Family firms as institutions:Cultural reproduction and status maintenance among multi-centenary shinise in Kyoto

Our study investigated how multi-centenary family firms in the area of Kyoto – collectively known as shinise – maintain a high social status in the community. Our analysis unpacks the socio-cultural practices through which the ongoing interaction among these actors re-enacts and reproduces the social order that ascribes shinise a distinct social standing in exchange for their continued commitment to practices and structures that help the community preserve its cultural integrity and collective identity. By doing so, our findings trace a connection between status maintenance and the expressive function that a category of firms performs within a community. At the same time, our study reveals a dark side of high status, by showing how their commitments lock shinise in a position of ‘benign entrapment’ that may impose sacrifices on family members and severe limitations to their personal freedom

Pathways of institutional change:An integrative review and research agenda

The study of institutional change is a core research area in organization theory and is of increasing relevance for scholarship in other disciplines. In this article, we review the substantial number of studies that have examined the ways by which institutions are created, modified, or transformed, highlighting the lack of integration of prior works that emphasize exogenous shocks, institutional entrepreneurship, and practice-based change. Drawing on the institutional logics perspective, we then develop a novel typology of pathways of change that more comprehensively brings together this diverse literature, accounts for the richness and heterogeneity of institutional change processes unveiled by studies to date, and provides a more synthetic framework to guide future research. Based on our analysis and theorizing, we discuss important new scholarly directions that will enhance our understanding of different kinds of institutional change processes and outcomes, as well as contribute to further development of the institutional logics perspective. </jats:p

In the land of sand and oil: how the macrofoundations of a tribal society shape the implementation of public–private partnerships

Research on institutional logics has missed the opportunity to understand how and why societies may fundamentally differ in their material and symbolic systems. In this chapter, the authors offer a qualitative examination of the implementation of infrastructure public–private partnership (PPP) projects in the Arab state of Qatar. The authors illustrate how the macrofoundations of Qatari society are rooted in the notion of tribe, an inter-institutional system under which the intertwined institutional orders of the state, the market, and the family have historically developed and operated. Their study sheds light on how these macrofoundations shape the processes and mechanisms that underpin the resistance to the introduction of innovative organizational forms. The chapter makes two contributions. First, it identifies how “foreign” organizational forms rooted in Western institutional orders trigger adverse reactions from societies characterized by different institutional orders. Second, it demonstrates the challenge of implementing PPPs in an institutional context that is unfavorable to them and where actors seek to preserve the supremacy of the extant inter-institutional system

Logics’ Shift and Depletion of Innovation: A Multi-Level Study of Agile Use in a Multinational Telco Company

The use of Agile practices is typically associated to a wide array of benefits for organizations. This paper extends growing research on the ‘dark’ side of Agile by investigating the depletion of innovation in a large telco company following the large-scale implementation of Agile in R&amp;D units. Our qualitative study reveals a shift in the organizational logics underpinning new product development, from a “navigating through unchartered waters” to a “putting out fires” logic. We tracked the change in key components of logics (goals of teams, source of legitimacy of team members and support and control systems) and explained the multi-level mechanisms through which the shift occurred, i.e., changes in processes of workflow management, work allocation, and performance management. We found that the new organizational logic negatively impacted individual attitudes towards the generation of new ideas by promoting the internalization of short-termism, a perceived drain in competences and confidence, and the lack of accountability for innovation. By focusing on changes in organizational logics, our insights expand current knowledge about the relationship between Agile implementation and individual attitudes. We also explain why unexpected effects of Agile implementation may go undetected in organizations, because they derive from multi-level, diffused, changes in the organization

Logics' shift and depletion of innovation : A multi-level study of agile use in a multinational telco company

The use of Agile practices is typically associated to a wide array of benefits for organizations. This paper extends growing research on the ‘dark’ side of Agile by investigating the depletion of innovation in a large telco company following the large-scale implementation of Agile in R&D units. Our qualitative study reveals a shift in the organizational logics underpinning new product development, from a “navigating through unchartered waters” to a “putting out fires” logic. We tracked the change in key components of logics (goals of teams, source of legitimacy of team members and support and control systems) and explained the multi-level mechanisms through which the shift occurred, i.e., changes in processes of workflow management, work allocation, and performance management. We found that the new organizational logic negatively impacted individual attitudes towards the generation of new ideas by promoting the internalization of short-termism, a perceived drain in competences and confidence, and the lack of accountability for innovation. By focusing on changes in organizational logics, our insights expand current knowledge about the relationship between Agile implementation and individual attitudes. We also explain why unexpected effects of Agile implementation may go undetected in organizations, because they derive from multi-level, diffused, changes in the organization