Cultural entrepreneurship: stories, legitimacy, and the acquisition of resources

Lounsbury, Michael; Glynn, Mary Ann

doi:10.1002/smj.188

Cited by 1,717 publications

(1,551 citation statements)

References 80 publications

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“…Moreover, our interview data suggests that GRI was conscious of its analogical work and its expected effects, and that the ascendance of its standard cannot be attributed solely to chance or to large-scale social forces. strategy, wherein legitimacy and change must be precisely counterbalanced (Aldrich and Fiol 1994;Lounsbury and Glynn 2001). However, institutions emerge and evolve gradually (Carruthers and Espeland 1991), and the precarious balance between legitimacy and innovation must constantly be recalibrated.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Analogy in the Institutionalization of Sustainability Reporting

Etzion

Ferraro

2010

Organization Science

335

319

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We study institutional entrepreneurship in an emergent field by analyzing the case of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and its efforts to purposefully institutionalize the practice of sustainability reporting. We suggest that analogies affect institutionalization processes through two mechanisms. In early stages of institutionalization, analogy operates primarily as a normative mechanism and adoption is driven mainly by an instrumental logic. This emphasis on similarity to existing institutions stresses conformity and promotes legitimacy. Yet, analogies can also have a cognitive effect on institutional design, especially once initial acceptance from the environment has been secured, by directing attention towards incongruences between the emergent institution and its analogical source. Institutional entrepreneurship can spur innovation and departure from existing institutions by highlighting limitations of the analogical source and providing a compelling value-rational argument underscoring the worth of the new institution. This theoretical contribution helps explain how analogies to existing institutional practices can both provide legitimacy to novel institutions and constitute the basis for a creative process of institutional design.3 Institutional entrepreneurship is a delicate balancing act between two conflicting tasks. On the one hand institutional entrepreneurs must disguise the radical nature of their enterprise in order to engage supporters and evade the wrath of incumbents, while on the other they cannot adhere too closely to existing practices, for by doing so, they will not be able to further any meaningful change (Aldrich and Fiol 1994). Institutional entrepreneurs need to become skilled cultural operatives, fashioning stories in order to attract resources. In this work it is essential to "balance the need for legitimacy by abiding by societal norms about what is appropriate with efforts to create unique identities that may differentiate and is relatively well-studied. However, the role of analogy in shaping institutional design has not been explored in depth. Tropes like simile, analogy and metaphor can help gather political support and legitimacy, but they also lead to analytical closure (Oswick, Keenoy and Grant 2002). Remaining within the confines of a clearly defined analogy cannot lead to evolution to profoundly different institutions (Hoffman and Ventresca 1999). Furthermore, the analogy cannot be discarded at later stages (Ocasio and Joseph 2005) when deeper institutional change is being advocated, as cognitive lock-in has already limited external constituents' receptivity to alternative scenarios. How, then, do analogies shape the construction and evolution of proto-institutions? 4In this article we address the role of analogies in institutional change by presenting a longitudinal case-study of the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and its strategies to promote and institutionalize sustainability reporting practices. GRI, a non-profit organization headquartered in Amsterdam, ...

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Role of Analogy in the Institutionalization of Sustainability Reporting

Etzion

Ferraro

2010

Organization Science

335

319

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“…Networking with various strategic partners contributes to legitimacy (Lounsbury & Glynn, 2001), information exchange and coordination (Larson, 1991), increasing the speed of know-how and technology transfer and acquiring core human resources , reducing innovation uncertainty (Ramachandran & Ramnarayan, 1993), and is an effective way of striving for competitive advantages for new ventures.…”

Section: The Influence Of Marketing Capabilities On Entry Mode Choicementioning

confidence: 99%

International new ventures as “small multinationals”: The importance of marketing capabilities

Ripollés

Blesa

2012

Journal of World Business

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This paper aims to explore how marketing capabilities contribute to the international expansion of international new ventures, and the influence of these capabilities on the entry mode these firms choose. Specifically, the study examines how marketing This study extends previous international entrepreneurship research, including insights on antecedents of international new ventures' choice of higher commitment entry modes in foreign markets. Additionally, the results of this work encourage international entrepreneurs to look beyond the explicit value of experiential market knowledge to realize the potential value of marketing capabilities as an antecedent to higher commitment entry modes.

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“…Even the more enlightened perspectives of recent theorizing on how entrepreneurial fi rms can effectively mobilize resources focus on how to use others' self-interests as a strategic tool for legitimation. Lounsbury and Glynn (2001) discuss how entrepreneurial fi rms achieve their self-interests by crafting stories that appeal to the profi t motive of their exchange partners. Similarly, Zott and Huy (2007) …”

Section: Exchange and Resource Dependence Theorymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Shane and Venkataraman (2000) and Baumol (1990) are two of the most highly cited articles on entrepreneurship (778 and 627 cites respectively, according to Google Scholar, as of October 2007). Lounsbury and Glynn (2001) and Zott and Huy (2007) are two recent articles in top management journals that examine entrepreneurial resource mobilization (a topic discussed in this article). The fi rst two articles on the domain of entrepreneurship are most explicit in profi t-seeking self-interest assumptions.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%