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 paper, a case study of one firm's behavior in two different asset markets (R&D and distribution in the Chinese pharmaceutical industry) illustrates fundamental differences in firm strategies for securing these assets.
Abstract: Research in transition economies like China has sought and found explanations for strategic behaviour based on institutional and other social processes, leading to descriptions of China's emerging business system as 'network capitalism'. This paper argues, however, that organizational capabilities and transaction costs are increasingly important influences on strategic choice as economic reforms proceed. An in-depth case study of one firm's behaviour in two different asset markets - R&D and distribution in the Chinese pharmaceutical industry - illustrates fundamental differences in firm strategies for securing these assets. To account for this variety and move beyond the homogeneity implied by prior research, we propose a framework for differentiating the transition trajectories for different types of complementary assets. We propose conditions under which all three perspectives - institutional and social structure, organizational capabilities and transaction costs - predict similar trajectories and firm strategies, but different decision processes, and when their predictions differ.
35 citations
01 Jan 2018
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the place and role of ideology in political communication under conditions of mediatization and argue that political meaning is produced through the mediatic practices of personalisation, conversationalization and dramatisation, while exploring its role involves exploring the ways political power is exercised through these practices.
Abstract: This thesis seeks to explore the place and role of ideology in political communication under conditions of mediatization. Exploring the place of ideology, as I will argue, involves exploring the ways political meaning is produced through the mediatic practices of personalisation, conversationalisation and dramatisation, while exploring its role involves exploring the ways political power is exercised through these practices. Particularly, the thesis builds upon an analytics of mediatization according to which ideology lies in, the textually-discursively organised and ordered, performative capacity of mediatic practices to recall and rework institutional symbolisms from the past serving the institutional exercise of power in the present, or the recontextualizing dynamic of media performativity.
To operationalise this analytical approach, the thesis employs a paradigmatic case study; the study of political advertisements produced by the two major political parties in Greece and the UK in the run-up to the January and May 2015, respectively, General Elections. The empirical analysis seeks to demonstrate that central to all the ideological mediatic practices is the fusion of the private with the public through different aesthetic regimes, such as the authenticity of charisma, the intimacy of ordinariness, and the ritualism of spectacle, each emerging invested with its own recontextualizing dynamic – the politics of mission, everyday life and belonging. Each, in other words, has its own capacity to emotive-cognitively and spatiotemporally rework institutionally symbolic meanings from the past enacting different forms of institutional agency (e.g. partisan or cross-partisan) and ordering (e.g. displacement, temporalisation or eternalisation) in the present.
The overarching contribution of this analysis is to argue/establish that we cannot gain a full understanding of how political parties’ ideology is renegotiated nowadays without a critical interrogation of the recontextualizing dynamic of mediatic performances. Nor can we gain a full understanding of how parties and other political institutions ideologically deal with the pragmatic challenges of the present without a critical interrogation of the aestheticity and affectivity of (mediatized) political discourse.
35 citations
28 Nov 2014
34 citations
01 Jan 2019
TL;DR: In this article, a literature analysis is conducted to comprehend the current sports system, the fundamental aspects of national sports success, and the theoretical guidelines for creating criteria and extracting indicators for measuring the sporting performance of nations.
Abstract: [But de la recherche et questions] Cette etude vise a donner aux organisations nationales sportives dirigeantes des conseils approuves et reconnus afin qu’elles puissent assurer leur gestion avec succes et obtenir un outil de mesure pour ameliorer niveau de performance. Les questions de recherches (RQ) cherchent a atteindre cet objectif: RQ 1. Comment mesure-t-on les performances sportives des nations? et RQ 2. Comment les performances nationales des sports sont-elles mesurees? Les etudes 1 et 2 sont construites de facon a repondre respectivement aux RQ 1. et RQ. 2. [Etude 1] L’analyse de la litterature a conduit a comprendre le systeme sportif actuel, les aspects fondamentaux du succes des sports nationaux, et les conseils theoriques pour creer des criteres et extraire des indicateurs. L’echantillonnage en boule de neige est employe afin de composer un panel d’experts et les entretiens semi-directifs sont mis en place avec la methode Delphi. La Structure Durable du Systeme Sportif (SSOSS), le cadre comprehensif du systeme sportif, est developpe depuis peu et l’Index de la Structure Durable du Systeme Sportif (ISSOSS) est etablit sur ce fondement solide comme outil de mesure du degre de gestion sportive. [Etude 2] La revision de la litterature est centree sur la competitivite et l’attractivite pour comprendre les performances des nations. Les resultats des Objectifs du millenaire pour le developpement (MDGs), publie par l’ONU, sont analyses en niveaux et appliques aux 24 pays d’accueil des Jeux Olympiques. Utilises pour voir le degre de developpement des nations dans l’aide aux sports supprimer puissante. [Resultat Application] La performance sportive globale des nations (GSPN) est proposee en combinant l’ISSOSS (Etude 1) et l’analyse du MDGs (Etude 2). Ceci est applique a la Coree du Sud et a la Suisse pour evaluer et comparer l’etat et la visibilite du niveau de gestion des sports dans chaque pays. [Implications et Contributions] Les implications et les contributions des aspects theoriques et pratiques sont considerees cela peut etre supprimer (2 par 2). Les limites et les directions de futures recherches sont donnees a la fin.
ABSTRACT
[Research purpose and questions] This study is designed to let national sports governing bodies have a globally acknowledged guideline to achieve their management success and secure a measurable tool to upgrade the degree of performance. The research questions (RQ) are followed to attain the aim: RQ 1. How is the sporting performance of nations measured? And RQ 2. How is the nations' performance for sports measured? Study 1 and Study 2 are constructed to answer the RQ 1 and RQ 2 respectively. [Study 1] The literature analysis is conducted to comprehend the current sports system, the fundamental aspects of national sports success, and the theoretical guidelines for creating criteria and extracting indicators. The Snowball sampling is employed to compose the panel of experts, and the semi-structured interviews are performed with the Delphi method. The Sustainable Structure of Sports System (SSOSS), the comprehensive framework of sports galaxy, is newly developed and the Index for Sustainable Structure of Sports System (ISSOSS) is established on that sound foundation as a tool for measuring the degree of sports management. [Study 2] The literature review is carried out with a focus on competitiveness and attractiveness to understand the nations' performance. The results of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), published by the United Nations, are analysed in levels and applied to 24 Olympic host countries. It is employed to see the degree of nations' development for supporting sports under the dominant method of the Evidence-Based Management. [Result and Application] The Global Sporting Performance of Nations (GSPN) is invented by combining the ISSOSS (Study 1) and the analysed MDGs (Study 2). It is applied to the Republic of Korea and Switzerland to evaluate the degree of their sports management state and visibly compare each other. [Implications and Contributions] The implications and contributions of both academic and practical aspects are considered order (2 by 2). The limitations and the directions for future research are provided at the end.
34 citations
Dissertation•
02 Feb 2012
TL;DR: In this article, the authors developed a theory on institutional change by conceiving of any society as having two dominant cleavages, one "social" and one "partisan", and tested the hypothesis that social groups created by the former will act to restrain institutional change and that change will occur when a partisan group emerges that can cross the social cleavage.
Abstract: By conceiving of any society as having two dominant cleavages, one ‘social’ and one ‘partisan’, this dissertation develops a theory on institutional change. The initial hypothesis that social groups created by the former will act to restrain institutional change and that change will occur when a partisan group emerges that can cross the social cleavage was tested by process tracing the changes which were proposed and which occurred to the appointed councils established in British North America. These councils were modified a number of times, becoming second chambers in the provincial legislatures, and were eventually each abolished. The evidence found supports the hypothesis, though it is not sufficient to have a partisan group that can cross the cleavage drive change, a partisan debate over the change was necessary. This also challenges the prevailing theory that social cleavages lead to political party formation, suggesting the benefit of using these two cleavages for the study of institutions.
34 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.
13,229 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, a theory of stakeholder identification and saliency based on stakeholders possessing one or more of three relationship attributes (power, legitimacy, and urgency) is proposed, and a typology of stakeholders, propositions concerning their saliency to managers of the firm, and research and management implications.
Abstract: Stakeholder theory has been a popular heuristic for describing the management environment for years, but it has not attained full theoretical status. Our aim in this article is to contribute to a theory of stakeholder identification and salience based on stakeholders possessing one or more of three relationship attributes: power, legitimacy, and urgency. By combining these attributes, we generate a typology of stakeholders, propositions concerning their salience to managers of the firm, and research and management implications.
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.
Abstract: This article applies the convergent insights of institutional and resource dependence perspectives to the prediction of strategic responses to institutional processes. The article offers a typology of strategic responses that vary in active organizational resistance from passive conformity to proactive manipulation. Ten institutional factors are hypothesized to predict the occurrence of the alternative proposed strategies and the degree of organizational conformity or resistance to institutional pressures.
7,595 citations
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