Why do some organizations become famous? We argue that fame results from a conjunction of several... more Why do some organizations become famous? We argue that fame results from a conjunction of several audience-specific reputations. Expert reputation (i.e., reputation among members of a knowledgeable group, such as a cultural elite or critics) acts as a mediator for achieving fame for organizations held in esteem by their peers and clients. Based on a unique database of 103 architecture companies in France, our analysis uses structural equation modelling (SEM) combined with mediation effects to reveal that expert reputation can lead to fame by mediating peer and client reputations. We contribute by explaining why only some organizations already reputed among peers and clients become famous in society at large.
Research summary: Firms introducing disruptive innovations into multisided ecosystems confront th... more Research summary: Firms introducing disruptive innovations into multisided ecosystems confront the disruptor's dilemma: gaining the support of the very incumbents they disrupt. Through a longitudinal study of TiVo, a company that pioneered the Digital Video Recorder, we examine how these firms may address this dilemma. Our analysis reveals how TiVo navigated coopetitive tensions by continually adjusting its strategy, its technology platform, and its relational positioning within the evolving U.S. television industry ecosystem. We theorize how (1) disruption may affect not just specific incumbents, but also the entire ecosystem; (2) coopetition is not just dyadic, but also multilateral and intertemporal, and (3) strategy is both a deliberative and emergent process involving continual adjustments, as the disruptor attempts to balance coopetitive tensions over time. Managerial summary: New entrants confront a dilemma when they introduce a disruptive innovation into an existing business ecosystem, viz., how can they gain the support of the incumbents that their innovation disrupts? Confronting this " disruptor's dilemma " , the disruptor must consider several issues: How might it pitch its innovation to attract end customers and yet reduce the threat of disruption perceived by ecosystem incumbents? How can the innovation be modified to fit into legacy systems while transforming them? Based on an in-depth analysis of TiVo and its entrepreneurial journey, we explore the strategies disruptors can deploy to address these issues.
W hile scholars have provided increasingly well-developed theoretical frameworks for understandin... more W hile scholars have provided increasingly well-developed theoretical frameworks for understanding the role of institutional entrepreneurs and other purposeful actors in bringing about change in organizational fields, much less attention has been paid to the role of unorganized, nonstrategic actors in catalyzing change. In particular, the role of consumers remains largely uninvestigated. In this article, we draw on a case of the introduction of text messaging in the United Kingdom to explore the role of consumers in catalyzing change in organizational fields. Text messaging has become a widely diffused and institutionalized communication practice, in part changing mobile telephony from a voice-based, aural, and synchronous experience to a text-based, visual, and asynchronous experience. As consumers innovated and diffused new practices around this product, their actions led to significant changes in the field. We suggest how and under what conditions consumers are likely to innovate at the micro level and, with the subsequent involvement of other actors, catalyze change at the field level. Our primary contribution is to show how the cumulative effect of the spontaneous activities of one important and particularly dispersed and unorganized group can lead to changes in a field. By showing how change can result from the uncoordinated actions of consumers accumulating and converging over time, we provide an alternative explanation of change in organizational fields that does not privilege purposeful actors such as institutional entrepreneurs.
The intersection of entrepreneurship research and institutional theory has begun to attract incre... more The intersection of entrepreneurship research and institutional theory has begun to attract increasing scholarly attention. While much recent research has studied "institutional entrepreneurs" credited with creating new or transforming existing institutions to support their projects, less attention has been paid to the institutions that constitute the menus from which choices are made, and delineate resources for entrepreneurial or other agentic activities. While models of institutionalization frequently break down the process into different categorical stages, how an evolving context affords changing agentic latitude for actors merits more attention. We study the institutionalization of 'temporary work,' a new employment practice led by temporary work organizations, a new organizational form in the Netherlands from the 1960s to 2008. Our account suggests an 'ecological' imagery of institutionalization; rather than entrepreneurs' with predetermined agendas shaping and reshaping institutions, we observed distributed institutional entrepreneurship -entrepreneurs seeking change in concert and in conflict with other interdependent actors simultaneously creating, disrupting and maintaining institutions. By examining how an evolving context influences the role of "actor configurations," whose actions, interactions and counteractions can collectively lead to change, but also unintended outcomes, we highlight the non-teleological nature of institutionalization. Finally, our findings suggest that while the legitimacy of a novel practice grows with increasing institutionalization, legitimacy contests may recur and that increasing institutionalization may provide the backdrop for novel practices to emerge.
Firms introducing disruptive innovations into multisided ecosystems may confront the disruptor's ... more Firms introducing disruptive innovations into multisided ecosystems may confront the disruptor's dilemma -they must gain the support of the very incumbents they disrupt. We examine how these firms may address this dilemma through a longitudinal study of TiVo, a company that pioneered the Digital Video Recorder. Our analysis reveals how TiVo navigated co-opetitive tensions by continually adjusting its strategy, its technology platform, and its relational positioning within the evolving U.S. television industry ecosystem. We theorize how (a) disruption may affect not just specific incumbents, but also the entire ecosystem, (b) co-opetition is not just dyadic, but also multilateral and intertemporal, and (c) strategy is both a deliberative and emergent process involving continual adjustments, as the disruptor attempts to balance coopetitive tensions over time.
While scholars have explained how business has increasingly taken on regulatory roles to address ... more While scholars have explained how business has increasingly taken on regulatory roles to address social and environmental challenges, less attention has been given to the process of how business is made responsible for wicked problems. Drawing on a study of 'conflict minerals' in the Democratic Republic of Congo, we examine the process through which companies became responsible for a humanitarian crisis. We contribute by 1) bridging insights from contentious performance and deliberative approaches -to present a model of corporate political responsibilization for a wicked problem that explains how a 'field frame' of responsibility can emerge 2) explaining shifting boundaries between public and private responsibilities and the changing role of the state as catalytic rather than coercive 3) showing how responsibility can be attributed to a target by framing an issue and its root cause in ways that allow such an attribution, and how the attribution can diffuse and solidify.
Many technology studies have conceptualized transitions between technological generations as a se... more Many technology studies have conceptualized transitions between technological generations as a series of S-curve performance improvements over time. Surprisingly, the interregnum between successive generations has received little attention. To understand what happens in the interregnum, we study the transition from 2G to 3G in mobile communications. Our study identifies the presence of forces for both change and continuity across heterogeneous social and technical elements shaping an uneven transition between 2G and 3G mobile communications technology platforms. Unanticipated misalignments and asynchronies that emerged during the journey shifted the incentives of the various actors involved to participate. Based on these observations, we offer several conjectures as to the dynamics that can give rise to temporal discords during inter-generational technological transitions. 2 Such improvements correspond with the diffusion rate of novel technologies and innovations over time . Only a few actors adopt an innovation at first. Then, the adoption rate increases sharply with large numbers adopting followed by a slowing down as laggards finally adopt the innovation. 0048-7333/$ -see front matter
Studies on institutional change generally pertain to the agency-structure paradox or the ability ... more Studies on institutional change generally pertain to the agency-structure paradox or the ability of institutional entrepreneurs to spearhead change despite constraints. In many complex fields, however, change also needs cooperation from numerous dispersed actors with divergent interests. This presents the additional paradox of ensuring that these actors engage in collective action when individual interests favor lack of cooperation. We draw on complementary insights from institutional and regime theories to identify drivers of collective institutional entrepreneurship and develop an analytical framework. This is applied to the field of global climate policy to illustrate how collective inaction was overcome to realize a global regulatory institution, the Kyoto Protocol.
Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of multinational corporations (MNCs) in... more Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of multinational corporations (MNCs) in local institutional change. To what extent do multinational organizations help or hinder change, in particular new industry creation? Design/methodology/approach -The paper presents a qualitative case study examining the role of multinational temporary work agencies in the development of temporary agency market in Spain. Findings -The authors find that while multinational firms were less constrained by the norms, values and logics of the home environment, they also encountered specific challenges in the implementation of new practices. First, high-profile introduction of a novel practice requires checks and balances to manage unanticipated developments, such as undesirable activities by opportunistic actors that may derail the change process. Second, rapid growth is not conducive to concerted efforts at industry level, leaving the public identity of the institutional innovation extremely vulnerable. Third, high-profile change is also vulnerable to redefinition of the practice through misinterpretation or misuse by inexperienced users. Practical implications -The findings highlight the interaction between global and local actors in the development of a novel market and the main findings provide three concrete aspects of the change process that need to be carefully monitored in processes of MNC-driven institutional change. Originality/value -MNCs have been argued to be important agents of change in an organizational field as they are less bound by the norms, values and logics of any particular institutional environment. The authors' analysis shows how this disconnectedness of MNCs can also hinder the change effort in three important ways.
We extend research on the diffusion of corporate practices by providing a framework for studying ... more We extend research on the diffusion of corporate practices by providing a framework for studying practice variation during diffusion processes. Specifically, we theorize about how population-level mechanisms of diffusion link with organization-level mechanisms of implementation that lead to the adaptation of practices. We also identify technical, cultural, and political elements of fit (or misfit) between diffusing practices and adopters and analyze how the process of attaining fit across these elements can trigger different patterns of adaptation.
While social movement scholars have traditionally focused on how movements target the state, rece... more While social movement scholars have traditionally focused on how movements target the state, recent work has begun to theorize social movements' influence on corporations. We build on this work, arguing that studying framing (and counterframing) activities provides a productive way to deepen our understanding of the conditions under which social movements influence corporations. We probe framing dynamics in a descriptive analysis of how oil companies and the environmental movement organizations framed the role of the oil industry in climate change. Our findings suggest that while the environmental movement was unsuccessful in pressuring these companies to transform mainstream activities, it was successful at challenging two oil companies that had rebranded themselves as "green" to project more accurate identities. Although existing research has demonstrated that social movements have led corporations to verbally capitulate to movement demands, implement socially and culturally contested practices, and alter investment strategies, we suggest that the rhetoric and framing of movements can lead to a range of less visible, but highly significant, organizational outcomes.
... To conceptualize fit we draw on Oliver's (1992) categorization of fa... more ... To conceptualize fit we draw on Oliver's (1992) categorization of factors influencing organizationalpractices, and we identify three forms of fit that affect adaptation processes ... vary in the forms of misfit that they typically engender, therefore affecting diffusion through ...
Based on an in-depth study of third generation mobile telephony licenses in the UK, we discuss wh... more Based on an in-depth study of third generation mobile telephony licenses in the UK, we discuss what makes externally acquired resources more or less valuable for their owners. We find that value is influenced by competitive dynamics, the discourse that surrounds a particular resource, and the development of collaborative networks around the resource. We also find that the value of a resource is determined during the process that leads up to its acquisition and continues to vary in the post acquisition dynamics. Our analysis furthers existing understanding of value within the resource-based view, and bears important implications for firm-level capabilities.
When radical innovations impact an industry, established incumbents are sometimes displaced by ne... more When radical innovations impact an industry, established incumbents are sometimes displaced by new challengers, yet at other times, survive and prosper. What are the factors that influence these possible outcomes? Extensive as the studies are in providing insights into incumbent-challenger dynamics (ICD), the fragmented nature of the literature and the isolated treatment of various constructs at a particular level of analysis, merit a review and analysis. We (1) identify, collate and analyse several constructs from three categories; the industry, the firm and the challenge, (2) discuss the interactions among these constructs and show that incumbent failure or success can be better understood when these constructs are concurrently analysed. We derive several propositions for stimulating research and develop a holistic multi-level framework for understanding incumbent-challenger dynamics. We pull together strategic management theories at the industry level with those at the organizational and inter-organizational levels in the context of disruptive innovations. We contribute by bringing in the challenge dimension across these levels to inform whether an innovation is disruptive in its effects, not just ex post but also ex ante. For illustrative purposes and to concretize our arguments, we draw on both primary data from the Dutch television industry and archival data from four episodes of disruptive innovations.
Why do some organizations become famous? We argue that fame results from a conjunction of several... more Why do some organizations become famous? We argue that fame results from a conjunction of several audience-specific reputations. Expert reputation (i.e., reputation among members of a knowledgeable group, such as a cultural elite or critics) acts as a mediator for achieving fame for organizations held in esteem by their peers and clients. Based on a unique database of 103 architecture companies in France, our analysis uses structural equation modelling (SEM) combined with mediation effects to reveal that expert reputation can lead to fame by mediating peer and client reputations. We contribute by explaining why only some organizations already reputed among peers and clients become famous in society at large.
Research summary: Firms introducing disruptive innovations into multisided ecosystems confront th... more Research summary: Firms introducing disruptive innovations into multisided ecosystems confront the disruptor's dilemma: gaining the support of the very incumbents they disrupt. Through a longitudinal study of TiVo, a company that pioneered the Digital Video Recorder, we examine how these firms may address this dilemma. Our analysis reveals how TiVo navigated coopetitive tensions by continually adjusting its strategy, its technology platform, and its relational positioning within the evolving U.S. television industry ecosystem. We theorize how (1) disruption may affect not just specific incumbents, but also the entire ecosystem; (2) coopetition is not just dyadic, but also multilateral and intertemporal, and (3) strategy is both a deliberative and emergent process involving continual adjustments, as the disruptor attempts to balance coopetitive tensions over time. Managerial summary: New entrants confront a dilemma when they introduce a disruptive innovation into an existing business ecosystem, viz., how can they gain the support of the incumbents that their innovation disrupts? Confronting this " disruptor's dilemma " , the disruptor must consider several issues: How might it pitch its innovation to attract end customers and yet reduce the threat of disruption perceived by ecosystem incumbents? How can the innovation be modified to fit into legacy systems while transforming them? Based on an in-depth analysis of TiVo and its entrepreneurial journey, we explore the strategies disruptors can deploy to address these issues.
W hile scholars have provided increasingly well-developed theoretical frameworks for understandin... more W hile scholars have provided increasingly well-developed theoretical frameworks for understanding the role of institutional entrepreneurs and other purposeful actors in bringing about change in organizational fields, much less attention has been paid to the role of unorganized, nonstrategic actors in catalyzing change. In particular, the role of consumers remains largely uninvestigated. In this article, we draw on a case of the introduction of text messaging in the United Kingdom to explore the role of consumers in catalyzing change in organizational fields. Text messaging has become a widely diffused and institutionalized communication practice, in part changing mobile telephony from a voice-based, aural, and synchronous experience to a text-based, visual, and asynchronous experience. As consumers innovated and diffused new practices around this product, their actions led to significant changes in the field. We suggest how and under what conditions consumers are likely to innovate at the micro level and, with the subsequent involvement of other actors, catalyze change at the field level. Our primary contribution is to show how the cumulative effect of the spontaneous activities of one important and particularly dispersed and unorganized group can lead to changes in a field. By showing how change can result from the uncoordinated actions of consumers accumulating and converging over time, we provide an alternative explanation of change in organizational fields that does not privilege purposeful actors such as institutional entrepreneurs.
The intersection of entrepreneurship research and institutional theory has begun to attract incre... more The intersection of entrepreneurship research and institutional theory has begun to attract increasing scholarly attention. While much recent research has studied "institutional entrepreneurs" credited with creating new or transforming existing institutions to support their projects, less attention has been paid to the institutions that constitute the menus from which choices are made, and delineate resources for entrepreneurial or other agentic activities. While models of institutionalization frequently break down the process into different categorical stages, how an evolving context affords changing agentic latitude for actors merits more attention. We study the institutionalization of 'temporary work,' a new employment practice led by temporary work organizations, a new organizational form in the Netherlands from the 1960s to 2008. Our account suggests an 'ecological' imagery of institutionalization; rather than entrepreneurs' with predetermined agendas shaping and reshaping institutions, we observed distributed institutional entrepreneurship -entrepreneurs seeking change in concert and in conflict with other interdependent actors simultaneously creating, disrupting and maintaining institutions. By examining how an evolving context influences the role of "actor configurations," whose actions, interactions and counteractions can collectively lead to change, but also unintended outcomes, we highlight the non-teleological nature of institutionalization. Finally, our findings suggest that while the legitimacy of a novel practice grows with increasing institutionalization, legitimacy contests may recur and that increasing institutionalization may provide the backdrop for novel practices to emerge.
Firms introducing disruptive innovations into multisided ecosystems may confront the disruptor's ... more Firms introducing disruptive innovations into multisided ecosystems may confront the disruptor's dilemma -they must gain the support of the very incumbents they disrupt. We examine how these firms may address this dilemma through a longitudinal study of TiVo, a company that pioneered the Digital Video Recorder. Our analysis reveals how TiVo navigated co-opetitive tensions by continually adjusting its strategy, its technology platform, and its relational positioning within the evolving U.S. television industry ecosystem. We theorize how (a) disruption may affect not just specific incumbents, but also the entire ecosystem, (b) co-opetition is not just dyadic, but also multilateral and intertemporal, and (c) strategy is both a deliberative and emergent process involving continual adjustments, as the disruptor attempts to balance coopetitive tensions over time.
While scholars have explained how business has increasingly taken on regulatory roles to address ... more While scholars have explained how business has increasingly taken on regulatory roles to address social and environmental challenges, less attention has been given to the process of how business is made responsible for wicked problems. Drawing on a study of 'conflict minerals' in the Democratic Republic of Congo, we examine the process through which companies became responsible for a humanitarian crisis. We contribute by 1) bridging insights from contentious performance and deliberative approaches -to present a model of corporate political responsibilization for a wicked problem that explains how a 'field frame' of responsibility can emerge 2) explaining shifting boundaries between public and private responsibilities and the changing role of the state as catalytic rather than coercive 3) showing how responsibility can be attributed to a target by framing an issue and its root cause in ways that allow such an attribution, and how the attribution can diffuse and solidify.
Many technology studies have conceptualized transitions between technological generations as a se... more Many technology studies have conceptualized transitions between technological generations as a series of S-curve performance improvements over time. Surprisingly, the interregnum between successive generations has received little attention. To understand what happens in the interregnum, we study the transition from 2G to 3G in mobile communications. Our study identifies the presence of forces for both change and continuity across heterogeneous social and technical elements shaping an uneven transition between 2G and 3G mobile communications technology platforms. Unanticipated misalignments and asynchronies that emerged during the journey shifted the incentives of the various actors involved to participate. Based on these observations, we offer several conjectures as to the dynamics that can give rise to temporal discords during inter-generational technological transitions. 2 Such improvements correspond with the diffusion rate of novel technologies and innovations over time . Only a few actors adopt an innovation at first. Then, the adoption rate increases sharply with large numbers adopting followed by a slowing down as laggards finally adopt the innovation. 0048-7333/$ -see front matter
Studies on institutional change generally pertain to the agency-structure paradox or the ability ... more Studies on institutional change generally pertain to the agency-structure paradox or the ability of institutional entrepreneurs to spearhead change despite constraints. In many complex fields, however, change also needs cooperation from numerous dispersed actors with divergent interests. This presents the additional paradox of ensuring that these actors engage in collective action when individual interests favor lack of cooperation. We draw on complementary insights from institutional and regime theories to identify drivers of collective institutional entrepreneurship and develop an analytical framework. This is applied to the field of global climate policy to illustrate how collective inaction was overcome to realize a global regulatory institution, the Kyoto Protocol.
Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of multinational corporations (MNCs) in... more Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of multinational corporations (MNCs) in local institutional change. To what extent do multinational organizations help or hinder change, in particular new industry creation? Design/methodology/approach -The paper presents a qualitative case study examining the role of multinational temporary work agencies in the development of temporary agency market in Spain. Findings -The authors find that while multinational firms were less constrained by the norms, values and logics of the home environment, they also encountered specific challenges in the implementation of new practices. First, high-profile introduction of a novel practice requires checks and balances to manage unanticipated developments, such as undesirable activities by opportunistic actors that may derail the change process. Second, rapid growth is not conducive to concerted efforts at industry level, leaving the public identity of the institutional innovation extremely vulnerable. Third, high-profile change is also vulnerable to redefinition of the practice through misinterpretation or misuse by inexperienced users. Practical implications -The findings highlight the interaction between global and local actors in the development of a novel market and the main findings provide three concrete aspects of the change process that need to be carefully monitored in processes of MNC-driven institutional change. Originality/value -MNCs have been argued to be important agents of change in an organizational field as they are less bound by the norms, values and logics of any particular institutional environment. The authors' analysis shows how this disconnectedness of MNCs can also hinder the change effort in three important ways.
We extend research on the diffusion of corporate practices by providing a framework for studying ... more We extend research on the diffusion of corporate practices by providing a framework for studying practice variation during diffusion processes. Specifically, we theorize about how population-level mechanisms of diffusion link with organization-level mechanisms of implementation that lead to the adaptation of practices. We also identify technical, cultural, and political elements of fit (or misfit) between diffusing practices and adopters and analyze how the process of attaining fit across these elements can trigger different patterns of adaptation.
While social movement scholars have traditionally focused on how movements target the state, rece... more While social movement scholars have traditionally focused on how movements target the state, recent work has begun to theorize social movements' influence on corporations. We build on this work, arguing that studying framing (and counterframing) activities provides a productive way to deepen our understanding of the conditions under which social movements influence corporations. We probe framing dynamics in a descriptive analysis of how oil companies and the environmental movement organizations framed the role of the oil industry in climate change. Our findings suggest that while the environmental movement was unsuccessful in pressuring these companies to transform mainstream activities, it was successful at challenging two oil companies that had rebranded themselves as "green" to project more accurate identities. Although existing research has demonstrated that social movements have led corporations to verbally capitulate to movement demands, implement socially and culturally contested practices, and alter investment strategies, we suggest that the rhetoric and framing of movements can lead to a range of less visible, but highly significant, organizational outcomes.
... To conceptualize fit we draw on Oliver's (1992) categorization of fa... more ... To conceptualize fit we draw on Oliver's (1992) categorization of factors influencing organizationalpractices, and we identify three forms of fit that affect adaptation processes ... vary in the forms of misfit that they typically engender, therefore affecting diffusion through ...
Based on an in-depth study of third generation mobile telephony licenses in the UK, we discuss wh... more Based on an in-depth study of third generation mobile telephony licenses in the UK, we discuss what makes externally acquired resources more or less valuable for their owners. We find that value is influenced by competitive dynamics, the discourse that surrounds a particular resource, and the development of collaborative networks around the resource. We also find that the value of a resource is determined during the process that leads up to its acquisition and continues to vary in the post acquisition dynamics. Our analysis furthers existing understanding of value within the resource-based view, and bears important implications for firm-level capabilities.
When radical innovations impact an industry, established incumbents are sometimes displaced by ne... more When radical innovations impact an industry, established incumbents are sometimes displaced by new challengers, yet at other times, survive and prosper. What are the factors that influence these possible outcomes? Extensive as the studies are in providing insights into incumbent-challenger dynamics (ICD), the fragmented nature of the literature and the isolated treatment of various constructs at a particular level of analysis, merit a review and analysis. We (1) identify, collate and analyse several constructs from three categories; the industry, the firm and the challenge, (2) discuss the interactions among these constructs and show that incumbent failure or success can be better understood when these constructs are concurrently analysed. We derive several propositions for stimulating research and develop a holistic multi-level framework for understanding incumbent-challenger dynamics. We pull together strategic management theories at the industry level with those at the organizational and inter-organizational levels in the context of disruptive innovations. We contribute by bringing in the challenge dimension across these levels to inform whether an innovation is disruptive in its effects, not just ex post but also ex ante. For illustrative purposes and to concretize our arguments, we draw on both primary data from the Dutch television industry and archival data from four episodes of disruptive innovations.
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Papers by Shahzad Ansari