Understanding sustainable cooperation

In the intricate relationship between emotions, institutions, and power, emotions are central to both reinforcing and challenging institutions and animating institutional processes. The literature at the intersection of emotions and institutions highlights how emotional experiences influence engagement with higher-order institutions, shaping practices and the symbolic systems that imbue these activities with meaning. Emotions are not just personal experiences but are deeply embedded in institutional dynamics, motivating continued adherence to institutionalized practices and values, as well as being strategically deployed to theorize, diffuse, or undermine the status quo. Institutions, as mechanisms of social control, pre-interpret the world for people, shaping their lived experiences and telling them how to think and feel. Emotions are a key pathway through which institutions exert this control, making power a more central concern in institutional theory. The distinction between systemic and episodic power is leveraged to help illuminate this dynamic. Systemic power operates through less visible means, such as institutional norms and ideological resources, while episodic power involves overt acts of coercion and manipulation. A review of existing literature highlights how emotions are implicated in the exercise of both systemic and episodic power. For instance, institutions exert systemic power over their inhabitants, conditioning emotional practice by valuing and prescribing certain emotions, creating emotional registers that dictate the legitimate use and expression of emotions within a particular institutional context. However, emotions can also drive resistance against institutional norms. Anger, for example, can signal dissatisfaction with the status quo and motivate efforts to reform or challenge institutional structures. Shame, typically associated with conformity, can also prompt reflection and resistance against institutional norms. On the other hand, extant literature suggests episodic power is clearly implicated in the ways in which institutional arrangements are created, stabilized, and changed. Episodic power is exercised through eliciting emotions in others, often through emotionally resonant rhetoric or other means such as visuals, spaces, and rituals. These emotionally charged appeals can mobilize support for institutional projects or instigate resistance. Furthermore, shared emotional experiences can foster collective identities that drive institutional change. Additionally, the literature speaks to the way in which emotional regulation—or the reflective control of emotional experiences and displays to have consciously intended effects on others—is integral to the exercise of episodic power, with several studies suggesting that regulation is a crucial enabling mechanism for effectively implementing a given institutional project. Future research should explore the interaction between systemic and episodic power, the material and temporal dimensions of emotions in institutions, and the role of unconscious processes in institutional dynamics.

Purpose– This paper aims to emphasize the importance of Chinese institutional contexts beyond “culture” by analyzing a few non-cultural institution-dependent contexts in Chinese HRM research, using an institutional theory perspective.Design/methodology/approach– The authors review existing Chinese indigenous management research from an institutional theoretical perspective and provide a critique of the research from that perspective.Findings– Chinese contexts are more than Confucianism. Focusing on this aspect of culture without integrating other institutional contexts, while informative, is unlikely to identify and explain the uniqueness of Chinese individual and organizational behaviors. Informed by institutional theory, the authors examine how institutional language context influences Chinese institutional behavior. The authors also argue that theguanxiphenomenon is more strongly dependent on institutional forces than on culture in the recent Chinese history. Incorporating these “non-cultural” institutional contexts in research enables us to describe the “what” and explore the “why” and “how” in theory development, rather than placing value judgments on the institutional arrangements.Research limitations/implications– While societal culture provides an important institutional context, China’s broad culture is not unique among countries with similar Confucian traditions. Chinese management scholars are encouraged to be mindful of pervasive institutional contexts in exploring and theorizing local organizational phenomena. Research without considering non-cultural institutional contexts may prevent a finer-grained understanding of Chinese organizational phenomena for developing Chinese management theory, and it is unlikely to identify the uniqueness of Chinese organizational phenomena among countries influenced by similar Confucian cultural traditions.Originality/value– Built on previous literature, this paper is among the first to specify and examine explicitly non-Confucian Chinese institutional contexts as a basis for the exploration of Chinese organizational phenomena.

The relationship between intellectual property (IP) and innovation has been discussed extensively in extant literature. However, the dynamic essence of IP as an institutional context, particularly its setback and reversal, has received little attention. Through the lens of institutional dynamics theory, this study identifies four asymmetric categories of IP institutional dynamics: accelerating reforms, decaying reforms, decaying reversals, and accelerating reversals in a typical emerging market, China. Favorable institutional dynamics (i.e. accelerating reforms and decaying reversals) improve firms’ R&D efficiency, whereas unfavorable institutional dynamics (i.e. decaying reforms and accelerating reversals) reduce R&D efficiency. Moreover, R&D input decreases in an unfavorable institutional context.

Land-use-change drivers related to institutional dynamics, including historical path dependencies and political dynamics associated with urban land transformation, are difficult to relate to specific spatial locations and thus are not easily included in spatial models of urban land-use change. In this paper we describe a land-use model with variables representing such institutional dynamics in the Greater Boston region, a metropolitan area characterized by periurban sprawl, for the period 1985–99. An aggregate land-use model is developed at the municipal level, based on a narrative analysis drawn from in-depth interviews with town planners, state officials, and land developers, to explain land-development patterns documented over that study period using aerial photography. Explanatory variables, including town financial variables, school quality measures, and spatial variables associated with access and location, are linked to land-change outcomes through the selection environment framework, a framework borrowed from economic geography to describe how regional growth patterns are shaped by locally specific institutional, market, and spatial contexts that constrain individual land-use decision makers. Results of the analysis suggest that institutional dynamics associated with housing values and associated tax revenues, educational expenditures, and exclusive zoning practices significantly explain municipal land-use change in the suburban or periurban context.

Explaining consumer choice of low carbon footprint goods using the behavioral spillover effect in German-speaking countries

The analysis of the impact of the Belt and Road initiative on the green development of participating countries

In this article, we examine whether and how the institutional context matters when understanding individuals’ giving to philanthropic organizations. We posit that both the individuals’ propensity to give and the amounts given are higher in countries with a stronger institutional context for philanthropy. We examine key factors of formal and informal institutional contexts for philanthropy at both the organizational and societal levels, including regulatory and legislative frameworks, professional standards, and social practices. Our results show that while aggregate levels of giving are higher in countries with stronger institutionalization, multilevel analyses of 118,788 individuals in 19 countries show limited support for the hypothesized relationships between institutional context and philanthropy. The findings suggest the need for better comparative data to understand the complex and dynamic influences of institutional contexts on charitable giving. This, in turn, would support the development of evidence-based practices and policies in the field of global philanthropy.

This paper examines how educators, police and children’s service providers, alongside young people, conceptualise the nature and causes of sexual harm among young people. Drawing on qualitative research conducted in southeast England, we identify four themes: sexual harm as learned behaviour rooted in personal and familial risk factors; normalisation of harmful experiences among girls; neglect and minimisation of boys’ victimisation; and evolving digital terrains of harm. While some participants engaged with structural and cultural explanations, many framed sexual harm through an individualised, risk-focused behaviourist lens. We suggest the emphasis on behaviour within the prevailing use of the term “harmful sexual behaviour” reinforces reductionist perspectives and overlooks interactional, institutional, and socio-cultural dynamics shaping young people’s experiences. Drawing on sexual script theory and post-digital sexual citizenship, we expand the conceptual terrain, advocating for a holistic and inclusive approach situating sexual harm within broader relational and institutional contexts, requiring nuanced, context-sensitive responses. PRACTICE IMPACT STATEMENT We advocate shifting focus from individualised and pathologising approaches to “harmful sexual behaviour” toward addressing broader cultural, relational and institutional dynamics shaping sexual harm among young people. By reframing the discourse to emphasise social and institutional contexts, we encourage policies and practices that promote a nuanced understanding of the cultural and structural factors influencing sexual harm, enabling more supportive and inclusive interventions.

This study investigates the institutional, social, and ecological dynamics that influence regional water governance and individual vineyard owners' decision making in global wine regions. Global wine grape production has grown steadily over the past 20 years, and climate change has emerged as a driver of transformation in wine regions resulting in a range of impacts. Changes to the climate are anticipated to accelerate in the future and present a number of challenges for wine regions; including risks to human systems, e.g., agriculture, labor, and economics, as well as ecological systems, e.g., surface and groundwater. Water is a critical resource for environmental and economic sustainability in wine regions, and vulnerability to freshwater resources in wine producing regions is expected to increase as wine regions experience climate extremes like heat and drought. We use the Institutional-Social-Ecological Dynamics (ISED) framework to help understand individual vineyard owner decision making about water management within the context of institutional, social, and ecological systems. We ask how the relationships between these systems impact outcomes for individual grape farmers adapting to climate challenges. Our empirical research uses document review and interviews with vineyard owners, planners, and natural resource managers in wine regions in Oregon, USA and Tasmania, Australia as a means to explore climate vulnerabilities and adaptation approaches. Subsequently we focus on an example vignette in each region to better understand individual decision making at the farm scale within the unique institutional, social, and ecological contexts identified in each region. Our cases highlight the finding that entrenched institutional regimes, in the context of ecological variability contribute to a social unevenness in access to water. Landowner conflict over water resources is likely to increase in the context of a hotter, drier climate in regions with wine industry growth. Individual vineyard owners have a range of attitudes and approaches to climate change planning and management; and adaptation around water is dependent on both economic resources and social values. Lessons from the individual farm scale help to inform broader implications of how institutional, social, and ecological drivers influence opportunities or barriers to the implementation of climate change adaptation practices in wine regions.

Place and space have long been the focus of studies of organizations (e.g. Bucher & Langley, 2016; Elsbach, 2004; Elsbach & Pratt, 2007; Tuan, 1974), but only recently are explored in institutional studies. For example, recent work examines the role of place in institutional change and maintenance on the organizational (Kellogg, 2009; Perkmann, McKelvey, & Phillips, 2019; Sibert, Wilson, & Hamilton, 2017), community (Marquis & Battilana, 2009; Rao & Greve, 2018), field (Cartel, Boxenbaum, & Aggeri, 2019; Furnari, 2014; Lounsbury, 2007; Mair & Hehenberger, 2014; Ziestma & Lawrence, 2010; Zilber, 2011; Zilber, 2018), or societal levels (Mair, 2012). Recent studies also explore the role of place in reviving tradition (Dacin, Nasra, & Leithwood, 2009), voluntary standards adoption (York, Vedula, & Lenox, 2018), and in institutional work (Lawrence & Dover, 2015). Our symposium explores the situatedness of institutional dynamics. Through the presentation of a theoretical model and three empirical studies, we will discuss how place impacts the salience, resonance, strength, and scope of institutions. With an introduction to place at the beginning, discussant’s comments, and a directed Q&A with audience participation at the end, this symposium will also explore the value of place to broader discussions about institutions. The Spatial Nature of Institutions: A Taxonomy Presenter: Thomas J. Roulet; U. of Cambridge Presenter: Joel Bothello; John Molson School of Business, Concordia U. Presenter: Pierre-Yann Dolbec; John Molson School of Business, Concordia U. Pay Attention to Sacred Places: How Reinforced Concrete Acquired Prestige Presenter: Melodie Cartel; UNSW Business School, Australia Presenter: Eva Boxenbaum; Copenhagen Business School Presenter: Sylvain Colombero; Grenoble Ecole de Management Community-Based Field and Market Reemergence: The Novel Resurgence of Independent Booksellers Presenter: Ryan L. Raffaelli; Harvard U. Turning Spaces into Places: The Primordial Soup of Cluster Genesis in The British Motorsport Valley Presenter: Paolo Aversa; Cass Business School, City U. London Presenter: Santi Furnari; Cass Business School, City U. London Presenter: Mark Jenkins; Cranfield U.

Case-study analysis shows that long-lasting social-ecological systems have institutional arrangements regulating where, when, and how to appropriate resources instead of how much. Those cases testify to the importance of the fit between ecological and institutional dynamics. Experiments are increasingly used to study decision making, test alternative behavioral models, and test policies. In typical commons dilemma experiments, the only possible decision is how much to appropriate. Therefore, conventional experiments restrict the option to study the interplay between ecological and institutional dynamics. Using a new real-time, spatial, renewable resource environment, we can study the informal norms that participants develop in an experimental resource dilemma setting. Do ecological dynamics affect the institutional arrangements they develop? We find that the informal institutions developed on when, where, and how to appropriate the resource vary with the ecological dynamics in the different treatments. Finally, we find that the amount and distribution of communication messages and not the content of the communication explains the differences between group performances.

Reindeer herding in Finnmark has been widely perceived during the last few decades as a perfect example of the tragedy of the commons. The present article claims that this discourse relies on flawed assumption regarding land tenure. Our historical analysis of the term ‘common’ in relation to resources in Finnmark shows the term to reflect a misunderstanding of local categories, practices, and concerns related to pastures, territories, and natural resources more generally. In this sense, it exposes a case of ‘mistaken identity’ between the formal legal conception of ‘commons’ and the customary rules and thinking of reindeer herders. We turn to different strands of critical institutionalism to analyse the processes of institutional change that have allowed these errors and misunderstandings to be formalised and naturalised in the current governance system. We show that a process of institutional bargaining between the Norwegian Parliament, the Sámi Parliament, and the International Labour Organisation has recently re-enforced an alien conception of a ‘commons’ to which ambiguous groups of people have equivocal rights. In parallel, a process of institutional layering of new regulatory actors and rules on top of existing ones has taken place. This regulatory ratcheting has resulted in the blurring of the authorities and jurisdictions intrinsic in the customary tenure system. Moreover, the new layers of regulations have actively overemphasized the Sámi customary obligation of sharing resources to legitimize the new, ambiguous, conception of commons. This process is explained as one of institutional bricolage based on naturalisation by analogy and authority processes that allow certain powerful actors to influence the production of institutional arrangements favourable to them. All three processes underline the negotiated, dynamic nature of institutional change. We propose this integrative analysis of institutional and general social dynamics is beneficial in studying commons as everyday practices affecting natural resource governance.

This paper analyzes institutional dynamics affecting Congress's impeachment decisions regarding the Iran-Contra Affair and the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. While other scholars have explained the Clinton impeachment by pointing to differences in the nature of the scandals–a decoupling of public opinion from legislative action, increasing partisanship, and a new media regime–these explanations overlook the nature of impeachment as an institutional confrontation, governed by institutional choices and dynamics. Taking an institutional approach, we argue that congressional decisions were strongly affected by the institutional arrangements adopted by Congress to handle the scandals' investigations. In brief, the earlier strategic approaches of party leaders and the congressional investigatory approach restrained inclinations to impeach President Reagan, while later ones promoted President Clinton's impeachment. More broadly, this analysis demonstrates the important interaction between institutional choices and party leaders' powers and strategies in affecting congressional action.

Transitions-based strategic environmental assessment

This dissertation presents an in-depth analysis of the institutional context and dynamics surrounding the emergence of SARSCoV-2, the virus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. Focusing on the case of Brazil, the study employs a multi-disciplinary approach that integrates mathematical economics, epidemiology, and public health policy analysis. Key aspects include examining the initial outbreak in Wuhan, the virus's rapid global spread, and the specific impacts and responses in Brazil. The research employs mathematical models to understand the dynamics of virus transmission, the effectiveness of various public health interventions, and the socio-economic consequences of the pandemic. Special attention is given to Brazil's vaccination campaigns and their role in pandemic control. The findings offer valuable insights into the complexities of managing a public health crisis in a socio-economically diverse country like Brazil and underscore the importance of timely and coordinated responses to global health emergencies.