Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of contributors
- 1 Introduction: theorizing and studying institutional work
- Part I Essays on institutional work
- 2 Institutional work and the paradox of embedded agency
- 3 Leadership as institutional work: a bridge to the other side
- 4 Bringing change into the lives of the poor: entrepreneurship outside traditional boundaries
- 5 Institutional work as the creative embrace of contradiction
- Part II Studies of institutional work
- Index
- References
4 - Bringing change into the lives of the poor: entrepreneurship outside traditional boundaries
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 September 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- List of contributors
- 1 Introduction: theorizing and studying institutional work
- Part I Essays on institutional work
- 2 Institutional work and the paradox of embedded agency
- 3 Leadership as institutional work: a bridge to the other side
- 4 Bringing change into the lives of the poor: entrepreneurship outside traditional boundaries
- 5 Institutional work as the creative embrace of contradiction
- Part II Studies of institutional work
- Index
- References
Summary
Introduction
The powerful imagery of entrepreneurship as a means to induce and explain institutional change is gaining momentum (Greenwood & Suddaby, 2006; Lawrence & Suddaby, 2006). In response to criticisms that institutional theory was chiefly being used to explain homogeneity and persistence, important efforts have been devoted to restoring human agency in explanations of endogenous institutional change (DiMaggio, 1988; Sewell, 1992; Emirbayer & Mische, 1998). However, the image of the entrepreneur as institutional change agent has also been a source of controversy among institutional theorists, especially when accompanied by voluntarist, un-embedded conceptions of individual action (Holm, 1995; Leca & Naccache, 2006). As a result we observe vivid scholarly discussions on how to solve the “paradox of embedded agency”– i.e. on explaining how institutional change is possible if actors are fully conditioned by the institutions that they wish to change (Holm, 1995; Seo & Creed, 2002; Greenwood & Suddaby, 2006).
The current debate is important and we welcome more agent-oriented views on institutions. The purpose of this chapter is to advance institutional theory by rethinking various aspects of institutional work (Lawrence & Suddaby, 2006; DiMaggio, 1988) and thereby to contribute new insights into the paradox of embedded agency. We do so by challenging and breaking dominant patterns in current empirical research. While previous research on institutional entrepreneurship has predominantly looked at elite and/or powerful actors (DiMaggio, 1988; Fligstein & Mara-Drita, 1996) who assume either peripheral (Leblebici, Salancik, Copay & King, 1991) or central (Greenwood & Suddaby, 2006) positions, we focus instead on institutional work carried out by actors with limited power and very few resources.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Institutional WorkActors and Agency in Institutional Studies of Organizations, pp. 92 - 119Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009
References
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