This paper builds on recent contributions to understanding conditions of institutional complexity by developing a theoretical framework to elaborate the interdependencies between actions, contexts and institutional logics. Our aim is to refine existing explanations of how actors inhabit complex institutional settings. Drawing on a critical realist ontology, we treat agency and structure as analytically distinct phenomena to advance our understanding of conditioned action. This is subject to relational analysis in order to explain the structural conditioning that shapes particular socio-historical contexts, the potential 'action options' contained within these contexts and the processes through which actors draw upon these. This reading of institutional reproduction and transformation allows us to reassess the 'paradox of embedded agency' by advancing understanding of the historically grounded and multilevel nature of structures and agency in institutional processes. Our approach offers conceptual refinements, a new sensitizing framework and methodological insights to guide studies of the ways actors inhabit complex institutional settings.

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In this article we theorize the early moments of non-isomorphic institutional change. In avoiding the `hero imagery' of the individual institutional entrepreneur we emphasize the role of different actors and broader historical processes in explaining the substantive changes and developments in the superyacht industry between the late 1960s and early 1980s. Particular attention is given to explaining the significance of entrepreneurialism, opposition, opportunity creation and change consumption during the early moments of de- and pre-institutionalization. Broader processes of consumption, authentication, regulation and technological development are also key. In summary, the article demonstrates the value of a relational approach for understanding institutionalization.

This qualitative study explores how and why women, positioned as mothers, wives, or carers, navigate changing household dynamics, related to care and reproductive resources, and become entrepreneurial. Drawing on relational reflexivity, we show how women’s embodied, intimate relations with important others in the household form the focal point for entrepreneurial activities and offer evidence of their entrepreneurial agency. Our analysis reveals the emergence of three relational practices that result in a new venture as the entrepreneurial response of women. We critically evaluate normative analyses on gender, entrepreneurship, and household.

In this review paper, we ask how UK business might realize improved productivity through value creation. Our aim is to evaluate the ability of UK firms to reduce the productivity gap by assessing the challenges associated with the following strategic options: (a) increasing efficiency and effectiveness through the adoption of better practices; (b) innovating to produce products or services that generate more revenue (through either higher prices or larger volumes) while remaining at the same position in the value chain; and (c) fundamentally changing position in the value or supply chain and moving to a position where the products and services that are delivered inherently generate more value. To this end, we contend that the core issues that affect such endeavours relate to the conceptualization and management of change and innovation. By considering the interconnections between firm-level activities and wider institutional processes and structures, we assess the links between knowledge production, skills provision and productivity, including the role of the state and other institutions in the context of the micro-processes of innovation. We conclude with a discussion of the research and policy implications of the attempt to make more sense of innovation and reduce the UK's productivity gap.