2024-011, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
    9. Zheng, Mingbo & Feng, Gen-Fu & Jang, Chyi-Lu & Chang, Chun-Ping, 2021. "Terrorism and green innovation in renewable energy," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 104(C).
    10. Bandyopadhyay, Subhayu & Sandler, Todd, 2023. "Voluntary participation in a terror group and counterterrorism policy," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 215(C), pages 500-513.
    11. Heewon Chae, 2022. "Income or education? Community‐level antecedents of firms' category‐spanning activities," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(1), pages 93-129, January.
    12. Tomáš Katrňák & Barbora Hubatková, 2022. "Does educational expansion decrease suicide rates in European countries? The compositional effect in educational stratification of suicides," Quality & Quantity: International Journal of Methodology, Springer, vol. 56(3), pages 923-947, June.
    13. Gassebner, Martin & Schaudt, Paul & Wong, Melvin H.L., 2023. "Armed groups: Competition and political violence," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    14. Martin Gassebner & Paul Schaudt & Melvin H. L. Wong, 2020. "Armed Groups in Conflict: Competition and Political Violence in Pakistan," CESifo Working Paper Series 8372, CESifo.
    15. Meierrieks, Daniel & Schneider, Friedrich, 2021. "Terrorism and international economic policy," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C).
    16. Meierrieks, Daniel & Renner, Laura, 2021. "Islamist terrorism and the role of women," Discussion Paper Series 2021-02, University of Freiburg, Wilfried Guth Endowed Chair for Constitutional Political Economy and Competition Policy.
    17. Ad van den Oord & Arjen van Witteloostuijn, 2018. "A multi-level model of emerging technology: An empirical study of the evolution of biotechnology from 1976 to 2003," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 13(5), pages 1-27, May.
    18. Haochuan Cui & Tiewei Li & Cheng-Jun Wang, 2023. "Climbing up the ladder of abstraction: how to span the boundaries of knowledge space in the online knowledge market?," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-12, December.
    19. Meierrieks, Daniel & Renner, Laura, 2023. "Islamist terrorism and the status of women," European Journal of Political Economy, Elsevier, vol. 78(C).
    20. Khusrav Gaibulloev & Todd Sandler, 2023. "Common myths of terrorism," Journal of Economic Surveys, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 37(2), pages 271-301, April.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:jocore:v:66:y:2022:i:4-5:p:836-866. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://pss.la.psu.edu/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.