What makes organizations so similar? We contend that the engine of rationalization and bureaucratization has moved from the competitive marketplace to the state and the professions. Once a set of organizations emerges as a field, a paradox arises: rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them. We describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative—leading to this outcome. We then specify hypotheses about the impact of resource centralization and dependency, goal ambiguity and technical uncertainty, and professionalization and structuration on isomorphic change. Finally, we suggest implications for theories of organizations and social change.

The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)

'Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony', American Journal of Sociology, 83, pp. 340-63.

Historically, management theory has ignored the constraints imposed by the biophysical (natural) environment. Building upon resource-based theory, this article attempts to fill this void by proposing a natural-resource-based view of the firm—a theory of competitive advantage based upon the firm's relationship to the natural environment. It is composed of three interconnected strategies: pollution prevention, product stewardship, and sustainable development. Propositions are advanced for each of these strategies regarding key resource requirements and their contributions to sustained competitive advantage.

A natural resource-based view of the firm

International strategy and business groups: A review and future research agenda

A major limitation of existing international business (IB) research remains the rather thin view of institutional context. In this retrospective, we reflect upon and highlight different strategies for overcoming de-contextualized perspectives and developing thicker conceptions of institutions drawing on comparative research. Institutions shape firm behavior not only through their direct or additive effects, but have more complex influences by moderating relationships between firm-level variables or having interactive or configurational effects related to wider sets of institutions. These views can each be extended by adopting a dynamic perspective examining how multinational enterprise (MNE) agency contributes to processes of institutional change. Ultimately, a large gap remains in taking institutions seriously that IB scholars could fill by developing middle-range theories that link and compare how particular kinds of institutions or institutional configurations influence particular kinds of MNE activities.

Comparing capitalisms and taking institutional context seriously

Technology policy influences the incentives and opportunities firms have to innovate and adapt to changing environments and thus has important implications for strategy and entrepreneurship. However, to date, strategy and entrepreneurship scholars have paid insufficient attention to technology policy. We underscore the importance of two dimensions of technology policy: (1) state funding for research and (2) state protection of intellectual property (IP). We then illustrate how interactions between these two dimensions of technology policy influence (1) the corporate entrepreneurship (CE) strategies through which firms innovate and adapt and (2) the political strategies through which they attempt to influence and secure the benefits of technology policy. Given differences in the goals, incentives, capabilities, and relative power among the various players affected by technology policy, our discussion contributes to a more thorough understanding of the dynamic interplay between government institutions and f...

Two-Way Streets: The Role of Institutions and Technology Policy in Firms’ Corporate Entrepreneurship and Political Strategies

This paper contributes to the resource dependence theory and corporate political activity literatures by distinguishing dependence from uncertainty and explaining how two different types of uncerta...

Resource Dependence, Uncertainty, and the Allocation of Corporate Political Activity across Multiple Jurisdictions

The Effects of Location and MNC Attributes on MNCs' Establishment of Foreign R&D Centers: Evidence from China

This study investigates the roles of the regulative, normative, and cognitive institutional pillars as perceived obstacles and facilitators of internationalization within an integrated region. Integrated regions involve efforts to create institutional similarities among member nations and encourage intra-regional trade. These efforts make integrated regions a theoretically interesting and important context for analyzing managerial perceptions of the institutional environment. We content analyze essays and questionnaires from managers in the East African Community (EAC) to compare the three pillars. Our findings suggest that managers perceive the regulative pillar to be the greatest source of institutional obstacles to expansion within the EAC. Interestingly, the managers also perceive the regulative pillar to be the greatest source of institutional facilitators of expansion within the EAC.

Trey Sutton

Papers

Two-Way Streets: The Role of Institutions and Technology Policy in Firms’ Corporate Entrepreneurship and Political Strategies

Resource Dependence, Uncertainty, and the Allocation of Corporate Political Activity across Multiple Jurisdictions

The Effects of Location and MNC Attributes on MNCs' Establishment of Foreign R&D Centers: Evidence from China

Institutional Factors Affecting Expansion within the East African Community: An Analysis of Managers’ Personal Stories

The Stakeholder Perspective in Strategic Management