Institutional entrepreneurship: Agents’ ability and activity for building up new institutions by combining existing elements

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of institutional entrepreneurship in opportunity formation and opportunity exploitation in developing emerging strategic new industries. Design/methodology/approach – The paper reviews the focal literature focussing on institutional entrepreneurs’ role in opportunity formation with special attention to opportunities for institutional entrepreneurs in emerging economy. A multi-method approach consisting of historical case studies and event sequencing is applied to track the historical development of the solar energy industry in two case contexts and to investigate the role of institutional entrepreneurs in this process. Findings – Investigation of two cases illustrates that different types of institutional entrepreneur, as represented by individual entrepreneurs and local government, in the context of massive institutional change – such as the Grand Western Development Program and the Thousand Talents Program in China – have varied effects on triggering and inducing institutional change and innovation to explore and exploit opportunities in emerging new industries. Practical implications – The significance of local context for the nature and scope of institutional entrepreneurship in emerging economy is worthy of further research. The top-down process of institutional innovation dominated by local government might cause myopic outcome and distortion of market opportunities. Indigenous individual entrepreneurs with well-accumulated political capital and strong perceived responsibility could be the main actors to introduce incremental institutional change by combining bottom-up and top-down processes and promoting sustained new industry development through creating and seizing institutional opportunities and market opportunities. Originality/value – This paper illustrates the close relationship between institutional environment and opportunity formation in emerging economies, contributes to the understanding of contextualizing institutional entrepreneurs in different regional contexts and discloses the problems involved in local government acting as an institutional entrepreneur.

We contribute to the literature on institutional and organizational change by integrating two related areas of study: the theory and methods of analysis informed by the research on institutional logics and historical-event sequencing. Institutional logics provide the theory to understand how the content of culture influences organizational change; historical-event sequencing reveals the underlying patterns of cultural transformation. We apply this dual perspective to the cases of institutional stability and change in organizational governance in three industries: accounting, architecture, and higher-education publishing. Research on governance has focused on changes in organizational design between markets, hierarchies, and networks. Missing from this research is an understanding of how institutions at the wider societal level motivate organizations to adopt one of these governance forms over another. We examine how the governance of firms in these industries has been influenced by the institutional logics of the professions, the market, the state, and the corporation by focusing on three mechanisms – institutional entrepreneurs, structural overlap, and historical-event sequencing. Overall, our findings reveal how accounting was influenced by state regulation producing a punctuated equilibrium model, architecture by professional duality producing a cyclical model, and publishing by market rationalization producing an evolutionary model of institutional change in organizational governance.

As agents of strategic institutional change, institutional entrepreneurs (IEs) draw resources from their structural environment to alter the structural context in which they are embedded. In this article, we explore which resources IEs mobilize in different structural settings. We distinguish between (positional or free) field resources and personal resources, all of which may be material, cultural, social, symbolic or political in kind. Our review of leading case studies of institutional entrepreneurship shows that centrally positioned IEs draw primarily on organizational positional resources. By contrast, peripherally positioned IEs rely mainly on the skilful mobilization of free resources as well as on the personal resources of individuals. Also the field’s degree of institutionalization has an impact on IEs’ resources: in emerging fields where field positions and field boundaries are not yet defined, resources must be imported from mature fields. Furthermore, although resource-poor peripheral IEs may set off institution-building processes in emerging fields, they are usually superseded by central organizational actors during later stages of institution-building.

The paper reviews the current discussion on institutional change and institutional entrepreneurship. Specifically, it focuses on institutional change agents, by which we mean individuals whose actions can be shown to have contributed to formal or informal institutional change, to the benefit of the wider economy or society as well as to themselves. It aims to explore their antecedents and behaviours, and the contingent factors contributing to institutional change, both intentionally and unintentionally. We find that the concept of institutional entrepreneurship does not provide an adequate conceptual underpinning for incorporating human agency into institutionalised theory. We therefore argue that a focus on institutional change agents may be more productive. Whilst institutional theory recognises the impact of institutions on entrepreneurs and individuals, this paper draws attention to the role of human agency for institutional change. Institutional change can happen intentionally and as an unintended by-product of entrepreneurial or organisational 'path-dependent' behaviour. The implication of this is that it is not only intentional behaviour which contributes to institutional change, but rather any entrepreneurial behaviour which implicitly or explicitly questions existing institutions. Thus, the paper adds to the current debate on institutional entrepreneurship.

We propose studying institutional change and the role of organizations behind it in real-time as the process unfolds and midstream without knowing the success or failure of the project.Our approach is in contrast to most analyses of institutional change that rely on retrospective accounts of successful institutionalization projects. This past methodology runs the risk of `sampling on the dependent variable,' limiting knowledge of the institutional change process to a narrow slice of successful cases. The context for this new approach to institutional change is the development of ‘American-style’ employee stock options (ESOPs) in German venture capital contracts from 1997 to 2000. We examine the attempts of ‘institutional entrepreneurs’ (German law firms) to alter the existing institutional environment to implement American-style ESOPs for their clients (venture capital firms and entrepreneurs). In contrast to past research on institutional change, our analysis reveals a more complex picture of the process of competition and collective action in leading to change. Our approach highlights the conflicting motives of organizational actors as they battle for and against institutional change.

Purpose– Mass retail in France, as an organizational field, experienced an institutional change when the Dutreil Law was promulgated on August 2, 2005. This new text is the result of a long process through which different groups of opposing logics faced one another. Michel-Edouard Leclerc actively took part in the debate launched about the Galland Law reform. His institutional activism has contributed to this change and he can be qualified, on that account, as an institutional entrepreneur. Anchored in neo-institutional theory, this article contributes to understanding the part played by the institutional entrepreneur in the process of institutional change. Design/methodology/approachDesign/methodology/approach– The authors analyze Michel-Edouard Leclerc's discourse on his weblog to characterize the rhetorical strategies he adopts to legitimize change. The analysis is based on the works of the pragmatics of communication and on a detailed semantic analysis of reference fields (TropesFindings– This contribution has enabled the author to stress the part of the institutional entrepreneur in the transformation of an organizational field. The rhetorical strategies implemented here contribute to modifying institutional logic. From a theoretical point of view, this contribution links the neo-institutional approach with entrepreneurship by proposing to define the institutional entrepreneur as an actor pursuing political opportunities.Originality/value– One important advantage of this work is that the authors have offered a methodological framework for studying the discourse of institutional entrepreneurs. The paper proposes empirical operationalization of rhetorical strategies. This contributes to improving the validity of the research because the identification of rhetorical strategies is no longer exclusively related to the researcher's subjective interpretation. The work also has practical implications for the actors: how can their discourse play a part in the institutionalization process?

The author critiques the existing literature on institutional change and points out that most of the work on institutional change and entrepreneurship is set in commercial fields where the guiding motive is competition and maximization of profits as against co-operation and sharing of resources that is at the core of institutional change in social arena. Issues such as injustice, inequity, and absence of fair play are significant concerns, which could spur the emergence of change agents, or social entrepreneurs, or champions to initiate action for change in a typical social arena such as an Indian rural community. Forwarding this argument and drawing from literature on social change, social entrepreneurship, and social movement, Patnaik extends the profiles of institutional change suggested by Dorado and posits an alternative profile of ‘social institutional change’ by addressing existing power asymmetries through the process of convening. The chapter defines institutional convening, the relationship between institutional convening and power, the role of institutional champion as an extension of DiMaggio’s ‘institutional entrepreneur’

Legitimizing the apprenticeship practice in a distant environment: Institutional entrepreneurship through inter-organizational networks

The Evolution of Property Rights: A Study of the American West

The world is facing challenges to reduce carbon emissions, the complex interplay between socioeconomic dynamics and environmental sustainability is of utmost importance. In the context of the BRICS nations-Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa-this study explores the intricate interactions between institutional entrepreneurship, institutional innovation, poverty reduction, social globalization, urbanization, and social entrepreneurship as well as their combined effects on the carbon footprint over the period of 1990 to 2021. This work examines the multi-dimensional interactions inside this nexus using a thorough analytical strategy that includes the Generalized Method of Moments (GMM), Three-Stage Least Squares (3SLS), and Robust regression approaches. Institutional entrepreneurship and innovation are the main forces behind institutional change and may have an impact on how people behave in terms of the environment. Strategies for reducing poverty frequently involve greater resource usage, which has an impact on carbon footprint. Examining social globalization's impact on carbon footprints is necessary given how it affects consumer habits and economic activity. Rapid urbanization is a dual problem because it spurs both increased energy demand and novel sustainability measures. With its emphasis on community-driven solutions, social entrepreneurship can provide regional solutions to reduce poverty and carbon emissions. The study's findings provide policymakers, practitioners, and researchers with insights into the complex web of socio-economic factors that underlies carbon footprint fluctuations. This research paves the way for informed policy decisions, sustainable business practices, and the pursuit of harmonious development that addresses both economic aspirations and environmental imperatives within the BRICS countries by illuminating the connections between institutional entrepreneurship, innovation, poverty reduction, social globalization, urbanization, social entrepreneurship, and carbon emissions.

The chapter investigates a hitherto unexamined case of central bank mission creep: that of the National Bank of Hungary (MNB) under the leadership of Gyorgy Matolcsy after 2013. Based on the core ideas of the literature on institutional entrepreneurship and institutional change, a qualitative case study relying on elite interviews and document analysis is presented. This shows how and why the mission creep could stretch the Hungarian central bank’s policy portfolio beyond recognition in, inter alia, assuming development banking functions, buying commercial banks, purchasing real estate, creating research foundations and even university departments. These self-proclaimed ‘unorthodox’ measures reflected the long-held positions and institutional entrepreneurship of Matolcsy, a former minister for the economy. The case study offers new insights into the impact of institutional entrepreneurship on the medium-term evolution of economic policy institutions.

Promoting sustainable energy: Does institutional entrepreneurship help?

This paper aims to illustrate how the triple-helix concept can be implemented on a city level by establishing an intermediary among the scientific, economic, and public administration spheres and civil society. By using the example of Bielefeld 2000plus, an initiative founded for this particular purpose, this paper shows that in today’s knowledge society, certain inter-organizational conflicts and challenges regarding cooperation may arise that an intermediary actor can channel efficiently. Furthermore, Bielefeld 2000plus serves as a prototypical example and is used to derive a theoretical model of such an intermediary actor as both the product of and platform for institutional entrepreneurs who try to elicit institutional change. Drawing on extant literature that examines intermediaries with the triple-helix concept, as well as institutional entrepreneurs, this paper discusses how an intermediary can act as an institutional entrepreneur by adopting a bifunctional framework, with all the advantages and disadvantages that this entails. This framework is condensed into the Bifunctional Intermediary (BFI) Model, which may benefit researchers studying triple-helix processes and practitioners seeking to establish an intermediary.

Purpose– This paper aims to investigate how sports science was institutionalised and rapidly deinstitutionalised within a Premier League football club. Institutional theory has been critiqued for its lack of responsiveness to change, but recent developments within institutional theory such as the focus on deinstitutionalisation as an explanation of change, the role of institutional entrepreneurs and the increasing interest in institutional work facilitate exploration of change within institutions.Design/methodology/approach– The authors deploy a longitudinal case study which ran from 2003-2011. Data was collected via observations, semi-structured interviews and through extensive literature reviews.Findings– Via this longitudinal case study, the authors illustrate that the antecedents of deinstitution can lie in the ways by which an institution is established. In doing so, they highlight the paradoxical role potentially played by institutional entrepreneurs in that they can (unwittingly) operate as agents of institutionalisation and deinstitutionalisation. Their study suggests that the higher the performance imperative within a field, the more likely the institution as a generic concept will be deinstitutionalised and the more likely to be appropriated and customised in order to gain inimitability and thus competitive advantage. Finally, the authors make an additional contribution by integrating the affective aspects of institutional work to their analyses; stressing the role played by emotions.Research limitations/implications– As with many case studies, the ability to generalise from one case, however detailed, is limited. However, it provides evidence as to the paradoxical role that can be played by institutional entrepreneurs – especially in highly competitive environments.Practical implications– The study suggests that the HR function has a potential role to play with regards to institutional continuity through a focus on leader and institutional entrepreneur succession planning.Originality/value– The paper makes an original contribution by highlighting both institutional and deinstitutional work within a single case. It highlights the paradoxical nature of institutional entrepreneurs in highly competitive environments and illustrates the importance of emotion to institutional maintenance and deinstitution.

The literature argues that what is an institution, how institution changes, and the relationship between institutional change and entrepreneurship. I argue that institution is not only the rule in a hierarchical order, but also a rule as something spontaneously and endogenously shaped and sustained in the repeated operational plays of the game itself [1]. Culture and meaning are important in the definition of institution. An institution conceptualized is essentially endogenous, but appears to be an exogenous constraint to the individual agents [2]. Paths of in institutional change have two ways: Demand Induced Change—Bottom-up Change or Supply Induced Changes: Change from above and from outside. Entrepreneurship does an important role during institutional change. Most of researches about the relationship of entrepreneurship and institutional change are how nation’s institution or economic policy influence entrepreneurship, and how entrepreneurs’ actives make the economy successful or unsuccessful. I argue that entrepreneurship is not only concerned with business success, as measured by profits, but also with subjective welfare and noneconomic wellbeing. Entrepreneurship is a catalyst for structural change and institutional evolution. Evasive entrepreneurs could be viewed as a new rule-breaker. In most theories of institutions and entrepreneurship, causality is understood to run from institutions to entrepreneurship [3].