Clashing Fashions and Institutions: Mid-Life Uncertainty in Innovation Diffusion

Abrahamson, Eric; Chang, Sungyong; Choi, Yoonjin; Katić, Ivana

doi:10.2139/ssrn.2587558

Cited by 7 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 79 publications

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“…The management fashion perspective has also traditionally rested on the assumption that the popularity of fashionable MAIs is transitory and that they will soon fall out of favor and gradually disappear, having little long-term impact on practice (Abrahamson, 1996;Gill and Whittle, 1993). However, in recent years, researchers within the management fashion Diffusion of management accounting perspective have started questioning this assumption, and now instead they argue that management fashions could become institutionalized and sticky practices (Abrahamson et al, 2015;Perkmann and Spicer, 2008). Indeed, we have seen that a fashionable MAI such as the BSC has had considerable staying power, with relatively high diffusion rates being reported more than 25 years after its introduction (Hoque, 2014;Nørreklit and Mitchell, 2014;Rigby and Bilodeau, 2018).…”

Section: Management Accounting Innovations As "Management Fashion"mentioning

confidence: 99%

Diffusion of management accounting innovations: a virus perspective

Johanson

Madsen

2019

JAOC

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Purpose The diffusion of management accounting innovations (MAIs) is the focus of much debate in the management accounting research community. Extant contributions have drawn on a large of number of theories, including innovation diffusion theory and various sociologically inspired theories such as management fashion. The purpose of this paper is to examine and develop Røvik’s virus theory in the context of how MAIs diffuse. The paper further evaluates and elaborates on the potential usefulness of the virus perspective to empirical research on MAIs. Design/methodology/approach The paper uses a conceptual and explorative research approach. The paper introduces the virus perspective and compares this perspective with several other theoretical perspectives often used in studies of the diffusion of MAIs. This enables the identification of characteristics specific to the virus perspective. The paper also re-examines a number of prior studies of MAIs and identifies different virus characteristics implicit in these studies. Findings The findings of the paper imply that the virus perspective is a useful basis for empirical research on MAIs. The virus perspective differs from other theoretical perspectives in several respects and is particularly suited for longitudinal studies of both MAIs and organizational change. However, the perspective could be used at other levels of analysis as well. The extant studies reviewed in this paper provide support for the viral characteristics of MAIs. The paper also identifies and discusses avenues for future research using the virus perspective as a theoretical lens. Originality/value The virus perspective has been given little attention in research on MAIs, as well as more generally within accounting research. This research paper demonstrates that the virus perspective offers a rich and valuable conceptual framework for studying how demand-side organizations are affected by MAIs over extensive periods of time. The paper also discusses the implications of the virus perspective with respect to the research method.

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Section: Management Accounting Innovations As "Management Fashion"mentioning

confidence: 99%

Diffusion of management accounting innovations: a virus perspective

Johanson

Madsen

2019

JAOC

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“…Instead of just being temporary phenomena, some management fashion researchers argue that fashionable concepts may become (at least partly) institutionalized [70] and "enduring" fashions [109][110][111]. As noted by Abrahamson et al [112], theories about fashions and institutions are useful for explaining the transience or persistence of management ideas.…”

Section: Time Dimensionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Balanced Scorecard: Fashion or Virus?

Madsen

Slåtten

2015

Administrative Sciences

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The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a one of the most popular and contagious management ideas of our time. In previous research the diffusion and institutionalization of the BSC has been viewed through different theoretical lenses, most notably the management fashion perspective. Recently the virus perspective has been introduced as an alternative theory of how management ideas spread, but so far no study has applied this theory in the context of the BSC. In this paper we show that the fashion and virus perspectives provide complementary insights into the diffusion and institutionalization of the BSC. The fashion perspective is particularly well suited for explaining the infectiousness of the BSC and the ways in which organizations are exposed to the BSC idea. The virus theory can better explain how the BSC idea is implemented as a practice in organizations, and the different trajectories that the BSC idea may take in different contexts. A combination of these two perspectives provides a fuller picture of the diffusion and institutionalization of the BSC.

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“…This boomand-bust feature is reflected not only in the services offered by management consultants (David and Strang 2006), but also in the bell-shaped publication curves that characterize these management concepts (see Abrahamson 1996;Abrahamson and Fairchild 1999;Carson et al 2000). Although some concepts endure for longer periods of time (Abrahamson et al 2015) and some "tried on" but abandoned concepts leave traces in organizations (Heusinkveld and Benders 2012), it is commonly assumed that the early discourse promoting a particular new management concept affects its later diffusion patterns. The notion of a "success case" (model) has evolved as a description of the overly enthusiastic discourse that is found in the works and early advocacy of many such concepts (Lillrank 1995;Røvik 2002;Strang, David, and Akhlaghpour 2014;Zbaracki 1998).…”

Section: The Life Cycle Of Management Conceptsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reembedding Lean: The Japanese Cultural and Religious Context of a World Changing Management Concept

Wittrock

2015

International Journal of Sociology

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Clashing Fashions and Institutions: Mid-Life Uncertainty in Innovation Diffusion

Cited by 7 publications

References 79 publications

Diffusion of management accounting innovations: a virus perspective

Diffusion of management accounting innovations: a virus perspective

The Balanced Scorecard: Fashion or Virus?

Reembedding Lean: The Japanese Cultural and Religious Context of a World Changing Management Concept

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