Just for fun! How experimental spaces stimulate innovation in institutionalized fields

Abstract

This paper examines the role of experimental spaces as a source of institutional innovation.We investigate the case of an experimental space that was instrumental in initiating the institutionalization of the European Carbon Market. Our findings highlight the key role of emotions in the simultaneous distancing from institutionalized patterns, and engagement in an alternative action model. We subsequently develop a process model of how experimental spaces initiate institutional innovation in institutionalized fields. This model comprises three forms of institutional work. As previously established, boundary work consists delineating the space from the field, hence mitigating external institutional pressures. We argue that two additional forms of institutional work are required when field conditions are unconducive to institutional innovation. Distancing work consists in designing rules and procedures that alleviate space members' deep-seated attachment to the field's dominant models. Anchoring work, refers to the design of rules and procedures that connect the experimental space and the solution developed inside it to the field, hence facilitating its broader diffusion. We conclude with a discussion of how the design of experimental spaces and the deliberate use of emotions open new doors for generating institutional innovation.

The Valuable, the Constitutive, and the Energetic: Exploring the impact and importance of studying emotions and institutions

“…We suggest that while individuals experience emotions, their experience of those emotions, and their expression of their emotions, are conditioned by the norms, beliefs, values, and conventions (their institutional programming; Bourdieu, 2000;Voronov & Vince, 2012) that are dictated by their institutional affiliations (Creed, Hudson, Okhuysen, & Smith-Crowe, 2014). What we feel, how we feel it, and how we express it are socially conditioned, although our feelings are individually experienced.…”

“…Emotions connect people to the institutional structures they inhabit, and are part and parcel of the institutionalization process: institutions come to be valued beyond their technical usefulness (Selznick, 1957) by people who care about them, and feel a visceral, emotional connection to them (Bourdieu, 2000;Friedland, 2018). Emotions animate moral judgments of what "feels right" and is thus legitimate (Lok et al, 2017), and they energize the bonds we feel to the social groups whose institutionalized norms we espouse, and the solidarity we feel with group members (Creed et al, 2014;Wright, Zammuto, & Liesch, 2017).…”

“…They also make clear that emotions are relevant as structural and agentic elements of institutions. Friedland (2018) shows how actors are emotionally invested in and viscerally committed (Bourdieu, 2000) to institutionalized structures and that they form their identity and fantasize their futures (Voronov & Vince, 2012) with respect to these structures and the "goods" they deliver (Friedland, 2018). Protecting institutionalized structures may be a means of protecting ourselves 2 : our identities and our futures.…”

“…We become viscerally committed to institutions (Bourdieu, 2000) and they are inscribed in our being (Foucault, 1980;Friedland, 2018). We ask, to what extent are values inextricably linked to emotions?…”

Do systemic innovation intermediaries broaden horizons? A proximity perspective on R&D partnership formation

“…Besides those 'vertically' organised intermediaries one could also inspect the impact of SII devoted to more horizontal themes. For instance, they occasionally play a role in experimental spaces in which temporarily formed communities (composed of actors from different fields) explore particular new technologies or other innovationrelated developments (Cartel, Boxenbaum, and Aggeri 2018;Mair, Martí, and Ventresca 2012). While it has been hypothesised that such places may act as platforms for bringing together firms from unrelated specialisations (Janssen, and Frenken 2019), there is no sound analysis available showing whether this is truly the case.…”