Multi-level analysis of institutional formation and change

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (5) ◽  
pp. 515-541
Author(s):  
Simon Gérard ◽  
David Legg ◽  
Thierry Zintz

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the multi-level mechanisms of institutional formation and change and, in particular, how this occurs through the interplay of multi-level mechanisms? This is answered with a processual analysis of the International Paralympic Committee which is the international governing body of sports for people with an impairment. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a case-study approach based upon archival records, collected in relevant national and international sport organizations. More than 2,700 pages of archives were gathered, some of them being accessible to researchers for the first time. Embargo was also successfully lifted on recent and sensitive documents. Findings This study highlights multi-level mechanisms involved in institutional change processes triggered by a shifting institutional logic at the organizational field level. This paper also shows how field logic shifted at the moment of alignment between the societal, field and organizational levels. Moreover, it underlines how societal discourses influenced processes of institutional change by shaping the range of organizational actions available at the organizational and field levels. Originality/value This paper proposes a rare account of institutional change processes in which interplay between the societal, field, and organizational levels is analyzed. Furthermore, this paper provides a longitudinal investigation of an under-researched empirical setting, the Paralympic movement. Finally, this study integrates insights from the disability studies’ research field, which significantly deepens this analysis.

2020 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
pp. 575-586
Author(s):  
Tiina Tuominen ◽  
Bo Edvardsson ◽  
Javier Reynoso

Purpose This study aims to understand and explain how institutional change occurs at the level of value co-creation practices in service ecosystems. Despite the centrality of collective practices to the service ecosystems perspective, theoretically grounded explanations of how practices change and become institutionalized remain underdeveloped. Applying the theory of routine dynamics, this paper addresses two questions as follows: what does the institutional change mean at the level of value co-creation practices and what processes underlie these changes? Design/methodology/approach The study develops a conceptual framework that characterizes value co-creation practices as routines involving three aspects, namely, ostensive, performative and artifactual. As a key element in institutional change, the interplay between these informs an account of institutional change processes in service ecosystems. Findings The proposed conceptual framework specifies the conditions for institutional change in terms of value co-creation routines. First, any such change is seen to be grounded in alignment between changing institutional rules and the ostensive, performative and artifactual aspects of routines. Second, this alignment is seen to emerge through a dialectics of planned and practice-based activities during institutional change. An empirical research agenda is proposed for the analysis of institutional change processes in different service ecosystems. Originality/value This conceptual framework extends existing accounts of how service ecosystems change through the contributions of multiple actors at the level of value co-creation practices.


2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 122-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul J. Woodfield ◽  
Deborah Shepherd ◽  
Christine Woods

Purpose This paper aims to investigate how family winegrowing businesses can be sustained across generations. Design/methodology/approach The authors engaged a multi-level case study approach. In total, 27 semi-structured interviews were conducted with three winegrowing firms in New Zealand. All family members (both senior and next generation) employed in each business were interviewed alongside non-family employees. Findings Three key dimensions – knowledge sharing, entrepreneurial characteristics and leadership attributes – were identified that can support successful successions in family winegrowing businesses. Originality/value The authors have generated a theory that enables academicians and practitioners to understand how family winegrowing businesses can be successfully sustained across generations. The authors argue that knowledge is a central feature in family firms where previous research combines knowledge with entrepreneurial orientation or the resources and capabilities of a firm.


2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 187-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alireza Talebi ◽  
Davar Rezania

Purpose Governance of projects is a dynamic process that involves the interaction of agents, opportunities, rules, instruments and legitimacy. The authors conducted a case study of the governance of exploratory projects in public procurement of innovation in a local government. The authors consider both contextual aspects that impose requirements on the procurement process and procedural aspects of how the different actors interact with each other. In particular, the purpose of this study is to investigate how actors make sense of the projects and how governance evolves over their lifetime. Design/methodology/approach To engage in an open-system investigation of exploratory public procurement of innovation (PPI) projects, the authors adopted a case study approach in which they collected a variety of data including publicly available documentary evidence, interviews with project participants and project evaluation reports. The authors used transcripts of 17 interviews with project participants conducted independently to gain an initial understanding of the case. They conducted additional semi-structured interviews with projects’ participants (ten interviews in total) and used theory-driven analysis (Pawson and Tilley, 1997) based on Borrás and Edler’s (2014) model of governance. Findings The authors identified four stages – problem identification, partner selection, partnership development and evaluation and commercialization – these projects. The case demonstrates how governance changes in each stage and at the three levels of policy, network and projects. Each level has its own governance pillar. The results suggest that a multi-level perspective (MLP) can be a fruitful framework to study governance of projects in these contexts. Research limitations/implications The authors note that the number of participants in the network of this case is not very large. Other organizations that aim to adopt PPI may need to pay attention to the complementarity and the number of partners in the network. In this case, organizations were motivated to collaborate as each had its own objectives which were distinct but complementary. Practical implications Co-creation of value is currently a topic of interest for public policy reform across the globe. The case indicates that procurement for innovation requires a degree of coordinated change across governmental departments, such as planning, legal and procurement to implement the policy and related support systems. Furthermore, the authors observed that a portfolio approach to inter-organizational collaboration with different partners was effective. Each partner has its own objective, but they complement one another. A portfolio of different, though complementary, inter-organizational arrangements enables various complementary instruments and various logics to be used. Social implications The public sector is an important actor in driving innovation in products and services that fulfill societal needs. This is explored in public procurement of innovation. In this process, several partners from private and public sectors are involved. This partnership is mainly used to co-create the value and encourage innovation to benefit the citizens. However, to serve this goal, the case indicates that procurement for innovation requires a degree of coordinated change across governmental departments, such as planning, legal and procurement to implement the policy and related support systems. For this phenomenon MLP should be used as an inclusive framework to study socio-technical change. Originality/value The analysis of the case presented in this study demonstrates that even in the case of temporary public procurement of innovation projects, governance is layered. The three pillars of governance not only interact at each layer but also communicate across layers. Even though the interaction of the three pillars of governance is well established in the literature on socio-technical change, the interaction across levels in the context of temporary projects is novel. The authors contribute to the literature on governance of such projects by highlighting the stratification of governance.


2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (7) ◽  
pp. 1489-1505 ◽  
Author(s):  
Muhammad Asif

Purpose Ambidexterity is the ability of an organization to balance exploitation and exploration. Ambidextrous organizations perform better in managing productivity-innovation dilemma. Although the literature on ambidexterity has expanded, much less attention has been paid to the antecedents of ambidexterity. The purpose of this paper is to explore the antecedents of ambidexterity and develop a multi-level taxonomy of the antecedents. Design/methodology/approach Based on an extensive review of the literature, the paper develops criteria for categorizing the antecedents and then develops a taxonomy of the antecedents. Findings Two taxonomy frameworks have been developed: one is based on infrastructural elements, including organizational structures, processes, and context, while the other is based on different organizational levels (i.e. organizational, group, and individual) at which different antecedents exist. Most of the antecedents of ambidexterity reported in the literature fall in the category of “processes” – both individual/social and technical/procedural. Practical implications The paper provides an enhanced understanding of the antecedents of ambidexterity, how they relate to each other, and how they can be grouped together. The framework can help managers to apply the antecedents at various organizational levels, resulting in a more structured approach to ambidexterity. Originality/value The key contribution of the paper is in providing a multi-level understanding of the antecedents of ambidexterity. To the best of the author’s knowledge, such a taxonomy of the antecedents of ambidexterity has not been provided in previous publications.


Author(s):  
Sajad Fayezi ◽  
Maryam Zomorrodi ◽  
Lydia Bals

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to unpack tensions faced by procurement professionals as part of their triple bottom line (TBL) sustainability activities. The authors take an integrative perspective based on the procurement sustainability and organizational tensions literature, as well as stakeholder and institutional theory. Design/methodology/approach The authors use a multiple case study approach. Data are collected through multiple interviews and archival data from eight case companies in Australia. Findings The authors identify supply chain and company procurement sustainability tensions (PSTs) and explain their multi-level nature. The analysis also dissects the multi-stakeholder and multi-institutional environments where PSTs operate. The authors discuss such environments in terms of various temporal and spatial legitimacy contexts (LCs) that, through their assessment of institutional distance, can characterize the manifestation of PSTs. Practical implications The findings are instrumental for managers to make informed decisions when dealing with PSTs, and they pave the way for paradoxical leadership given the increasing importance of simultaneous development and balancing of TBL dimensions, as evidenced in this study. Originality/value This is one of the first studies to empirically investigate PSTs by drawing on an integrative approach to identify PSTs, and to discern various LCs that underpin stakeholder judgments of procurement’s TBL sustainability activities.


2014 ◽  
Vol 29 (4) ◽  
pp. 313-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Per Carlborg ◽  
Daniel Kindström

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the role of service modularity in developing and deploying efficient services, while at the same time meeting diverse customer needs. The analysis distinguishes between different service types and sets forth key issues for service modularization, identifying supporting resources (both internal and customer) and associated modular strategies for the different types. Design/methodology/approach – The study design used an exploratory case study approach, focusing on three Swedish manufacturing firms that are moving toward an increased service focus (service infusion). Data were collected through interviews and focus groups, and the collected data were analyzed independently, before being merged and synthesized in a cross-case analysis. Themes and patterns were extracted and linked to the theoretical framework following a systematic combining process. Findings – This study contributes insights to the emerging field of service modularity by investigating process modularization and modular strategies. A framework is put forward outlining modular strategies for four different service types covering both a passive and an active role for a customer. From a theoretical point of view, the role of the customer is added to the discussion to advocate for the necessity of a co-creative perspective in service modularity. Originality/value – This article contributes to the emerging research field of service modularity by providing empirical insights into how modularization and modular strategies can enable more efficient services. Depending on service type, different modular strategies are set forth. This study also highlights the need to recognize customer-specific activities, resources and competencies as pivotal parts of the modular service processes. Such insights are particularly relevant given the established view of service modules as functions of intra-firm activities.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dana Alshwayat ◽  
Jason Alexander MacVaugh ◽  
Hammad Akbar

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate organizational culture’s perceived importance and practice as it unfolds across hierarchal layers of a formalized organization. Organizational culture is important in innovation and change and becomes significant if its importance and practice are shared across all levels of an organization. Highly formalized organizations are not an exception to this. Yet, there is a shortage of empirical evidence on how the organizational culture’s perceived importance and practice unfold across the senior-management, middle-management and operational levels of a formalized organization. Design/methodology/approach Applying a theoretical frame incorporating information asymmetry, knowledge sharing and cultural participation, this paper examined three important facets of culture, namely, trust, collaboration and knowledge-sharing. Using a Jordanian bank’s case study, this paper collected data using a mixed-methods approach; quantitative to identify variations across levels and, subsequently, qualitative to explore the nuanced patterns in the perceived importance and practice of the three facets across different organizational levels in the context of a formalized organization. Findings The findings suggest that the importance and practice of the three cultural facets are shared, as well as differentiated across organizational levels based on purposiveness, person/situation-dependency and nature of work and nature/relevance of knowledge. Originality/value Using a multi-level lens provided insight not yet gained by current work in the field. This allowed us to unearth nuanced differences in the perception of organizational culture across organizational hierarchies. The paper contributes to the scholarship on organizational culture in the context of formalized organizations and to managerial practice by offering insights on how a shared practice of trust, collaboration and knowledge sharing is distributed across organizational levels, not captured before. This paper also suggests propositions related to each of three cultural facets, not spelled out before.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
João J.M. Ferreira ◽  
Cristina Fernandes ◽  
Pedro Veiga

PurposeThis study seeks to provide a broad ranging review that identifies, summarises and integrates the different multi-level approaches contributing to advances in research on measuring IC. This furthermore sets out and highlights an agenda for future research.Design/methodology/approachDeploying a systematic and thorough review of the literature, the authors were able to identify 60 articles and identify the main theories applied and the respective methodological orientations of these articles across three levels of analysis: micro, meso and macro.FindingsThe study's findings suggest that the literature on measuring IC has approached the theme across three different levels –micro, meso and macro. In addition, the results enable the identification of seven dimensions to IC: competitive advantage, economic value generated, resources and capacities, corporate governance, IC components, innovation management and the dissemination of IC.Research limitations/implicationsThe mixed-methods approach, which combines a traditional systematic literature review with ontological thematic analysis, casts light on the core aspects that led to the identification of a new approach in the academic literature on measuring IC.Practical implicationsThis study puts forward a holistic model with measurements for IC across the three levels of analysis as well as the respective criteria for choosing the variables.Originality/valueThis study represents a first attempt to analyse the emerging literature on IC measurement through a multi-level approach; integrating and extracting the potential theoretical contributions in this field of knowledge; proposing an integrated model as well as a theoretically relevant and innovative research agenda that opens up paths to future research projects.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 65-89
Author(s):  
Zhenzhen Yang ◽  
Yajuan Yang ◽  
Jiawei Sun ◽  
Baode Li

Abstract Let p(·) : ℝ n → (0, ∞] be a variable exponent function satisfying the globally log-Hölder continuous and let Θ be a continuous multi-level ellipsoid cover of ℝ n introduced by Dekel et al. [12]. In this article, we introduce highly geometric Hardy spaces Hp (·)(Θ) via the radial grand maximal function and then obtain its atomic decomposition, which generalizes that of Hardy spaces Hp (Θ) on ℝ n with pointwise variable anisotropy of Dekel et al. [16] and variable anisotropic Hardy spaces of Liu et al. [24]. As an application, we establish the boundedness of variable anisotropic singular integral operators from Hp (·)(Θ) to Lp (·)(ℝ n ) in general and from Hp (·)(Θ) to itself under the moment condition, which generalizes the previous work of Bownik et al. [6] on Hp (Θ).


2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 744-752
Author(s):  
Sisira Dharmasri Jayasekara ◽  
Iroshini Abeysekara

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to discuss the role of digital forensics in an evolving environment of cyber laws giving attention to Bay of Bengal Initiative for Multi-Sectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation (BIMSTEC) countries, comprising Bangladesh, India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Nepal and Bhutan, in a dynamic global context. Design/methodology/approach This study uses a case study approach to discuss the digital forensics and cyber laws of BIMSTEC countries. The objective of the study was expected to be achieved by referring to decided cases in different jurisdictions. Cyber laws of BIMSTEC countries were studied for the purpose of this study. Findings The analysis revealed that BIMSTEC countries are required to amend legislation to support the growth of information technology. Most of the legislation are 10-15 years old and have not been amended to resolve issues on cyber jurisdictions. Research limitations/implications This study was limited to the members of the BIMSTEC. Originality/value This paper is an original work done by the authors who have discussed the issues of conducting investigations with respect to digital crimes in a rapidly changing environment of information technology and deficient legal frameworks.


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