Neo-Institutional Theory and Organization Studies: A Mid-Life Crisis?

Abstract

We trace the development of neo-institutional theory in Organization Studies from a marginal topic to the dominant theory. We show how it has evolved from infancy, through adolescence and early adulthood to being a fully mature theory, which we think is now facing a mid-life crisis. Some of the features of this mid-life crisis include over-reach, myopia, tautology, pseudo-progress and re-inventing the wheel. To address these problems, we argue that institutional theorists should limit the range of the concept, sharpen their lens, avoid tautologies and problematize the concept. By doing this, we think institutional theorists could develop a narrower and more focused conception of institutions.

A geographic relational perspective on the internationalization of emerging market firms

“…Industries and firms are organized through common social practices that legitimate, coordinate, and control organization activities (Wenger, 1998). Consistent with strategy-as-practice scholarship (Seidl & Whittington, 2014;Vaara & Whittington, 2012), research on practice complements existing explanations for how high-level systems (e.g., institutions, structures, and networks) are enacted, reproduced, and transformed through the everyday actions embedded in them (Alvesson & Spicer, 2019;Jones, 2014).…”

“…However, due to its structural and deterministic view of context, the current institutional approach cannot fully capture the relations between firms and individual actions in terms of responding to the new set of contextual factors that can influence EMFs during internationalization (Nguyen & Janssens, 2019;Whittle, Mueller, & Gilchrist, 2016). Institutional theory is not sufficient to demonstrate how high-level factors such as institutions, strategies, and structures are enacted, reproduced, and/or shifted through a firm's everyday actions (Alvesson & Spicer, 2019;Jones, 2014).…”

The seven deadly sins of quality management: trade-offs and implications for further research

“…Yet this seems to be not the case within academia. There is evidence that, for example, scientific quality and scientific innovations are contested in the current academic market (Ioannidis, 2005;Alvesson & Spicer, 2019).…”

Public administration sustainability and its organizational basis

“…These twin contributions are important since times of administrative reform and turbulence has put to question the sustainability of public sector organizations and thus public service delivery (e.g. Alvesson and Spicer 2019;Ansell et al 2017;Olsen 2017Olsen , 2018.…”