The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields (Chinese Translation)
01 Jan 2008-
TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that rational actors make their organizations increasingly similar as they try to change them, and describe three isomorphic processes-coercive, mimetic, and normative.
Abstract: 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.
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Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this article, a case study of an Italian SME active in the steel industry that successfully changed its institutionally sound, but increasingly inefficient, IT sourcing practice is presented, which suggests that by attending steadily to institutional logics, organizations can become selective in how the institutional environment influences them and act more purposefully in their decisions.
Abstract: Organizations are limited in their choices by the institutional environment in which they operate. This is particularly true for IT sourcing decisions that go beyond cost considerations and are constrained by traditions, geographical location, and social networks. This article investigates how a company can disentangle itself from the constraints of the institutional environment. We do so drawing on a longitudinal case study of an Italian SME active in the steel industry that successfully changed its institutionally sound, but increasingly inefficient, IT sourcing practice. Our main result suggests that by attending steadily to institutional logics, organizations can become selective in how the institutional environment influences them and act more purposefully in their decisions. In particular, through the creation of companywide IT management competencies and targeted hiring practices, organizations can strike a balance between the different institutional logics guiding IT sourcing decisions and eventually shift from the dominant logic of localism to a logic of market efficiency. This change does not depend from a choice but rather builds on a process through which IT management competences are slowly integrated in the organization.
8 citations
Dissertation•
22 Oct 2019
TL;DR: In this article, Tesis Doctoral analyzes the impact of Sustentabilidad and Responsabilidad Social Corporativa (RSSC) on the performance of companies in the context of the Global Fortune 500.
Abstract: La presente Tesis Doctoral busca analizar la implementacion de las variables Sustentabilidad y Responsabilidad Social Corporativa dentro del marco de la Teoria Stakeholder. Dicha teoria establece que las companias que operan siguiendo la pauta que le indican sus partes involucradas: accionistas, empleados, clientes y sociedad en general; sus resultados financieros deben ser mejores. Al considerar este supuesto es donde la implementacion de las bases de Sustentabilidad y Responsabilidad Social entran como demandas de la sociedad en general de necesitar un entorno ambiental favorable y que se sigan los preceptos eticos que rigen a la mayor parte de las sociedades modernas. Destacando asi de manera especial que estos factores son actualmente un pilar fundamental de los consumidores a la hora de tomar una decision de compra de cualquier producto.
El analisis se llevo a cabo desde una optica contable, al considerar unicamente los margenes de rentabilidad operativos, puesto que la Sustentabilidad y la Responsabilidad Social Corporativa son variables que deben ser analizados dentro de la operatividad y no desde una optica de mercados. En vista de lo anterior, es que se analizaron los margenes: EBITDA, EBIT, Pre-Tax y Net Income para poder visualizar el desarrollo de los gastos operativos y su evolucion conforme al seguimiento de la operatividad de las empresas. Se analizaron tres sectores industriales de forma individual: Manufactura, Servicios y Automotriz, con el fin de agrupar dentro de un mismo cluster a los participantes reduciendo asi las discrepancias y la volatilidad intra sectorial. Posteriormente se llevo a cabo un analisis sobre las relaciones que guardan los valores de Ecoeficiencia con respecto al Riesgo Operativo y a la Utilidad Operativa tomando como referencia a las empresas pertenecientes al Global Fortune 500.
Para el analisis individual de los clusteres mencionados, se realizaron dos pruebas estadisticas utilizando metodos longitudinales multivariantes para poder comparar dentro de cada cluster a los participantes que han recibido el reconocimiento de ser considerados Sustentables y Socialmente Responsables contra su competencia que no dispone de dicho reconocimiento. Se compararon las medias de las empresas reconocidas y las no-reconocidas y se llevo a cabo la prueba dentro del rango de tiempo evaluado para eliminar la interaccion de algun episodio externo que impactara a dicho cluster, afectando asi a los resultados. La prueba del tiempo avalo los resultados dado que no hubo una circunstancia externa que impactara a los margenes operativos. Los resultados avalan la implementacion de la Sustentabilidad y Responsabilidad Social Corporativa en los tres sectores como factores de mejora de la rentabilidad operativa.
En la prueba de relaciones de Ecoeficiencia se llevo a cabo mediante la implementacion del Modelo de Ecuaciones Estructurales. Los resultados en su mayor parte avalan la implementacion de los valores de eficiencia energetica y de eficiencia ecologica como factores que mejoren la rentabilidad y reducen el riesgo operativo. Sin embargo, estadisticamente hablando los resultados no fueron constantes, lo cual abre las puertas a investigaciones futuras especificas sobre este tema.
Como conclusion se establece que la implementacion de la Sustentabilidad y la Responsabilidad Social Corporativas son beneficos para una gran parte de las corporaciones en diferentes sectores industriales. Se recomienda considerar su implementacion y optar por obtener los reconocimientos necesarios para que como empresas se vean mejorados sus resultados operativos, su estrategia y su imagen corporativa.
8 citations
Dissertation•
01 Sep 2006
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examined Swedish and UK multinational corporations and their foreign acquired subsidiaries and investigated post-acquisition transfers of employee participation practices in MNCs and concluded that the influence of the NBS and nine specific company characteristics on MNC's ability and willingness to transfer employment practices is discussed.
Abstract: The importance of multinational corporations (MNCs) on a global scale has
continued to increase over the past decades. This is evidenced in rapidly rising levels of
foreign direct investment (FDI) coupled with high amount of mergers and acquisitions
(M&A) activity. MNCs are likely to have a significant impact on their surroundings,
including national governments, suppliers, customers, trade unions and employees. This
research focuses on the impact on the latter by investigating post-acquisition transfers of
employee participation practices in MNCs. This thesis examines Swedish and UK
MNCs and their foreign acquired subsidiaries.
Following a review of comparative industrial relations, institutionalism,
international business, national business systems (NBS), and M&A literature, the
influence of NBS and nine specific company characteristics on MNCs' ability and
willingness to transfer employment practices are discussed. The contribution to
knowledge is fivefold. Firstly, it extends the understanding of employment practices
transfers following cross-border acquisitions. Secondly, it contributes to the global-local
debate of how MNCs try to implement global standard employment practices on the one
hand and on the other to adapt and conform to local conditions. Thirdly, it provides an
insight into MNCs from small and large economies engaging in transfers. Fourthly, it
compares acquisition integration approaches from Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian
MNCs. Fifthly, it informs about the forces at national and company levels influencing
MNCs in their choice of employment practices abroad.
Empirically, the research is based on detailed case studies. Case data has been
collected from five MNCs - two UK and three Swedish - and their foreign acquired subsidiaries. Interviews have been carried out at corporate and subsidiary levels in the
UK and Sweden in the native languages.
The research draws some significant conclusions. Firstly, the influence of the
NBS on the transfer of employment practices varies according to the type of practice in
question. Secondly, it adds another dimension to Bartlett and Ghoshal's (1998) MNC
typologies, the brand structured MNC. In this type of MNC, practices are transferred
according to brands rather than national patterns. Thirdly, the pattern of transfer
supports the argument of a flow of transfers from 'dominant' systems to 'follower'
systems both in terms of forward and reverse transfers. Finally, the results reveal that
transfers are not only influenced by the NBS but also company characteristics are
significant. This is most clearly demonstrated by the post-acquisition integration
approach and the 'significance' of the subsidiary.
8 citations
Dissertation•
01 Jan 2005
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors apply a "europeanisation" perspective to the analysis of the adoption of European Union (EU) regional and agricultural policy in the Czech Republic and Poland during the preaccession period.
Abstract: This thesis applies a 'europeanisation' perspective to the analysis of the adoption of European Union (EU) regional and agricultural policy in the Czech Republic and Poland during the pre-accession period. EU regional and agricultural policy in the pre-accession period potentially challenged both the sectoral institutional arrangements and the wider executive structure in the Czech Republic and Poland. However, the degree of prescription varied between policy sectors. Temporal factors and policy factors meant that in the regional policy cases the challenge to the executive structure was largely mediated. On the other hand, EU agricultural policy had a high level of prescription. In the case of a fundamental 'misfit' between the EU requirements and the domestic set-up, the research, following neo-institutional perspectives, expects limited adaptation on the sectoral and executive levels. This is the case in Polish agriculture. In the case of Czech agriculture, sectoral reform should be seen in the context of agricultural policy reform started in 1997. In regional policy, the neo-institutional perspective works less well. Here, the thesis proposes an actor- based perspective to explain sectoral adaptation. This sectoral adaptation, such as the alignment of administrative procedures, remains within the range permitted by the national executive structure. The effects can be found mostly on the sectoral level. The main effect of the EU pre-accession process on executive structure is the institutional enhancement of certain national executive actors. Only, the Polish case shows an unexpected change of the executive structure. This change can be explained by endogenous reform of the institutional configuration. This research makes two main contributions to the literature. First, it is one of the first studies to apply systematically a 'europeanisation' perspective to the Eastern enlargement. Secondly, empirical evidence on East and Central Europe, based on the 'europeanisation' perspective, has been limited. In this way, the thesis will contribute to extending 'europeanisation East' and hope to produce a better conceptualisation of the EU preaccession process and domestic factors mediating the impact of the EU.
8 citations
References
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TL;DR: This article synthesize the large but diverse literature on organizational legitimacy, highlighting similarities and disparities among the leading strategic and institutional approaches, and identify three primary forms of legitimacy: pragmatic, based on audience self-interest; moral, based upon normative approval; and cognitive, according to comprehensibility and taken-for-grantedness.
Abstract: This article synthesizes the large but diverse literature on organizational legitimacy, highlighting similarities and disparities among the leading strategic and institutional approaches. The analysis identifies three primary forms of legitimacy: pragmatic, based on audience self-interest; moral, based on normative approval: and cognitive, based on comprehensibility and taken-for-grantedness. The article then examines strategies for gaining, maintaining, and repairing legitimacy of each type, suggesting both the promises and the pitfalls of such instrumental manipulations.
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10,630 citations
TL;DR: The authors applied the convergent insights of institutional and resource dependence perspectives to the prediction of strategic responses to institutional processes, and proposed a typology of strategies that vary in active organizational resistance from passive conformity to proactive manipulation.
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TL;DR: This article conducted a meta-analysis of 52 studies and found that corporate virtue in the form of social responsibility and, to a lesser extent, environmental responsibility is likely to pay off, although the operationalizations of CSP and CFP also moderate the positive association.
Abstract: Most theorizing on the relationship between corporate social/environmental performance (CSP) and corporate financial performance (CFP) assumes that the current evidence is too fractured or too variable to draw any generalizable conclusions. With this integrative, quantitative study, we intend to show that the mainstream claim that we have little generalizable knowledge about CSP and CFP is built on shaky grounds. Providing a methodologically more rigorous review than previous efforts, we conduct a meta-analysis of 52 studies (which represent the population of prior quantitative inquiry) yielding a total sample size of 33,878 observations. The meta-analytic findings suggest that corporate virtue in the form of social responsibility and, to a lesser extent, environmental responsibility is likely to pay off, although the operationalizations of CSP and CFP also moderate the positive association. For example, CSP appears to be more highly correlated with accounting-based measures of CFP than with market-based ...
6,493 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider structural inertia in organizational populations as an outcome of an ecological-evolutionary process and define structural inertia as a correspondence between a class of organizations and their environments.
Abstract: Considers structural inertia in organizational populations as an outcome of an ecological-evolutionary process. Structural inertia is considered to be a consequence of selection as opposed to a precondition. The focus of this analysis is on the timing of organizational change. Structural inertia is defined to be a correspondence between a class of organizations and their environments. Reliably producing collective action and accounting rationally for their activities are identified as important organizational competencies. This reliability and accountability are achieved when the organization has the capacity to reproduce structure with high fidelity. Organizations are composed of various hierarchical layers that vary in their ability to respond and change. Organizational goals, forms of authority, core technology, and marketing strategy are the four organizational properties used to classify organizations in the proposed theory. Older organizations are found to have more inertia than younger ones. The effect of size on inertia is more difficult to determine. The variance in inertia with respect to the complexity of organizational arrangements is also explored. (SRD)
6,425 citations