Social pressures and their impact on smartphone use stickiness and use habit among adolescents

Excessive smartphone use has become a growing issue among adolescents as they develop mentally and socially. While researchers have examined individual and technological predictors of smartphone addiction, few studies consider broader societal influences. This study explored how social pressures such as mimicry, coercion, and norms impact persistent conscious smartphone use (use stickiness) and unconscious smartphone use (use habit). A survey was administered in two phases to 309 college students at a university in Southern China to gather data on perceptions of social influences and their degree of smartphone overuse. The relationships were analysed using a structural equation model. The study confirms the impact of three social pressures - mimetic, coercive and normative - on adolescents' degree of smartphone overuse (use stickiness and use habit). The mimetic pressure positively impacted use stickiness but not use habit. The coercive pressure positively impacted both the use stickiness and the use habit. The normative pressure positively impacted use habit but not use stickiness. This study provides a novel perspective on overlooked social drivers of problematic smartphone tendencies among youth. Our study also provides insights for educators, parents, and policymakers to more effectively intervene in adolescent smartphone overuse.

Greenwashing behaviors in construction projects: there is an elephant in the room!

In the process of urbanization, a brisk building boom triggers a series of environmental problems. Construction contractors usually present environmentally fraudulent behaviors, i.e., greenwashing behaviors (GWBs), to legitimize their activities, ultimately hindering the sustainable development of the society. However, the formation mechanism of the contractors' GWBs is still unclear. Through the lens of fraud GONE theory (i.e., greed, opportunity, needs, and exposure), this study applies the multi-group structural equation model (SEM) and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to examine the formation mechanisms of GWBs. The results of SEM show the relationships between four fraud factors and GWBs. Additionally, the projects are grouped into three categories: government investment projects, private-public-partnership (PPP) projects, and private investment projects. The results of multi-group SEM reveal that the effects of four fraud factors differ significantly across projects with different investment characteristics. The results of fsQCA suggest that there are three typical driving mechanisms for GWBs. Furthermore, this study develops a project information transparency framework and a "greenwashing tree" to form a systematic understanding of GWBs. Finally, on these bases, this study provides targeted suggestions and policy recommendations for governing contractors' GWBs.

Entropy and institutional theory

Purpose

Once introduced and conceptualized as a factor that causes erosion and decay of social institutions and subsequent deinstitutionalization, the notion of entropy is at odds with predictions of institutional isomorphism and seems to directly contradict the tendency toward ever-increasing institutionalization. The purpose of this paper is to offer a resolution of this theoretical inconsistency by revisiting the meaning of entropy and reconceptualizing institutionalization from an information-theoretic point of view.

Design/methodology/approach

It is a theoretical paper that offers an information perspective on institutionalization.

Findings

A mistaken understanding of the nature and role of entropy in the institutional theory is caused by conceptualizing it as a force that counteracts institutional tendencies and acts in opposite direction. Once institutionalization and homogeneity are seen as a product of natural tendencies in the organizational field, the role of entropy becomes clear. Entropy manifests itself at the level of information processing and corresponds with increasing uncertainty and the decrease of the value of information. Institutionalization thus can be seen as a special case of an increase in entropy and a decrease of knowledge. Institutionalization is a state of maximum entropy.

Originality/value

It is explained why institutionalization and institutional persistence are what to be expected in the long run and why information entropy contributes to this tendency. Contrary to the tenets of the institutional work perspective, no intentional efforts of individuals and collective actors are needed to maintain institutions. In this respect, the paper contributes to the view of institutional theory as a theory of self-organization.

Does internationalization encourage state-owned enterprises to utilize subsidies to innovate? Evidence from high-tech and automobile manufacturing industries of Chinese listed companies

Purpose

Drawing on the resource-based view, institutional logic and isomorphic pressure theories, this study constructed a theoretical model to explore the correlations between government subsidies and innovation performance. Particularly, this study aims to investigate the moderating effects of ownership types and degree of internationalization on these relationships.

Design/methodology/approach

To empirically test the relationships, the authors use panel data from high-tech manufacturing and automobile manufacturing industries in Chinese A stock listed companies for the period 2011–2015 and performed regression analysis.

Findings

Results indicate that government subsidies positively enhance enterprises’ innovation performance; there is a big gap between government subsidies’ incentive effect on innovation performance between state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and private-owned enterprises (POEs); with the improvement of internationalization, the promotion effect of government subsidies on enterprise innovation performance is strengthened; there is a three-way interaction between government subsidies, degree of internationalization and ownership types, such that in the presence of a low degree of internationalization, there is a big gap in the incentive effect of government subsidies on the innovation performance of SOEs and POEs; in the presence of a high degree of internationalization, the gap is significantly reduced.

Originality/value

This is an empirical study on the impact mechanism of ownership types and internationalization on the relationship between government subsidies and innovation performance in China. It provides valuable insights to show how internationalization can dramatically improve SOEs’ efficiency disadvantages in the allocation of government subsidies to innovation activities.

Institutional inertia and practice variation

Purpose

Institutional theory had been developed for the purpose of explaining widespread diffusion, mimetic adoption and institutionalization of organizational practices. However, further extensions of institutional theory are needed to explain a range of different institutional trajectories and organizational responses since institutionalized standards constitute a minority of all diffusing practices. The study presents a theoretical framework which offers guidelines for explaining and predicting various adoption, variation and post-adoption scenarios.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper is primarily conceptual in nature, and the arguments are developed based on previous institutional theory and organizational change literature.

Findings

The notion of institutional inertia is proposed in order to provide a more detailed explanation of when and why organizations ignore, adopt, modify, maintain and abandon practices and the way intra-organizational institutional pressures shape, direct and constrain these processes. It is specified whether institutional inertia will be temporarily eclipsed or whether it will actively manifest itself during adoption, adaptation and maintaining attempts. The study distinguishes between four institutional profiles of organizational practices – institutionalized, institutionally friendly, neutral and contested practices – which can vary along three dimensions: accuracy, extensiveness and meaning. The variation and post-adoption outcomes for each of them can be completely characterized and predicted by only three parameters: the rate of institutional inertia, institutional profile of these practices and whether they are interpretatively flexible. In turn, an extent of intraorganizational institutional resistance to new practices is determined by their institutional profile and flexibility.

Practical implications

It is expected that proposed theoretical explanations in this paper can offer insights into these empirical puzzles and supply a broader view of organizational and management changes. The study’s theoretical propositions help to understand what happens to organizational practices after they are handled by organizations, thus moving beyond the adoption/rejection dichotomy.

Originality/value

The paper explores and clarifies the nature of institutional inertia and offers an explanation of its manifestation in organizations over time and how it shapes organizational practices in the short and long run. It challenges a popular assumption in organizational literature that fast and revolutionary transition is a prerequisite for successful change. More broadly, the typology offered in this paper helps to explain whether and how organizations can successfully handle and complete their change and how far they can depart from institutional norms.

DETERMINANTS AND RISK-TAKING BEHAVIOUR OF OUTSOURCING INNOVATION DECISION AND INTENSITY IN VIETNAM: MAKE, PURE OR HYBRID?

This study investigates determinants and risk-taking behaviour of outsourcing innovation decision as well as the intensity in Vietnam. Outsourcing decision consists of an exclusive make (Make), buy (Pure) or a combination of both internal and external knowledge acquisition (Hybrid) in the innovation strategies. We also define outsourcing innovation intensity as the proportion of costs used for outsourcing innovation. We distinguish these outsourcing strategies in relation to product and process innovation. Based on the unique survey data in Vietnam available in 2016, we highlight the importance of the firm-specific factors such as R&D intensity, exporting status, and share of qualified employees dedicated to R&D activities; the firms’ obstacles and objectives for innovation; and the information sources of innovation on the outsourcing innovation decision and intensity. The other striking finding is that outsourcing innovation is risk-taking behaviour, but outsourcing product innovation strategy is a less risky option as compared to the outsourcing process innovation in the case of Vietnamese enterprises.

Strategies for Attention to Diversity: Perceptions of Secondary School Teaching Staff

(1) Background: Attention to diversity constitutes an aspect that influences system quality and offers a perspective of the capacity of educational centres to respond to educational needs. The present study carried out an examination of the perceptions held by secondary school teachers and the level of importance conferred by them to the variables that should be integrated into plans and will influence the degree of compliance. (2) Methods: Quantitative descriptive research was performed using a survey to collect data from teachers at schools that had a Quality Management System available. (3) Results: Interaction with families is necessary to agree upon the centre’s objectives to address diversity and to define an optimisation strategy for resources in virtue of their availability within the centre. It is key to establish an appropriate teacher–student ratio to encourage compliance. (4) Conclusions: Teachers are the great pillars of quality education. Their perceptions are the route through which deficient aspects and the dimensions that must be improved when formulating these strategies can be recognised with attention to diversity.

How Does the Contingent Sustainability–Risk–Cost Relationship Affect the Viability of CSR? An Emerging Economy Perspective

Sustainability has become a core strategic initiative for firms in the global economy. Its key benefits aside, sustainability may increase a firm’s risks, undermining its prospective value. The intricate relationship among sustainability’s impact on various dimensions of firm risk is poorly understood, particularly for firms operating in emerging economies. The purpose of this study is to address this gap by developing a nuanced framework for the sustainability–risk relationship in various industries in emerging economies. A multi-method approach was used to collect both quantitative and qualitative data through interviews and site visits for supply chain members of four industries. A fuzzy AHP method was used to illustrate cross-industry differences in sustainability-induced firm risks. These differences are further illustrated through inductive, interpretive analysis of semi-structured interviews. Sustainability behaves as a limits-to-growth system and engenders different risk profiles across four industries. For all firms in emerging economy, sustainability initiatives increase various unanticipated risks. Thus, these firms must saliently tailor sustainability initiatives uniquely suitable for their industry to avoid compromising their value proposition. Insights gleaned from this study may assist both buyers from multinational corporations in the developed economy to propagate sustainability initiatives and suppliers in the emerging economy to implement sustainability initiatives more saliently.

CSR perception as a signpost for circular economy

Purpose

This paper aims to identify managerial implications for multinational corporations (MNCs) with regard to circular economy (CE) by using data on corporate social responsibility (CSR) perception in different types of market economies owing to diverse institutional contexts. These managerial implications can contribute to the linking of CSR and CE strategies for MNCs.

Design/methodology/approach

This is an empirical study with a mixed-methods approach using both quantitative and qualitative research elements. The varieties of capitalism (VOC) approach with its two kinds of market economies – liberal market economy (LME) and coordinated market economy (CME) – builds the theoretical foundation.

Findings

All three guiding hypotheses of the quantitative research part are confirmed, which are: there is a differing perception of CSR in the two kinds of VOC; LME corporations adopt a shareholder value perspective; and CME corporations adopt a stakeholder values perspective. Furthermore, the qualitative research part has identified several key success factors for strategically conducting CSR in nexus with CE.

Practical implications

The mentioned key success factors become managerial implications for MNCs aiming at strategically conducting CSR. Due to several crossing points between (strategic) CSR and CE, those implications are largely also eligible for CE.

Originality/value

The paper helps to propel empirical findings into a more up-to-date discourse of debate. By emphasizing that the institutional background is likely to have an effect on how CSR is perceived in different kinds of market economies, the research offers a proposition how to use CSR perception as a signpost for CE and fuel future research into this direction.

Mainstreaming Mental Health Care in 42 Countries

Abstract-Global consensus and national policies have emphasized deinstitutionalization, or a shift in providing mental health care from institutional to community settings. Yet, psychiatric hospitals and asylums receive the majority of mental health funding in many countries, at odds with research evidence that suggests that services should be delivered in the community. Our aim is to investigate the norms, actors, and strategies that influence the uptake of deinstitutionalization internationally. Our study is informed by prior literature on management and implementation science. The success and failure of mental health care operations depend on identifying and overcoming challenges related to implementing innovations within national contexts. We surveyed 78 experts spanning 42 countries on their knowledge and experiences in expanding community-based mental health care and/or downsizing institution-based care. We also asked them about the contexts in which said methods were implemented in a country. We found that mental health care, whether it is provided in institutions or in the community, does not seem to be standardized across countries. Our analysis also showed that moving deinstitutionalization forward requires meaningful engagement of three types of actors: government officials, health care professionals, and local experts. Progress toward deinstitutionalization depends on the partnerships formed among these actors and with diverse stakeholders, which have the potential to garner resources and to scale-up pilot projects. In conclusion, different countries have adapted deinstitutionalization in ways to meet idiosyncratic situations and population needs. More attention should be given to the management and implementation strategies that are used to augment treatment and preventive services.

From corner store to superstore: a historical analysis of Sainsbury’s co-evolution

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to explore the conceptualisation of co-evolution using a corporate history research approach. While the application of the co-evolutionary perspective to the organisational-environmental relationships has uncovered significant evidences, little is understood about how the co-evolutionary process occurs over time between organisations and their institutional environment.

Design/methodology/approach

A co-evolutionary corporate history approach in used, as the authors investigated Sainsbury’s historical trajectory, exploring the role specific family members played in the evolution of the firm and the co-evolution of Sainsbury’s with its environment. This research design framework encompasses longitudinal archival analysis which incorporates both external and internal engagement which fostered Sainsbury’s joint evolution.

Findings

The findings from this study clearly suggest that certain organisations can and do co-evolve with their environment. However, organisations need to build legitimate cases for co-evolution to occur. In addition, they need to acquire certain resources that can be used to stimulate changes within their institutional environment.

Originality/value

Through a corporate history archival analysis, this study presents a UK company’s evolutionary narrative. The authors contribute to the growing literature on co-evolution in management studies by presenting a detailed historical narrative and interpretation of Sainsbury’s evolution at different time periods.

The effects of organizational isomorphism on innovation performance through knowledge search in industrial cluster

Purpose

This paper aims to identify the relationships of both organizational isomorphism and knowledge search with the innovation performance of cluster enterprises. It also specifies the mechanism by which organizational isomorphism affects innovation performance, through knowledge search.

Design/methodology/approach

Firm-level data were collected with questionnaires distributed to cluster enterprises in Zhejiang Province, China, which produced 165 usable responses for the analysis. Both multiple regression analyses and structural equation modelling were used to test the hypotheses.

Findings

Normative isomorphism and mimetic isomorphism have inverse U-shaped effects on the innovation performance of cluster enterprises, as does exploratory knowledge search. Exploitative knowledge search and the balance between two types of knowledge search have positive effects on the innovation performance of cluster enterprises; exploratory and exploitative knowledge searches exert partial mediation effects between the organizational isomorphism and innovation performance of cluster enterprises. The mediating effect of knowledge search transforms the inverse U-shaped effect of normative isomorphism and mimetic isomorphism on innovation performance into a positive effect.

Originality/value

This study provides new insights into the effects of organizational isomorphism on innovation performance by showing the indirect influence of organizational isomorphism in clusters. The study proposes a strategic logic of moderate isomorphism, clarifies the innovative effect of different knowledge search modes and reveals the construction and management mechanisms of organizational isomorphism and knowledge search strategy of firms in clusters.

Examining organizations’ continued use of open source technologies

Purpose

Our knowledge of why organizations continue to use open source software (OSS) infrastructure technologies is relatively limited, and existing models appear inadequate to explain this continuance phenomenon given that they are set at the individual level and also do not take into account the unique characteristics of OSS. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

Using an institutional perspective, this paper posits that coercive (business value of IT) and normative (open source ideology (IDEO)) factors may be credited with sustaining the continued use of OSS technologies. The study argues that organizations that subscribe to IDEO are more likely to continue using OSS technologies. Survey data are collected from organizations that have implemented an OSS infrastructure technology and a moderated multiple regression analysis is performed to test the proposed hypotheses.

Findings

In addition to the business value provided by OSS technologies, adherence to IDEO also impacts decisions to continue using those technologies. The results suggest that once an OSS is implemented in an organization, IDEO can enhance organizations’ intentions to continue using such technologies, directly, as well as indirectly, by amplifying the impact of the perceived business value of the technology.

Originality/value

Much of extant literature on continued use focuses on end-user technologies. This paper is one of the first to focus on infrastructure technologies and examine organizations’ intentions to continue using those technologies by developing a parsimonious theory-driven model for examining organizations’ continued use intentions toward infrastructure IT. Additionally, much of open source research to date has been inwardly focused, and this paper is one of few empirical studies to focus on the demand or consumption side of OSS technologies.

Task and Institutional Influences on Managers' Mental Models of Competition

From institutional theory, we argue (a) that the competitive, or task environment may encourage divergence of management cognition between organizations, management functions and amongst senior managers, and (b) that the institutional environment may encourage cognitive convergence at the level of the industry, the strategic group and within institutionalized practices linked to management functions and level. Using management cognition of competition as a vehicle and two cognitive mapping methods, we test a series of competing propositions amongst 32 managers in the UK personal financial services industry, an industry that evidences both task and institutional characteristics. Our findings indicate neither the superiority of exclusively task nor institutional explanations of management cognition. However, the results do indicate some influence of the institutional environment, most noticeably through the convergence of mental models within middle managers across the industry. The results also indicate some influence of the task environment, through cognitive differences across organizations and greater differentiation amongst senior managers' mental models. We interpret our results by referring to the usefulness of distinguishing between task and institutional environments in management cognition and strategic management research.

The Co-evolution of Institutional Environments and Organizational Strategies: The Rise of Family Business Groups in the ASEAN Region

In this paper we consider Southeast Asian Family Business Groups (FBGs) as a form of business enterprise as well as existing theoretical accounts of their behaviour. To do so, we develop and describe a co-evolutionary framework that incorporates notions of interdependence, path dependence, and `system openness.' This co-evolutionary framework is used to anchor a case study describing the developmental paths of FBGs and their institutional environments. Because such neoevolutionary perspectives bring back into account adaptive behavior motivated by human agency and interests, they offer a promising means of capturing the dynamics (Fligstein and Freeland 1995) and complexity (Baum and Singh 1994) of the interaction between institutions and organizations.

Archetype Theory and the Changing Professional Organization: A Critique and Alternative

In recent years there has been growing interest in analysing processes of change in professional service organizations drawing on the concepts of archetype theory. In this article, our primary goal is to question the validity of these ideas. A key weakness, we argue, stems from the continued legacy of functionalism in this approach and the limited role given to human agency. A further problem is the uncritical generalization of assumptions about professional organization and change, especially in the context of public services. These difficulties, we suggest, bring into question the usefulness of archetype theory as a general model for understanding change. They also point to the need to develop alternative approaches to these issues. In this article such an alternative is outlined, combining recent advances in the social theory dealing with the relationship between agency and structure with ideas from the sociology of professions.

Is the Glass Ceiling Unbreakable?

The phenomenon of the glass ceiling is examined through the lenses of macro-organizational and sociological theory. Presented are several theoretical bases for viewing the glass ceiling and its perpetuation as the consequences of U.S. history, the distribution of capital among its people, the actions of the powerful that help them retain power, and the reality that the majority of the powerful in America have White maleness in common.

Institutions and Technology

The paper offers a fresh approach to the analysis of technology in organization through a critique of Orlikowski and Barley's assessment that institutional theory has the potential to bridge the social and material facets of organizational change when greater emphasis is placed on the materiality of technology. Through analysis of a major information and communication technologies outsourcing contract between UK Inland Revenue and Electronic Data Services, the authors follow institutional theory in problematizing studies in which technology is treated as a material cause or independent variable. But the approach commended by Orlikowski and Barley, they argue, is flawed by its unproblematized assumption of a separation between the physical and social aspects of technology. Drawing on the thinking of Laclau and Mouffe, the authors advocate an alternative framework that unsettles the commonsense, naturalized differentiation of the materiality of technology and the discursive field through which it is articulated and given meaning.

The Burden of History in the Family Business Organization

In this article we focus on the study of history through the use of narratives, within the context of the prevalent form of organization worldwide: the family business. Specifically we consider the dilemma of the impossible gift of succession using Nietzsche’s discussion of the burden of history and paralleling the story of a family business succession with that of Shakespeare’s King Lear. This way, we seek to make a contribution to organizational studies by answering recent calls to engage more with history in studies of business organizations. By implication, the study also initiates an integration of family business studies into organization studies.

Social Movement Organizations: A Metaphor for Strategic Actors in Institutional Fields

Faced with increasing real-time dislocation of institutionalized practices in empirical studies, it has become clear that neo-institutional theory is still ill-equipped to elucidate strategies of change in institutional fields. In this article, I endorse the claim that neo-institutional theory can both become more strategic and give a richer meaning to the strategy-formation process by integrating issues of ideology, power and agency in a political-cultural rhetoric of legitimation. Using the social movement metaphor to describe institutional change, I study incumbents and challengers as potentially antagonistic social movement organizations (SMOs) that strive to hegemonize entrepreneurship in fields. After having outlined a model linking institutional change to the strategy-formation process, I identify four archetypes of SMOs and strategic propensities, and illustrate the presented propositions about the incumbent SMO-challenger SMO dynamic using the case of emerging Internet challengers in the music industry.

Technical Efficiency or Adaptation to Institutionalized Expectations? The Adoption of ISO 9000 Standards in the German Mechanical Engineering Industry

In this paper we examine technical and internal organizational contingencies which encourage and discourage the adoption of institutionalized structural elements, namely ISO 9000 standards. The results show that the extent of customized production and a dominant influence of top management on quality control decisions reduce the likelihood of adopting ISO 9000 standards. However, the latter factor changes its influence significantly with greater organizational size and administrative intensity — two entities which increase the pressure to adapt to external expectations.

Transnational Institutions in Developing Countries: The Case of Iranian Civil Aviation

The proliferation of transnational institutions in the form of protocols, conventions, regimes and standards is a growing influence on organizational practice. Recent work on the origins and impact of transnational institutions focuses upon processes in ‘core’ states, but their influence in developing countries has not received much attention. In this paper we narrate a case study of the diffusion of two institutional regimes represented by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) and the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in Iranian civil aviation. The case study describes a seemingly frictionless and uncontested embedding of the emergent international aviation regime in post-World War II Iran and a severe challenge to those institutions in the years following Iran's Islamic revolution. We characterize the rise and decline of these regimes as a double process of institutionalization and de-institutionalization, and identify political and technical factors that drive institutional change. We discuss several theoretical and policy implications stemming from the experience of transnational aviation institutions in Iran.

Agency, Entrepreneurs, and Institutional Change. The Role of Strategic Choice and Institutionalized Practices in Organizations

One of the persistent problems facing institutional organization theory has been the question of how to deal with interest-driven behaviour and institutional change. If organizational structures and strategies are shaped by institutional environments, what is the role of `strategic choice' in the management of organizations? In this paper, my aim is to develop an integrative concept which theorizes the connection of strategic agency and institutions in a model of institutional change. I argue that, under market conditions, institutional rules and intentional rational agency can be conceptualized as antagonistic mechanisms that contradict each other, but, nevertheless, remain interdependent. The incorporation of a systematic place for interests does not weaken the main theoretical trait of institutional theory, but, on the contrary, demonstrates the importance of institutional rules for understanding institutional change in a comprehensive model. The notion of uncertainty is at the centre of this model. By referring to existing empirical findings of processes of institutional change, four propositions are developed and supported.

The Dominance of Firm-Level Competitive Pressures Over Functional-Level Institutional Pressures: The Case of the Finnish-Based Forest Industry Firms

Previous management and organization literature has recognized the contradictions between competitive and institutional pressures. Firms must simultaneously secure competitiveness by being different from their competitors, and legitimacy by being similar to them. While trade-offs between these conflicting pressures have been studied at the population and firm levels, little attention has been paid to the same phenomenon within firms. This paper suggests that, in order to achieve competitiveness at the firm level, firms need to deviate from some institutionally legitimate practices at the functional level. For example, we show how being strategically different at the firm level forces the Finnish-based forest industry firms to dismantle isomorphic practices in their organizational functions. Thus, we extend the previous work in this field by showing that the ability of firms to adopt and develop new practices is path-dependently biased in the sense that the firm-level definition of the strategic context can have a major impact on the types of organizational practices that are adopted, nurtured and abandoned within the functions.

Global Management Concepts and Local Adaptations: Working Groups in the French and German Car Manufacturing Industry

In this paper, the diffusion process and organizational consequences of management concepts that spread globally through an industry are analyzed. Taking the example of the working group concept, the organization of the final assembly of a sample of French and German car manufacturers is studied. It can be shown that, in both countries, working groups similar to the ones used in Japanese car companies are widely diffused in the car industry. It also becomes clear from the analysis that plants have been experimenting with working groups and have adjusted them to their proper needs; a process which we call `local adaptation'. Our results indicate that the local adaptation of working groups is brought about to a large extent by the institutional differences between countries. Because of diffusion and adaptation processes, isomorphic as well as idiosyncratic tendencies in organizational structures can be observed at the same time.

Dialogue and distributed agency in institutional transmission

In this paper we contribute to the body of work on agency and institutional transmission by proposing two new concepts: distributed agency and dialogue. Distributed agency is a companion concept to that of ‘institutional entrepreneurship’. Whilst institutional entrepreneurship emphasizes the deliberate institution-building by a select few, distributed agency highlights the emergent institution-building that involves any and every organizational member. In turn, dialogue supplements the models of institutional diffusion by drawing attention to the situated interactions between the ‘champions’ and the ‘recipients’ of institutional innovations, to the frictions that accompany institutional transmission, and to the deviations that emerge from those interactions. We use these concepts to analyze the micro-discursive processes during a crucial event in the institutionalization of a new organizational template in a UK public–private partnership. We found that the implementation hinged upon enabling the audience (i.e. the employees expected to apply the template in their work) to act as agents (hence, distributed agency) by engaging in a dialogue that sought to define the audience's identity vis-à-vis coercive pressures, articulate and address its interests, and recognize its rights to modify the template to suit the local circumstances.

Revisiting organizational age, inertia, and adaptability

Purpose

– The literature of organizational change hints that adaptability and inertia not only counterbalance but also reinforce each other, and the inertia-adaptability balance over time is nonlinear. The author aims to address this view more clearly by presenting a multi-stage conceptual model that delineates how adaptability and inertia take turns to override each other. In addition, data collected from over 400 nonprofit organizations within the USA were used to test this model.

Design/methodology/approach

– This study uses polynomial regression to examine the multi-stage conceptual model. More precisely, it tests how organizational age influences an organization's innovativeness, managerial risk aversion, and red tape.

Findings

– The findings support the multi-stage conceptual model. The results imply that organizational ecology and rational adaptation are mutually compatible perspectives in explaining organizational age dynamics.

Originality/value

– This study introduces a multi-stage model that more clearly examines how adaptability and inertia counterbalance and reinforce over time. More importantly, the author empirically examines the nonlinear organizational age dynamics using quantitative data.

Political Contestation at the Top: Politics of Outsider Succession at U.S. Corporations

One important trend in recent leadership transitions in major U.S. corporations has been the prevalence of outsider succession, where an executive from outside the firm is appointed CEO. Building on and extending the insights from political theories of organizations, this paper explores how the historical shift from managerial to investor capitalism has reshaped firm-level power dynamics over executive succession, contributing to the rise of outsider succession. Three developments were particularly crucial—the growth of institutional ownership, the strengthening of internal monitoring by the board, and the rise of shareholder activism. Using data on the complete histories of CEO succession at 686 large U.S. corporations between 1981 and 2005, this article shows how these new developments have pluralized firm-level power struggles over executive succession and thus have further politicized the process. The importance of firm-level power dynamics in the process suggests that a shift in the dominant institutional logic does not directly translate into a new corporate practice, but that such translation depends on the outcome of firm-level power dynamics.

Rogue Resistance: Sidestepping Isomorphic Pressures in a Patchy Institutional Field

My research suggests that organizational fields are patchy and uneven. This patchiness allows organizations at the margins of fields to sidestep pressures for conformity. As a case study, this paper examines the private school field in Toronto, Canada. Data come from interviews and site visits at 60 Toronto private schools. My findings suggest that Toronto’s private school field is segmented, incorporating diverse private school forms, including elite, religious, and ‘rogue’ (non-elite, non-religious) schools. Within one subfield – small rogue private schools – a high degree of heterogeneity exists. These findings suggest a nuanced conception of institutional fields, with more attention to organizational agency, multiple field logics and diversity among organizational forms. This paper examines how organizations at the margins of fields are able to evade pressures for conformity, and how a heterogeneous organizational field can also be comprised of clusters of homogeneity.

On the paradoxical balancing of panaceaism and particularism within the field of management learning

Besides commenting on the papers selected for this special issue, we include a brief reflexive account of our journey in compiling this special issue, and report how we were struck by the de-coupling between our own local practices, on the one hand, and the global concepts that are familiar in management learning, on the other. We pose some general questions about the representability and transportability of knowledge for management learning that has been developed in one context to other contexts around the world. We ask whether the so-called universalist theories are generally applicable, or whether they need to be applied differently by managers and educators, tailored to their local situations. We inquire whether management educators should embrace cultural relativism and deliberately craft theories that are intended only for local applicability. We consider whether a kind of ‘glocalization’, or absorption of global ideas into local contexts while honouring core features of the host culture, might be achieved. We call for further research into the conditions for user-centred translation in management education.

Institutional Continuity and the Dutch Construction Industry Fiddle

The article deals with the question of how institutional continuity is realized. It presents an analysis of the continuation of the institution of pre-consultation in the Dutch construction industry over a period of nine years, after this was declared illegal as a consequence of European Union regulations. The analysis utilizes a structuration-based practice approach to institutionalization. The findings suggest that institutional continuity is a matter of a social mechanism which emerges as a consequence of the particular way in which practices are enacted, and which has the effect of repairing and/or concealing contradiction so that change is not initiated.

Dialogue and distributed agency in institutional transmission

In this paper we contribute to the body of work on agency and institutional transmission by proposing two new concepts: distributed agency and dialogue. Distributed agency is a companion concept to that of ‘institutional entrepreneurship’. Whilst institutional entrepreneurship emphasizes the deliberate institution-building by a select few, distributed agency highlights the emergent institution-building that involves any and every organizational member. In turn, dialogue supplements the models of institutional diffusion by drawing attention to the situated interactions between the ‘champions’ and the ‘recipients’ of institutional innovations, to the frictions that accompany institutional transmission, and to the deviations that emerge from those interactions. We use these concepts to analyze the micro-discursive processes during a crucial event in the institutionalization of a new organizational template in a UK public–private partnership. We found that the implementation hinged upon enabling the audience (i.e. the employees expected to apply the template in their work) to act as agents (hence, distributed agency) by engaging in a dialogue that sought to define the audience's identity vis-à-vis coercive pressures, articulate and address its interests, and recognize its rights to modify the template to suit the local circumstances.

Organizational analysis of Canadian supported employment programs for people with psychiatric disabilities

Supported employment (SE) is widely considered to be the most effective intervention for helping people with psychiatric disabilities integrate into the competitive workforce. While fidelity to principles and standards of evidence-based SE, i.e., the Individual Placement and Support model, is positively associated with vocational outcomes, studies have revealed significant heterogeneity in SE programs implemented in Canada. This qualitative study thus aimed to shed light on organizational and contextual factors influencing SE implementation in three Canadian provinces (British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec). The study adopted several key concepts from the field of organizational studies (e.g., coalitions, archetypes, isomorphism) to guide data collection and analysis. Overall, 20 SE programs provided by 15 different agencies were examined. Findings revealed that agencies' exposure to different institutional pressures, their interactions and relationships with other groups and organizations, as well as their values, beliefs and ideologies played determining roles in shaping the evolution of SE services in each province.

The end of the information system life

Considerable information systems (IS) research has sought to understand the adoption, implementation, and use of information systems. In contrast, the literature offers only limited insight into end-of-life issues such as those surrounding the nature of, and basis for, organizational IS discontinuance. This situation, in conjunction with the dramatic impact that discontinuance can have on organizational performance and measures of system success, suggests a strong need for further research. Since the absence of sound theoretical frameworks can impede such research, this paper offers a theoretical model of IS discontinuance that seeks to account for organizational intention to discontinue the use of an information system. The model is based on the premise that forces contributing to the formation of discontinuance intentions are opposed by inertial tendencies in favor of the status quo. Environmental change and organizational initiative are posited to be the two broad forces driving an information system toward the end of its useful life. Organizational investments in the system, system embeddedness within the organization, and mimetic isomorphism are then seen to constrain the extent to which change forces lead to the emergence of organizational discontinuance intentions. A series of propositions are offered and related guidance is provided for those interested in pursuing further research. An exploration of how the proposed model can be generalized to other discontinuance decisions such as the decision to terminate the use of an IS standard or management practice is also offered for interested readers.

The Diffusion and Use of Institutional Theory: A Cross-Disciplinary Longitudinal Literature Survey

There is a plethora of theories to explore the disciplines of business, management and sociology, with institutional theory being widely used to explore a range of research challenges. In the area of Information Systems (IS), the use of institutional theory remains in its infancy, with much potential for adoption. Much of the rationale underpinning the proposed research is that a systematic review and synthesis of the normative literature may support the direction of further research and the use of institutional theory in exploring pertinent research challenges facing the IS community. This study also serves to signpost cross-disciplinary research, and thus opens up a whole new research paradigm. Therefore, this article seeks to provide a bibliometric analysis and a comprehensive and systematic review of the literature pertaining to institutional theory to ascertain the current ‘state of play’ of the theory. Information on a series of variables was extracted after conducting a review of 511 articles across various disciplines that have utilised institutional theory, published in 210 peer-reviewed journals between 1978 and 2008. The findings suggest that the positivist paradigm, empirical and quantitative research, the survey method and organisation/firm as a unit of analysis was used predominantly in combination with institutional theory. The results of this study may have implications for researchers, journal editors, reviewers and universities.

Domination in Organizational Fields: It’s Just Not Cricket

This article demonstrates how deep engagement with Bourdieu’s theory of the field enriches scholarly understanding of institutional processes. A historical narrative of institutional formation and change in firstclass County cricket in England as a field of restricted cultural production is presented. The narrative illustrates how focusing attention on the position of agents within the field, the relations of production within the field, and the social context, which includes social class, provides a path for analysis of institutional processes which is dynamic, multi-level and nuanced. Bourdieu’s conception of fields as a struggle for capital between agents strategizing to improve field position illuminates the importance of social class to institutional processes, an effect that has been under reported by the most popular approaches to institutionalization in the extant literature.

The challenges of the new institutional environment: an Australian case study of older volunteers in the contemporary non-profit sector

Increased emphasis on efficiency and regulation is changing the nature of the non-profit sector in western countries. In this paper, we explore the impact of these contemporary changes on older, more traditional volunteers. Specifically, we use neo-institutional theory as a framework to explore the micro-effect of these processes in one large, multi-service non-profit organisation in Australia. The findings of an ethnographic study are presented using an analytical template comprising: (1) the observational space; (2) the conversational order; (3) the content of talk; and (4) areas of resistance. Findings from these categories provided evidence of two institutional orders – one a traditional way of operating consistent with a charity model, and the other, a new, dominant approach driven by market forces. It was found that older, more traditional volunteers struggled to maintain the old order as well as to make the transition to the new order. If organisations are to benefit from a pool of potential volunteers and if older people are to benefit from the social and health advantages associated with productive ageing, there are important implications in these findings. Older people are able to make a successful transition to the new order, but organisations need to be more proactive in facilitating the change. In particular, organisations need to reject ageist cultures and practices, provide training and skills development, and to work collaboratively with older people.