How Institutions Think
05 Oct 2010-Society and Business Review (Emerald Group Publishing Limited)-Vol. 5, Iss: 3, pp 309-314
About: This article is published in Society and Business Review.The article was published on 2010-10-05. It has received 331 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Analogy.
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TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined how large-scale social movements external to an industry can influence the creation of new market opportunities and hence encourage entrepreneurship in the U.S. wind energy sector, and found that the direct and indirect effects of social resources (e.g., environmental groups) had a larger impact on entrepreneurial activity in this sector than the availability of natural resources such as land with high-quality wind.
Abstract: Through a study of the emergent U.S. wind energy sector, 1978–1992, this paper examines how large-scale social movements external to an industry can influence the creation of new market opportunities and hence encourage entrepreneurship. We theorize that through the construction and propagation of cognitive frameworks, norms, values, and regulatory structures, and by offering a preexisting social structure, social movement organizations influence whether entrepreneurs attempt to start ventures in emerging sectors. We find that the direct and indirect effects of social resources (e.g., environmental groups) had a larger impact on entrepreneurial activity in this sector than the availability of natural resources such as land with high-quality wind. Greater numbers of environmental movement organization members increased nascent entrepreneurial activity, and this effect was mediated by favorable state regulatory policy. Greater membership numbers also enhanced the effects of important natural resources, mark...
569 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, an epistemological positioning of consumer culture theory research beyond the lived experience of consumers is proposed, which explicitly connects the structuring of macro-social explanatory frameworks with the phenomenology of lived experiences, thereby inscribing the micro-social context accounted for by the consumer in a larger sociohistorical context based on the researcher's theoretica.
Abstract: This paper argues for an epistemological positioning of Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) research beyond the lived experience of consumers. CCT, it is argued, brought sociocultural context to consumer research, not least through the introduction of existential phenomenology as a paradigm for CCT studies. However, it is time to expand the contextualization of lived consumer experiences with another contextualization, this time the one of systemic and structuring influences of market and social systems that is not necessarily felt or experienced by consumers in their daily lives, and therefore not necessarily discursively expressed. There is a need to take into consideration the context of context. We therefore suggest an epistemology for CCT that explicitly connects the structuring of macro-social explanatory frameworks with the phenomenology of lived experiences, thereby inscribing the micro-social context accounted for by the consumer in a larger socio-historical context based on the researcher’s theoretica...
488 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors discuss how sense is made through discourse, the politics from which social forms of sensemaking emerge and the power that is inherent in it, the intertwined and recursive nature of micro-macro sensemaking processes, the strong ties which bind sensemaking and identities, and the role of sense-making processes in decision making and change.
Abstract: Sensemaking’ is an extraordinarily influential perspective with a substantial following among management and organization scholars interested in how people appropriate and enact their ‘realities’. Organization Studies has been and remains one of the principal outlets for work that seeks either to draw on or to extend our understanding of sensemaking practices in and around organizations. The contribution of this paper is fourfold. First, we review briefly what we understand by sensemaking and some key debates which fracture the field. Second, we attend critically to eight papers published previously in Organization Studies which we discuss in terms of five broad themes: (i) how sense is made through discourse; (ii) the politics from which social forms of sensemaking emerge and the power that is inherent in it; (iii) the intertwined and recursive nature of micro-macro sensemaking processes; (iv) the strong ties which bind sensemaking and identities; and (v) the role of sensemaking processes in decision making and change. Third, while not designed to be a review of extant literature, we discuss these themes with reference to other related work, notably that published in this journal. Finally, we raise for consideration a number of potentially generative topics for further empirical and theory-building research.
360 citations
Cites background from "How Institutions Think"
...…studies is associated primarily with the pioneering work of Weick (1969, 1993), other key contributors to this literature include a range of scholars who have studied actors’ quotidian practices of meaning-making (e.g. Berger & Luckmann, 1966; Douglas, 1986; Garfinkel, 1967; Polanyi, 1967)....
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...Although sensemaking in organization studies is associated primarily with the pioneering work of Weick (1969, 1993), other key contributors to this literature include a range of scholars who have studied actors’ quotidian practices of meaning-making (e.g. Berger & Luckmann, 1966; Douglas, 1986; Garfinkel, 1967; Polanyi, 1967)....
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TL;DR: In this article, a controversy emerging from a nuclear accident which involved a large European energy company and sparked public debate on the legitimacy of nuclear power is analyzed, and the authors elaborate a process model of institutional repair that explains the role of agents and the structural constraints they face in attempting to maintain legitimacy.
Abstract: We build on Boltanski and Thevenot's theory of justification to account for the ways in which different stakeholder groups actively engage with discourses and objects to maintain the legitimacy of institutions that are relevant to their activity. We use this framework to analyse a controversy emerging from a nuclear accident which involved a large European energy company and sparked public debate on the legitimacy of nuclear power. Based on the findings, we elaborate a process model of institutional repair that explains the role of agents and the structural constraints they face in attempting to maintain legitimacy. The model enhances institutional understandings of legitimacy maintenance in three main respects: it proposes a view of legitimacy maintenance as a controversy-based process progressing through stakeholders' justifications vis-a-vis a public audience; it demonstrates the role of meta-level 'orders of worth' as multiple modalities for agreement which shape stakeholders' public justifications during controversies; and it highlights the capacities that stakeholders deploy in developing robust justifications out of a plurality of forms of agreement.
348 citations
Cites background from "How Institutions Think"
...…of a discursive approach to institutions, which emphasizes the role of language, rhetoric, and analogical reasoning in shaping legitimacy processes (Alvesson, 1993; Cornelissen and Clarke, 2010; Douglas, 1986; Etzion and Ferraro, 2010; Green, 2004; Green et al., 2009; Phillips et al., 2004)....
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...Orders of worth provide sensegiving mechanisms (Douglas, 1986; Gioia and Chittipeddi, 1991; Rouleau, 2005), which furnish relevant stakeholders with discursive © 2011 The Authors Journal of Management Studies © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd and Society for the Advancement of Management Studies and…...
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a close analysis of a large private autobiography of a former manager and show that identity work simultaneously uses discursively available narratives and creates new narratives (many small stories being embedded in one large... ).
Abstract: To study and better understand people's working lives and organizational involvement in the context of their whole lives and in the context of the societal culture in which they have grown up and now live, it is helpful to bring together three key concepts of narrative, identity work and the social construction of reality. Such a move can be connected to the abandonment of widely used but limiting concepts, such as that of`managerial identity'. The essentially sociological nature of this move also provides an antidote to the equally limiting tendency towards the `narrative imperialism' which is associated with the idea of the `narrative self'. The value of the suggested theoretical framing and its linking of narrative, identity work and social construction is demonstrated by the close analysis of a large private autobiography of a former manager. This individual's identity work simultaneously uses discursively available narratives and creates new narratives (many small stories being embedded in one large ...
344 citations
Cites result from "How Institutions Think"
...In a manner similar to Douglas (1987), in her observation that institutions ‘think for us’, we might say that cultures do a lot of our worrying for us – including our worrying about who we are....
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References
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TL;DR: This article found evidence that cultural cognition shapes individuals' beliefs about the existence of scientific consensus and the process by which they form such beliefs, relating to climate change, the disposal of nuclear wastes, and the effect of permitting concealed possession of handguns.
Abstract: Why do members of the public disagree - sharply and persistently - about facts on which expert scientists largely agree? We designed a study to test a distinctive explanation: the cultural cognition of scientific consensus. The "cultural cognition of risk" refers to the tendency of individuals to form risk perceptions that are congenial to their values. The study presents both correlational and experimental evidence confirming that cultural cognition shapes individuals' beliefs about the existence of scientific consensus, and the process by which they form such beliefs, relating to climate change, the disposal of nuclear wastes, and the effect of permitting concealed possession of handguns. The implications of this dynamic for science communication and public policy-making are discussed.
978 citations
01 Jan 2010
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors apply the bricolage concept to social entrepreneurial action and propose an extended theoretical framework of social bricolages, identifying three additional constructs associated with social entrepreneurship: social value creation, stakeholder participation, and persuasion.
Abstract: Current theorizations of bricolage in entrepreneurship studies require refinement and development to be used as a theoretical framework for social entrepreneurship. Our analysis traces bricolage’s conceptual underpinnings from various disciplines, identifying its key constructs as making do ,a refusal to be constrained by limitations, and improvisation. Although these characteristics appear to epitomize the process of creating social enterprises, our research identifies three further constructs associated with social entrepreneurship: social value creation, stakeholder participation, and persuasion. Using data from a qualitative study of eight U.K. social enterprises, we apply the bricolage concept to social entrepreneurial action and propose an extended theoretical framework of social bricolage.
692 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined how large-scale social movements external to an industry can influence the creation of new market opportunities and hence encourage entrepreneurship in the U.S. wind energy sector, and found that the direct and indirect effects of social resources (e.g., environmental groups) had a larger impact on entrepreneurial activity in this sector than the availability of natural resources such as land with high-quality wind.
Abstract: Through a study of the emergent U.S. wind energy sector, 1978–1992, this paper examines how large-scale social movements external to an industry can influence the creation of new market opportunities and hence encourage entrepreneurship. We theorize that through the construction and propagation of cognitive frameworks, norms, values, and regulatory structures, and by offering a preexisting social structure, social movement organizations influence whether entrepreneurs attempt to start ventures in emerging sectors. We find that the direct and indirect effects of social resources (e.g., environmental groups) had a larger impact on entrepreneurial activity in this sector than the availability of natural resources such as land with high-quality wind. Greater numbers of environmental movement organization members increased nascent entrepreneurial activity, and this effect was mediated by favorable state regulatory policy. Greater membership numbers also enhanced the effects of important natural resources, mark...
569 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, an epistemological positioning of consumer culture theory research beyond the lived experience of consumers is proposed, which explicitly connects the structuring of macro-social explanatory frameworks with the phenomenology of lived experiences, thereby inscribing the micro-social context accounted for by the consumer in a larger sociohistorical context based on the researcher's theoretica.
Abstract: This paper argues for an epistemological positioning of Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) research beyond the lived experience of consumers. CCT, it is argued, brought sociocultural context to consumer research, not least through the introduction of existential phenomenology as a paradigm for CCT studies. However, it is time to expand the contextualization of lived consumer experiences with another contextualization, this time the one of systemic and structuring influences of market and social systems that is not necessarily felt or experienced by consumers in their daily lives, and therefore not necessarily discursively expressed. There is a need to take into consideration the context of context. We therefore suggest an epistemology for CCT that explicitly connects the structuring of macro-social explanatory frameworks with the phenomenology of lived experiences, thereby inscribing the micro-social context accounted for by the consumer in a larger socio-historical context based on the researcher’s theoretica...
488 citations
TL;DR: The authors argue that creating novel ventures consists of inductive analogical or metaphorical reasoning, which generates a platform for the creation and commercialization of novel ventures and facilitates the comprehension and justification of a venture.
Abstract: We argue that creating novel ventures consists of inductive analogical or metaphorical reasoning, which generates a platform for the creation and commercialization of novel ventures and facilitates the comprehension and justification of a venture. We argue that such inductive reasoning is shaped by two determinants (the applicability of prior entrepreneurial experience and the motivation to resolve uncertainty and acquire legitimacy) that interrelate to predict and explain patterns of analogical and metaphorical reasoning by which novice and experienced entrepreneurs construct meaning for themselves as well as others in the early stages of creating a venture.
411 citations