Institutionalization and Organizational Long-term Success
Journal Title: BAR: Brazilian Administration Review - Year 2007, Vol 4, Issue 2
Abstract
Institutionalization processes have an ambivalent effect on organizational long-term success. Even though they foster organizational stability and permanence, they also bring about rigidity and resistance to change. As a result, successful organizations are likely to lose their competitive advantage over time. The paper addresses this issue through the investigation of the institutionalization processes of two long-lived companies: General Electric, a firm that has been a long-term success and its rival, Westinghouse, which was broken up after eleven decades of existence. The longitudinal, multilevel analysis of firms and industry has identified two different modes of organizational institutionalization. The reactive mode gives rise to rigidity and change resistance, much like institutional theory predicts; the proactive mode, on the other hand, neutralizes those negative effects of institutionalization processes. In the reactive mode, structure predominates. In the proactive mode, agency plays a major role in organizational institutionalization, and in managing the organization’s relations with the environment, clearly contributing to environmental institutionalization.
Authors and Affiliations
Fleck, Denise
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP40409
- DOI -
- Views 252
- Downloads 0
The Variance Composition of Firm Growth Rates
Firms exhibit a wide variability in growth rates. This can be seen as another manifestation of the fact that firms are different from one another in several respects. This study investigated this variability using the v...
The Enhancing Impact of Friendship Networks on Sales Managers’ Performance
This paper examines how relationships with friends moderate the impact of professional networks on sales performance. Based on a sample of 204 sales managers in a professional service company, this study presents evide...
Credit Card Risk Behavior on College Campuses: Evidence from Brazil
College students frequently show they have little skill when it comes to using a credit card in a responsible manner. This article deals with this issue in an emerging market and in a pioneering manner. University stude...
Mind the Gap: Lessons from the UK to Brazil about the Roles of TTOs throughout Collaborative R&D Projects
The literature about collaboration for innovation has reported fundamental activities performed by intermediaries. In this paper, universities’ technology transfer offices (TTOs) are placed as intermediaries between aca...
On Social Enterprises and Social Entrepreneurship: An Extension
Research on social entrepreneurship still lacks theoretical depth, as well as the analysis of the antecedents that lead to the emergence of social enterprises. Seeking to advance such discussion, this paper aims to ana...