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Showing papers in "Administrative Science Quarterly in 2019"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a theory about the management of precario workers is developed based on an inductive, qualitative study of independent workers, people not affiliated with an organization or established profession.
Abstract: Building on an inductive, qualitative study of independent workers—people not affiliated with an organization or established profession—this paper develops a theory about the management of precario...

316 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the combination of identities, forms, logics, or other core elements that would conventionally not go together is explored. Drawing on in-depth longitudinal data, the authors identify the core elements of an organization that need to be combined.
Abstract: Organizations increasingly grapple with hybridity—the combination of identities, forms, logics, or other core elements that would conventionally not go together. Drawing on in-depth longitudinal da...

312 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a nested multiple-case study of participating ventures, directors, and mentors of eight of the original U.S. accelerators was conducted to explore how accelerators' program designs influence new ventures' success.
Abstract: Using a nested multiple-case study of participating ventures, directors, and mentors of eight of the original U.S. accelerators, we explore how accelerators’ program designs influence new ventures’...

157 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is found that learning surgery through increasing participation using approved methods worked well in traditional (open) surgery, as current literature would predict, but the radically different practice of robotic surgery greatly limited trainees’ role in the work, making approved methods ineffective.
Abstract: I explore here how trainees in a community of practice learn new techniques and technologies when approved practices for learning are insufficient. I do so through two studies: a two-year, five-sit...

115 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors investigate the dispositional sources of managerial discretion by theorizing that CEOs' personality traits affect the extent to which their firms' strategies reflect their preferences, and they find that CEOs tend to be more likely to follow their preferences than their managers.
Abstract: We investigate the dispositional sources of managerial discretion by theorizing that CEOs’ personality traits affect the extent to which their firms’ strategies reflect their preferences. In a long...

101 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Socially responsible investing (SRI) is gaining traction in the financial sector, but it is unclear whether the dominant financial logic complements or competes with the social logic in the foundin... as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Socially responsible investing (SRI) is gaining traction in the financial sector, but it is unclear whether the dominant financial logic complements or competes with the social logic in the foundin...

91 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors develop a theory of how state officials' political incentives can affect corporate behavior, and show that the state design goals, such as social stability and economic development, can influence corporate behavior.
Abstract: We develop a theory of how state officials’ political incentives can affect corporate behavior. In the pursuit of multiple goals, such as social stability and economic development, the state design...

83 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Using the impact of the Soviet Union's collapse on the performance of theoretical mathematicians as a natural experiment, this paper attempted to resolve the controversy in prior research on whether speciali...
Abstract: Using the impact of the Soviet Union’s collapse on the performance of theoretical mathematicians as a natural experiment, we attempt to resolve the controversy in prior research on whether speciali...

67 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors used a study of the Swiss mechanical watch industry to build theory about how a legacy technology, instead of being supplanted by a new dominant design as current theory would predict, could be replaced by a newer design.
Abstract: This article uses a study of the Swiss mechanical watch industry to build theory about how a legacy technology, instead of being supplanted by a new dominant design as current theory would predict,...

66 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is shown that the effectiveness of updating depends not only on how teams remake sense but also on how they engage in trajectory management, balancing the work of updating with their ongoing work (in this case, patient care).
Abstract: This study examines how updating—the process of revising provisional sensemaking to incorporate new cues—occurs within teams during unexpected events. I compare how 19 teams of emergency department...

59 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors theorize that foreign multinationals wield a particularly significant competitive weapon in host markets: as outsiders, they can pinpoint social schisms in host labor markets and exploit them to gain competitive advantage.
Abstract: We theorize that foreign multinationals wield a particularly significant competitive weapon in host markets: as outsiders, they can pinpoint social schisms in host labor markets and exploit them fo...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the conditions under which an emergent category of organizations comes to receive state support are investigated, and the emergence of new industries is often attributed to state support, but little is known about the conditions in which such organizations emerge.
Abstract: Although the emergence of new industries is often attributed to state support, little is known about the conditions under which an emergent category of organizations comes to receive state support ...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper analyzed qualitative data collected from in-depth interviews with sustainability managers in 21 case study organizations in India and Australia, supplemented with archival and observational data, and identified three organizational configurations, with varying levels of top-down structural and bottom-up managerial discretion dynamics at play.
Abstract: As new roles emerge in organizations, it becomes critical to understand how organizational structure can impede or enable the managerial discretion available to role incumbents. We leverage the rich context provided by the emergent role of sustainability managers to examine the interplay between the top-down forces of structure and the bottom-up influences of managerial discretion in shaping new organizational roles over time. We analyzed qualitative data collected from in-depth interviews with sustainability managers in 21 case study organizations in India and Australia, supplemented with archival and observational data. We identified three organizational configurations, with varying levels of top-down structural and bottom-up managerial discretion dynamics at play. Each configuration had different implications for the manager’s role. Our analysis suggests that the third configuration—with semi-structured formalization and a decentralized sustainability program—provided the most conducive conditions for ...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Trust can emerge from two sources: knowledge or evidence that is meaningful in the context of an occupation or an organization as discussed by the authors. But trust can also emerge from both knowledge and evidence.
Abstract: Some occupations and organizations rely heavily on trust, as their members’ roles involve risk and are interdependent. Trust can emerge from two sources: knowledge or evidence that is meaningful in...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, an in-depth, historically embedded study of the craft revolution in Dutch beer brewing that began in the 1970s is presented, illuminating how organizational fields may experience regenerative change.
Abstract: Through an in-depth, historically embedded study of the craft revolution in Dutch beer brewing that began in the 1970s, we illuminate how organizational fields may experience regenerative change th...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The authors investigates what happens when a prominent leader explicitly reaffirms the taken-for-granted assumptions underlying an institution, while such efforts are usually made to reinforce the assumption underlying the institution.
Abstract: This study investigates what happens when a prominent leader explicitly reaffirms the taken-for-granted assumptions underlying an institution. While such efforts are usually made to reinforce the i...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors develop theory on how a contentious moral market can develop, and test it with data from a study of the commercialization of Buddhist temples in China from 2006 to 2016.
Abstract: We develop theory on how a contentious moral market can develop, and we test it with data from a study of the commercialization of Buddhist temples in China from 2006 to 2016, as local government o...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper examined how partners in dual-career couples shape the development of each other's professional identities and how they experience and interpret their professional identities through a qualitative study of 50 dual career couples.
Abstract: Through a qualitative study of 50 dual-career couples, we examine how partners in such couples shape the development of each other’s professional identities and how they experience and interpret th...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the role of external auditors in the diffusion of stock-option backdating in the U.S. was examined and found to be highly responsive to the institutional environment.
Abstract: I study the role of external auditors in the diffusion of stock-option backdating in the U.S. to explore the role of professional experts in the diffusion of innovative practices that subvert stakeholders’ interests. Practices that are eventually accepted as misconduct may emerge as liminal practices—ethically and legally questionable but not clearly illegitimate or outlawed—and not be categorized as misconduct until social control agents notice, scrutinize, and react to them. I examine how the role of external auditors in the diffusion of stock-option backdating changed as the practice shifted from liminality to being illegal and illegitimate. The findings suggest that professional experts’ involvement in the diffusion of liminal practices is highly responsive to the institutional environment. Initially, professional experts diffuse these practices via local networks, but when the legal environment becomes more stringent, implying that the practice will become illegitimate, experts reverse their role and...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors explain how the rise of financial economics and agency-theoretic logic in business education changed students' views about diversification and argue that changes that occurred in a closely related domain (graduate business education) are important in understanding variation in de-diversification across firms.
Abstract: Once a preferred strategy, corporate diversification into disparate lines of business has gradually declined in the U.S. over the past several decades. We argue that changes that occurred in a closely related domain—graduate business education—are important in understanding variation in de-diversification across firms. Building on a historical account of the transformation of business education, we explain how the rise of financial economics and agency-theoretic logic in business education changed students’ views about diversification. Nearly 20 years later, these MBA graduates rose to top decision-making positions and put the brakes on diversification. Using data on CEOs who ran 640 large U.S. corporations from 1985 to 2015, we show that CEOs who earned an MBA before the 1970s actively pursued diversification, whereas the next cohort of CEOs, who had been exposed to agency-theoretic logic in financial economics, refrained from it. We also demonstrate that the degree of managerial discretion moderated the...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that managers can accomplish micro-level institutional change in professional organizations using “subordinate activation tactics”—first empowering and motivating subordinate semi-professionals to activate their favorable structural position vis-à-vis the targeted professionals on behalf of managers and next giving semi-Professionals positional tools to use in their daily work to minimize the targeted Professionals’ concerns about the threats associated with change.
Abstract: This two-year ethnographic study of the primary care departments in two U.S. hospitals examines how managers can bring about micro-level institutional change in professional practice even when such...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors conceptualize internal social comparisons as an upstream competitive process that shapes performance aspirations and creates interdependencies in search behavior, and show how internal social comparison affects adaptation and performance through two mechanisms: a balancing effect whereby the organization is guaranteed to contain both exploring and exploiting units, and a stabilizing effect whereby internal social comparision protects against abandoning existing technologies too early.
Abstract: Intra-organizational comparisons—managers and units benchmarking their performance against each other—can turn colleagues into competitors. To better understand when organizations should allow or even encourage internal social comparisons, we study their implications for organizational adaptation and performance. We conceptualize internal social comparisons as an upstream competitive process that shapes performance aspirations and creates interdependencies in search behavior. We distinguish this from downstream, product market competition or complementarities where performance is interdependent across units. Integrating both aspects into a computational model, we show how internal social comparisons affect adaptation and performance through two mechanisms: a balancing effect whereby the organization is guaranteed to contain both exploring and exploiting units, and a stabilizing effect whereby internal social comparisons protect against abandoning existing technologies too early. The benefits of upstream c...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine changes in the effectiveness of local civic action in relation to changes over time in racial diversity and income inequality, and find that within-county increases in race and income inequalities are associated with diminished campaign effectiveness.
Abstract: We examine changes in the effectiveness of local civic action in relation to changes over time in racial diversity and income inequality. Local civic action comprises situations in which community members come together—typically with support from local organizations—to address common issues. The collective orientation of local civic action makes it sensitive to changes in local social conditions. As these changes unfold, local organizations become differentially able to support civic action. Here, our core argument features the process through which community members associate with different local organizations and how mandated versus voluntary association results in distinct responses to increased social and economic heterogeneity. We test this argument using three decades of data describing local campaigns of the annual Trick-or-Treat for UNICEF program. A baseline model shows that within-county increases in racial diversity and income inequality are associated with diminished campaign effectiveness. Su...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Based on a longitudinal qualitative analysis of developments in the English National Health Service, this paper developed a process model of how organizations divest or spin off units with the aim of creating new units.
Abstract: Based on a longitudinal, qualitative analysis of developments in the English National Health Service, we develop a process model of how organizations divest or spin off units with the aim of establ...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: While scholars have shown that well-connected applicants are advantaged in selection processes, less understood is whether such applicants produce important returns to the organization when key dec... as mentioned in this paper ].
Abstract: While scholars have shown that well-connected applicants are advantaged in selection processes, less understood is whether such applicants produce important returns to the organization when key dec...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Organizational impression management theory traditionally explains how firms manage threats from specific events or from campaigns orchestrated by noncompetitors, such as activists or regulators, this article,...
Abstract: Organizational impression management theory traditionally explains how firms manage threats from specific events or from campaigns orchestrated by non-competitors, such as activists or regulators, ...

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This paper revisited prior assumptions that not being understood raises challenges for employees, examining how political ideologies powerfully affect how employees deal with being not understood, and how political ideology affects how employees understand themselves.
Abstract: Drawing on information processing theory, I revisit prior assumptions that not being understood raises challenges for employees, examining how political ideologies powerfully affect how employees w...