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Purpose: Policy change is frequently framed as resulting from governmental strategy based on explicit preferences, rational decision-making and consecutive and aligned implementation. This article instead explores the theoretical perspective of institutional work as an alternative approach to understanding policy change, and investigates the construction of resources needed to perform such work.Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on a case study of the process wherein the idea of cultural and creative industries was introduced into Lithuanian cultural policy. The main data generating methods are document studies and qualitative interviews. Findings:The analysis demonstrates the ways in which the resources needed to perform institutional work are created through the enactment of practice, and through the application of resourcing techniques. Three such techniques are identified in the empirical material: the application of experiences from several fields of practice, the elicitation of external support, and the borrowing of legitimacy. Originality/value:The study offers an alternative approach to studies of policy change by demonstrating the value of institutional work in such change. Further, it contributes to the literature on institutional work by highlighting how instances of such work, drawing on a distributed agency, interlink and connect to each other in a process to produce policy change. Finally, it proposes three interrelated resourcing techniques underlying institutional work.

är organisationsforskare (fil dr i företagsekonomi) vid Södertörns högskola. Hennes övergripande forskningsintresse rör organisationsförändring och institutionell förändring. Tomson disputerade 2008 med en avhandling om hur den svenska sektionen av Amnesty International har förändrats över tid. För närvarande är hon bland annat engagerad i två forskningsprojekt som studerar hur idén om kultur som ett instrument för ekonomisk tillväxt har kommit in och översatts i den svenska respektive litauiska kulturpolitiken. Projekten är finansierade av Vetenskapsrådet och Östersjöstiftelsen.