Incumbents' institutional work in ride-hailing: An analysis of the Brussels taxi industry against Uber

Abstract

While studies have examined institutional tactics developed by sharing platforms to change urban regulations, there has been less attention to tactics deployed by incumbents to resist regulatory change. Drawing on the theory of institutional work, we investigate tactics that the Brussels taxi industry employed to overcome Uber's quest for legitimacy. A content analysis of media outlets shows that taxi incumbents combined three categories of tactics to maintain regulations: 1) enforcement and discursive tactics; 2) tactics traditionally used by institutional creators; and 3) tactics of mobilization. We provide implications for theory and give recommendations to urban practitioners. We advise city governors to build more alertness to institutional tactics, since this knowledge may contribute to decisions going beyond interests of specific actor groups in the sharing economy ecosystem, to the benefit of society.