Organizational Field Positions and Institutional Change: Evidence from MNCs in an Emerging Market

Abstract

Although the relationship between field position and agency has been established in institutional research, until recently this debate mostly concerned central and peripheral actors. Using a qualitative study of the multinational corporations (MNCs) in the pharmaceutical industry in Russia, we find that intermediate companies, positioned in between the center and periphery of the field, were more successful in managing the shifting conditions within the institutional context. This agency was manifested through discursive, performative and identity strategies, which enabled such firms to maintain their intermediate position and subtly introduce institutional change. We extend the emergent research on middle-status actors in neo-institutional theory. Our findings also provide novel insights into the international business and management debate on MNCs and organizational fields.