Institutional theory has risen to prominence as a popular and powerful explanation for both individual and organizational action. It is a vibrant theory that has heen synthesized and contrasted with a number of other approaches. Although its scope has certainly heen expanded, institutional theory has often been criticized as largely being used to explain hoth the persistence and the homogeneity of phenomena. We helieve that this focus did little to tap the full power or potential of institutional theory. We find, for example, that institutions change over time, are not ttniformly taken-forgranted, have effects that are particularistic, and are challenged as well as hotly contested. Thus, we acknowledge that although institutions serve both to powerfully drive change and to shape the nature of change across levels and contexts, they also themselves change in character and potency over time. It was in this spirit that we put forth a call for papers on the study of institutional theory and institutional change. We also believed that the topic of institutional change has emerged as a central focus for organizational researchers. Therefore, we sought to provide new understandings of the manner in which institutions are created, transformed, and extinguished and the way in which institutional processes interact to affect institutional change. We received over 75 manuscripts for review. In-

Institutional theory and institutional change: introduction to the special research forum

Thanks to the ready availability of political news today, informed citizens can protect and promote their own interests and the public interest more effectively. Or can they? Murray Edelman argues against this conventional interpretation of politics, one that takes for granted that we live in a world of facts and that people react rationally to the facts they know. In doing so, he explores in detail the ways in which the conspicuous aspects of the political scene are interpretations that systematically buttress established inequalities and interpretations already dominant political ideologies.

Constructing the Political Spectacle

The institutional entrepreneurship implicit in a firm's sponsorship of its technology as a common standard is beset by several challenges. These challenges arise from a standard's property to enabl...

/pdf/institutional-entrepreneurship-in-the-sponsorship-of-common-550assopyn.pdf

Institutional entrepreneurship in the sponsorship of common technological standards: The case of Sun Microsystems and Java

Is 'Europeanization' as disappointing a term as it is fashionable? Should it be abandoned, or is it useful for understanding European transformations? Five uses are discussed and it is argued that research need not be hampered by competing definitions as long as their meaning, the phenomena in focus, the simplifying assumption used, the models of change and the theoretical challenges involved, are clarified and kept separate. The research challenge is one of model building, not one of inventing definitions. While it is premature to abandon the term, its usefulness may be more limited than its widespread use could indicate. Europeanization may be less useful as an explanatory concept than as an attention-directing device and a starting point for further exploration.

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Delivery.cfm/JCMS403.pdf?abstractid=369690&mirid=5

The Many Faces of Europeanization

http://nurmandi.staff.umy.ac.id/files/2012/02/10.1.1.108.71611.pdf

An institutional perspective on performance measurement and management in the `new public sector'

In this insightful discussion of the phenomenon of standardization in organizations and society at large, the authors regard standards as a form of regulation enabling a higher degree of global o ...

A World of Standards

The Contemporary Expansion of Standardization

This paper attempts to trace connections between budget processes taking place in concrete organizations and the cultural context in which the organizations are located. The examples are taken mainly from studies of the Swedish public sector. The research perspective adopted depicts budgeting as a symbolic performance rather than a decision-making process; a means of conversion rather than a means of control; and an expression of values rather than an instrument for action. From this point of view, linking budgeting to a cultural context means looking at which symbols, what language and which values are represented in particular budget processes. Budget processes are seen as a ritual of reason, reflecting the high value which is attached to rationality in Sweden in general and in the public sector in particular. We also claim that budgeting — a language of numbers — is also a language of consensus, which permits the handling of potential conflicts without confrontation. Finally, we analyze the recurrent changes of dominant budget forms as being congruent with the culture of “reformism” which seems to typify the area in which we are interested.

Budget in a cold climate.

It is a challenge to improve public health within limited resources. Pharmaceutical policy making is a greater challenge due to conflicting interests between key stakeholder groups. This paper reviews current and future strategies to help improve the quality and efficiency of care, with special emphasis on demand-side controls for pharmaceutical prescribing. A large number of different educational, organizational, financial and regulatory strategies have been applied in pharmaceutical policy making. However, the effectiveness of most strategies has not been thoroughly evaluated and there is evidence that the behaviour of healthcare professionals is difficult to influence with traditional methods. During the last decades, new modes of governing and new governing constellations have also appeared in healthcare. However, relationships between those who regulate and those regulated are often unclear. New approaches have recently been introduced, including extensive dissemination strategies for guidelines and extensive quality assessment programmes where physicians' performances are measured against agreed standards or against each other. The main components of these 'soft regulations' are standardization, monitoring and agenda setting. However, the impact of these new modes on health provision and overall costs is often unknown, and the increased focus on monitoring may result in a higher conformity and uniformity that may not always benefit all key stakeholders. Alongside this, a substantial growth of auditing associations controlling a diminishing minority of people actually performing the tasks may be costly and counter-productive. As a result, new effective strategies are urgently needed to help maintain comprehensive healthcare without prohibitively raising taxes or insurance premiums. This is especially important where countries are faced with extreme financial problems. Healthcare researchers may benefit from researching other areas of society. However, any potential strategies initiated must be adequately researched, debated and evaluated to enhance implementation. We hope this opinion paper is the first step in the process to develop and implement new demand-side initiatives building on existing 'soft regulations'.

Soft regulations in pharmaceutical policy making: an overview of current approaches and their consequences.

A comparative analysis of the impact of the European Union on central government administration: uses a transformative perspective to examine changes as countries adapt to increased EU integration.

Bengt Jacobsson

Papers

A World of Standards

The Contemporary Expansion of Standardization

Budget in a cold climate.

Soft regulations in pharmaceutical policy making: an overview of current approaches and their consequences.

Europeanization and Transnational States: Comparing Nordic Central Governments