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

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
01 Jan 1994
TL;DR: In this paper, a natural resource-based view of the firm is proposed, which is composed of three interconnected strategies: pollution prevention, product stewardship, and sustainable development, and each of these strategies are advanced for each of them regarding key resource requirements and their contributions to sustained competitive advantage.
Abstract: 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.

902 citations

Posted Content
TL;DR: In this article, the authors reconceptualize the firm-level construct absorptive capacity as a learning dyad-level measure, relative absorptive capacities, and test the model using a sample of pharmaceutical-biotechnology R&D alliances.
Abstract: Much of the prior research on interorganizational learning has focused on the role of absorptive capacity, a firm's ability to value, assimilate, and utilize new external knowledge. However, this definition of the construct suggests that a firm has an equal capacity to learn from all other organizations. We reconceptualize the firm-level construct absorptive capacity as a learning dyad-level construct, relative absorptive capacity. One firm's ability to learn from another firm is argued to depend on the similarity of both firms' (1) knowledge bases, (2) organizational structures and compensation policies, and (3) dominant logics. We then test the model using a sample of pharmaceutical–biotechnology R&D alliances. As predicted, the similarity of the partners' basic knowledge, lower management formalization, research centralization, compensation practices, and research communities were positively related to interorganizational learning. The relative absorptive capacity measures are also shown to have greater explanatory power than the established measure of absorptive capacity, R&D spending. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

335 citations

Posted Content
TL;DR: This paper employs a difference-in-differences approach to compare premove versus postmove citation rates for the recruits' prior patents and corresponding matched-pair control patents and generates results that are robust to a more stringently matched control sample.
Abstract: When firms recruit inventors, they acquire not only the use of their skills but also enhanced access to their stock of ideas. But do hiring firms actually increase their use of the new recruits' prior inventions? Our estimates suggest they do, quite significantly in fact, by approximately 202% on average. However, this does not necessarily reflect widespread "learning-by-hiring." In fact, we estimate that a recruit's exploitation of her own prior ideas accounts for almost half of the above effect. Furthermore, although one might expect the recruit's role to diminish rapidly as her tacit knowledge diffuses across her new firm, our estimates indicate that her importance is surprisingly persistent over time. We base these findings on an empirical strategy that exploits the variation over time in hiring firms' citations to the recruits' pre-move patents. Specifically, we employ a difference-in-differences approach to compare pre-move versus post-move citation rates for the recruits' prior patents and the corresponding matched-pair control patents. Our methodology has three benefits compared to previous studies that also examine the link between labor mobility and knowledge flow: 1) it does not suffer from the upward bias inherent in the conventional cross-sectional comparison, 2) it generates results that are robust to a more stringently matched control sample, and 3) it enables a temporal examination of knowledge flow patterns.

322 citations

Journal Article
TL;DR: In this article, the authors explore the relationship between CSR and government and highlight the varied role that the governments can play in order to promote CSR in the context of the wider national governance systems.
Abstract: Abstract This paper explores the relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and government. CSR is often viewed as self-regulation, devoid of government. We attribute the scholarly neglect of the variety of CSR-government relations to the inadequate attention paid to the important differences in the way in which CSR has ‘travelled’ (or diffused), and has been mediated by the national governance systems, and the insufficient emphasis given to the role of the government (or government agency) in the CSR domain. We go on to identify a number of different types of CSR-government configurations, and by following empirically the CSR development trajectories in Western Europe and East Asia in a comparative historical perspective, we derive a set of propositions on the changing dynamics of CSR-government configurations. In particular, we highlight the varied role that the governments can play in order to promote CSR in the context of the wider national governance systems.

278 citations

01 Apr 2017
TL;DR: A review and synthesis of existing research on institutional voids, tracking the evolution of institutional void scholarship since the inception of the concept, can be found in this article, where the authors highlight four different strategies for responding to them: internalization, substitution, borrowing and signaling.
Abstract: textFor nearly two decades, scholars in international business and management have explored the implications of institutional voids for firm strategy and structure. Although institutional voids offer both opportunities and challenges, they have largely been associated with firms' efforts to avoid or mitigate institutional deficiencies and reduce the transaction costs associated with operating in settings subject to those institutional shortcomings. The goal of this special issue is to advance scholarship on this topic by (a) exploring institutional voids that are new to the literature, (b) providing a deeper assessment of the different ways in which firms respond to these voids, and (c) utilizing diverse disciplines and theoretical approaches to do so. In this introduction, we first review and synthesize extant research on institutional voids, tracking the evolution of institutional void scholarship since the inception of the concept (Khanna & Palepu, Journal of Economic Literature, 45(2):331-372, 1997) and providing our perspective on its contributions and limitations. We then summarize the contributions of the articles included in this special issue. In addition to identifying an array of institutional voids - economic and social - the articles highlight four different strategies for responding to them: internalization, substitution, borrowing and signaling. Drawing on these, we develop new insights on the implications of institutional voids for firm behavior. We conclude with suggestions for future research.

249 citations

References
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Questioning the disruptive talk associated with digital transformation, it is suggested that the institutional perspective is a prolific lens to study digital innovation and transformation and that existing institutional arrangements are pivotal arbiters in deciding whether and how novel arrangements gain acceptance.

572 citations

Book
30 Jan 2014
TL;DR: This book discusses the service-dominant mindset, the nature, scope, and integration of resources, and the nature and scope of resources in service ecosystems.
Abstract: In 2004, Robert F. Lusch and Stephen L. Vargo published their groundbreaking article on the evolution of marketing theory and practice toward 'service-dominant (S-D) logic', describing the shift from a product-centred view of markets to a service-led model. Now, in this keenly anticipated book, the authors present a thorough primer on the principles and applications of S-D logic. They describe a clear alternative to the dominant worldview of the heavily planned, production-oriented, profit-maximizing firm, presenting a coherent, organizing framework based on ten foundational premises. The foundational premises of S-D logic have much wider implications beyond marketing for the future of the firm, transcending different industries and contexts, and will provide readers with a deeper sense of why the exchange of service is the fundamental basis of all social and economic exchange. This accessible book will appeal to students, as well as to researchers and practitioners.

571 citations

Posted Content
TL;DR: It is found that joining a major platform owner's platform ecosystem is associated with an increase in sales and a greater likelihood of issuing an initial public offering (IPO) and it is shown that these impacts are greater when ISVs have greater intellectual property rights or stronger downstream capabilities.
Abstract: It has been argued that platform technology owners co-create business value with other firms in their platform ecosystems by encouraging complementary invention and exploiting indirect network effects. In this study we examine whether participation in an ecosystem partnership improves the business performance of small independent software vendors (ISVs) in the enterprise software industry and how appropriability mechanisms influence the benefits of partnership. By analyzing the partnering activities and performance indicators of a sample of 1210 small ISVs over the period of 1996-2004, we find that joining a major platform owner’s platform ecosystem is associated with an increase in sales and a greater likelihood of issuing an IPO. In addition, we show that these impacts are greater when ISVs have greater intellectual property rights or stronger downstream capabilities. This research highlights the value of interoperability between software products, and stresses that value co-creation and appropriation are not mutually exclusive strategies in inter-firm collaboration.

569 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The need to create a 'managerial theory of the firm' that would be more attuned to the premises of the key actors within the firm so as to be able to illuminate the corporate world as seen by managers and encompass the issues that they perceive to be important is argued.
Abstract: Driven by a set of radical changes in their internal and external environments, large global corporations are innovating a new organizational form. Premised on knowledge and expertise rather than capital or scale as the key strategic resource, this new form is fundamentally different from the multidivisional organization that had emerged in the 1920s and had become the dominant corporate model in the post-War years. In this article, we describe this new organization using Asea Brown Boveri (ABB) as an illustration, and highlight its differences from the classic M-form by contrasting its structure, processes and decision-making mechanisms against the models proposed by Chandler (1962), Bower (1970) and Cyert and March (1963). Our conceptualization of this emerging organization is grounded in a managerial perspective that is very different from the disciplinary foundations of existing economic and behavioral theories of the firm. We conclude by arguing for the need to create a 'managerial theory of the firm' that would be more attuned to the premises of the key actors within the firm so as to be able to illuminate the corporate world as seen by managers and encompass the issues that they perceive to be important.

568 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article studied the role of an organization's accounting control system (ACS) as part of an interrelated control package, in which other control systems function either as substitutes or complements.
Abstract: . This paper studies the role of an organization's accounting control system (ACS) as part of an interrelated control “package,” in which other control systems function either as substitutes or complements. Drawing on resource dependence and institutional theories, it argues that this control mix is not only contingent on the organization's technical environment but also on its institutional environment. In addition, the paper draws on empirical evidence to demonstrate how the design of the “package” is actively shaped by the strategic choices of its dominant coalition. The empirics are based on a longitudinal field study of one large, public teaching hospital in Australia that underwent material changes in its governance structure, culture, and accounting control system. Resume. Les auteurs etudient le role du systeme de contole comptable d'une organisation, a titre d'element d'une « famille » de systemes de controle relies entre eux a l'interieur de Iaquelle les autres systemes de controle jouent le role de substituts ou de complements. S'inspirant de la theorie de la dependance des ressources et de la theorie institutionnelle, ils affirment que cette combinaison de systemes n'est pas seulement tributaire de l'environnement technique de l'organisation, mais de son environnement institutionnel. Ils se fondent, en outre, sur des constatations empiriques pour demontrer comment la structure de la « famille » de systemes est activement faconnee par les choix strategiques du groupe dominant. Les donnees empiriques proviennent d'une etude longitudinale sur le terrain, menee aupres d'un important hopital public universitaire australien dont la structure de regie, la culture et le systeme de controle comptable ont connu des transformations majeures.

565 citations