Situating frames and institutional logics: The social situation as a key institutional micro-foundation

Research on institutional logics has highlighted the importance of social situations but has not theorized such situations in a way that takes into account their inherent richness, complexity, and unpredictability. Without a theory of social situations, the connection between logics and people’s everyday life experience is incomplete, resulting in fragile microfoundations. Building on Goffman (1974) and the institutional logics perspective, in this essay I sketch an institutional theory of social situations, distinguishing two components of these situations: situational experience and situated interactions. Situational experience is constituted by situational frames – that is, schemas by which a person can perceive others and interpret the source of their agency in a situation. Multiple situational frames are simultaneously present in any situation, offering various potentials for action. Institutional logics shape the content that situational frames take in different institutional orders, providing rules for interacting appropriately in typified situations. However, the actual interactions unfolding in a given social situation do not necessarily conform to situational frames, but rather can transform those frames in unpredictable ways through interaction rituals and frame keyings. I contrast this situated perspective with the cognitivist notion that people “activate” or re-combine pre-existing aspects of logics depending on the situation. I argue that a situated perspective better accounts for the generative and transformative potential of micro-interactions

Le Dinamiche Temporali della Condivisone di Conoscenza in contesti di lavoro virtuale: uno studio empirico longitudinale

La gestione della conoscenza aziendale viene ormai unanimemente riconosciuta dagli studiosi di economia aziendale come un’importante leva strategica e competitiva per l’impresa. Tuttavia, nonostante lo sforzo di ricerca profuso sul tema in questi anni, sembra che in letteratura non si siano ancora formate opinioni condivise e stabili circa le modalità più efficaci di gestione, misurazione e valutazione delle conoscenze in azienda. Di contro, gli studi in materia sembrano essere spesso divisi da opinioni divergenti e talvolta opposte sul concetto stesso di conoscenza cui fare riferimento e sugli obiettivi analitici da assegnare alla ricerca scientifica sul tema. Si ritiene che le divergenze analitiche ed epistemologiche che fino ad oggi hanno caratterizzato la letteratura aziendale sul Knowledge Management costituiscano un limite più che un’opportunità al fine di favorire un’efficace comprensione e gestione della conoscenza aziendale da parte del mondo manageriale. A nostro parere, infatti, il top management e i principali livelli direzionali aziendali potrebbero beneficiare di una lettura integrata e organica dei diversi contributi offerti sul tema dalla letteratura accademica, con particolare riferimento alle tecniche di misurazione della conoscenza. Al fine di delineare i primi elementi di questa prospettiva integrata, in vista di una sistematizzazione unitaria dei diversi approcci al tema, in questo lavoro discuteremo i risultati di un caso empirico di Knowledge Management aziendale. Per fare questo, il presente lavoro è stato articolato in due momenti, il primo di analisi teorica, il secondo di analisi empirica. Il primo momento consiste in un’analisi dei principali approcci al tema del Knowledge Management emersi nella letteratura aziendale, al fine di metterne in luce limiti e opportunità. Il secondo momento consiste nell’esposizione e discussione delle evidenze empiriche riscontrate sul campo. Nelle conclusioni verranno discusse alcune possibili implicazioni pratiche e teoriche dell’indagine empirica

Types of Complementarity, Combinative Organization Forms and Structural Heterogeneity: Beyond Discrete Structural Alternatives

In the first Section, this paper offer a critical re-reading of the notions of organization forms as clusters of 'attributes' in organization theory and organization economics aimed at singling out what they have established and what problems have to be solved. In the second Section, building on those elements and on earlier works of the authors, the paper provides a typology of organizational ‘features’, a theory of how they are expected to combine inspired by an analogy with chemistry, and a formalized operationalization of the main propositions through an innovative application of Boolean algebra

Configurational Analysis and Organization Design: Towards a Theory of Structural Heterogeneity

This chapter reconstructs the roots, evolution and some prospects of configurational analysis (CA) in organization theory (OT) and organizational economics (OE), focusing on those components of CA that are particularly relevant to organizational design. This excursus leads to: a) revealing the presence of elements of CA in many OT and OE approaches - a continuity that is seldom acknowledged and arguably extends (rather than diminishes) the implications and applications of CA; b) identifying ‘structural heterogeneity’ (SH) -both ‘internal’ among organizational attributes within a configuration, and ‘external’ among configurations under the same conditions (or ‘equifinality’)- as an organizational property that can be distinctively studied by CA. This claim, as well as the substantive insights that can be gained by a configurational analysis of structural heterogeneity, is substantiated by an empirical analysis on a multi-sector sample of firm

Brokerage Styles and Interaction Rituals in Creative Projects: Towards an Interactionist Perspective on Brokerage

Despite the importance of brokers in creative projects, limited attention has been devoted to the micro-interactions by which brokers induce others’ collaboration while simultaneously retaining some control over creative production. Building on an interactionist perspective, we develop the concept of brokerage style – i.e., a recognizable pattern in the ways in which a broker interacts with others. By using different brokerage styles in different phases of a creative project, brokers can orient the social interactions among project participants, “charging” those interactions with different types of emotional energy and mutual attention, eventually inducing collective collaboration and limiting participants’ expectations of control. We illustrate our interactionist model of brokerage styles with examples from the music and TV industries

When does an issue trigger change in a field? A comparative approach to issue frames, field structures and types of field change

Previous research has shown that institutional fields evolve around issues, but has devoted less attention to explain why certain issues trigger substantial field-level changes while others remain largely inconsequential. In this article, I argue that the extent to which an issue is likely to trigger field change and the type of field change triggered depend on the structure of the field and the ways in which the issue is framed. I develop a model linking two types of issue frames (adversarial vs collaborative issue frames) with two types of field structures (centralized vs fragmented). The model explains how the likelihood of field change and type of field change vary across four configurations of these issue frames and field structures. In particular, I highlight four types of field change that entail different re-distribution of power within a field (weakening vs reinforcing the field’s elite; aligning vs polarizing fragmented actors). Overall, I contribute a much called-for comparative approach to institutional fields, explaining how the effects of issue frames on field change vary across different fields

TROUGH EQUITY CROWDFUNDING EVOLUTION AND INVOLUTION: INITIAL COIN OFFERING AND INITIAL EXCHANGE OFFERING

This article analyzes two of the last innovative financing instruments of the crowdfunding family: Initial Coin Offering (ICO) and Initial Exchange Offering (IEO). Having both a potential financial nature, they will be addressed as «sons» of Equity-based Crowdfunding (EBCF). The main scope of this paper is to show opportunities and dangers of ICO and IEO through a comparison with EBCF. Indeed, at the end of the analysis it will be possible to understand if ICO and IEO can be considered as positive evolution of EBCF or — at least one of them — can be considered so dangerous to appear as a sort of «involution».In order to answer our question, the discussion firstly focuses on EBCF, the innovative financing instrument being one of the most important figures of the «crowdfunding family». Its importance lies in its financial nature that makes this instrument different from the other models (meaning the donation, reward and lending). Participating in an EBCF-campaign, indeed, lets participants become shareholders of the company they are giving money to. So, the main pros and cons of the participation in an EBCF campaign will be disclosed. In particular, granting easier access to capitals together with the possibility to benefit from the so-called «wisdom of the crowd» allowed EBCF to become one of the most innovative financing tools of our age. However, these advantages need to be mitigated with the main risks occurring during a crowdfunding campaign. These are: moral hazard and frauds, arbitrary exclusion during pre-emptive screening by platform and, last but not least, illiquidity.Therefore, the discussion moves to the technological advanced new entry of the crowdfunding family, meaning ICO and IEO. In order to understand why ICO and IEO are so similar to EBCF, both the main characteristic of these instruments will be described. With reference to ICO, first of all this article provides a brief description of the technology that makes this innovative financing tool the advanced «son» of EBCF. Indeed, through the launch of an ICO, a company asks the crowd a precise amount of money in exchange of a «token»: an informatic instrument through which the participant may exercise also some financial rights towards the company. From this point of view, an ICO-campaign is very similar to an EBCF one, lying the main difference in the technological solutions used, the queen on those is blockchain. Furthermore, ICO characteristic will be outlined in order to disclose its functioning — meaning the relation with blockchain and smart contracts — and the different models of tokens.After that, also IEO will be described. IEO could be considered one of the last variants of ICO. The main difference, indeed, lies in the fact that IEO campaigns are not conducted in the website owned by the company but in a specific platform, that is a crypto-asset exchange.The exam of ICO and IEO potentialities (i.e. programmability, disintermediation and tokenization) will highlight how ICO and IEO may solve most of the mentioned EBCF cons. This will lead to the potential consideration of ICO and IEO as evolution of EBCF. However, also ICO and IEO cons will be highlighted (meaning lack of transparency, not clear regulatory regime and, for IEO in particular, dangerous proximity with investors and potential conflict of interest). From the comparison between ICO and IEO pros and cons it will be possible to discuss on if we are really in front of two evolution of EBCF or nearer to an «involution» of this instrument, considering regulatory solutions in order to avoid this second scenario