Constructing a New Organizational Form:One is not Born an Institutional Entrepreneur, but Becomes One

Abstract

The consequences of the crisis are particularly felt at the local level, and the Covid 19 pandemic has accentuated this trend. Accordingly, we observe the emergence of new collective organizational forms in response to local crisis and to ‘create a better world’. We conducted a longitudinal case study of the Archer Group located in Romans-sur-Isère (France) based on a life story of the CEO and various additional data gathered during 10 years . We scrutinized how the founder and leader of the group gradually transformed a work integration social enterprise (WISE) into a ‘territory enterprise’ whose ambition is to mobilize the entire community to serve sustainable local development. Our findings revealed how an organizational form mutates under the activity of an institutional entrepreneur. Using a practice-based perspective, we explain how an actor becomes progressively equipped for institutional action. We identified the different constellations of practices that an institutional entrepreneur develops over time to bring about this new organizational form. Our practice-driven lens makes it possible to propose a new approach of institutional entrepreneurship. Contrary to the view of a ‘hypermuscular institutional entrepreneur’ we show that his skills are not given at the outset, but are built over time.