Complex Institutional Settings Research Articles

Exploring institutional dynamics in a multi-level analysis in Southeast Europe

ABSTRACT The European Union (EU) integration process of transition economies from Southeast Europe has faced significant political and economic challenges. Two decades in, these challenges persist, leading to slower-than-expected economic development and fostering local frustration, nationalism, populism, and migration flows. This article aims to disentangle the institutional complexities in these regions. Using an exploratory, inductive approach based on 30 qualitative interviews across three Southeast European countries, the research conducts a multi-level analysis. The findings reveal that complex institutional settings are characterised by institutional voids and asymmetries stemming from the transition process and EU integration. The perception of the overall institutional setup is central, negatively influenced by institutional voids and asymmetries but positively impacted by participatory law-making approaches. Additionally, competing institutional logics on the micro-level influence companies’ perspective. This article provides insights into the institutional challenges faced by companies in transition economies, crucial for policy formulation and development projects in the context of EU integration. The key takeaway emphasises the importance of well-designed participatory policymaking, highlighting the need for careful preparation and a foundation of trust.

Navigating Conflicting Incentives: Discursive Strategies of Political Parties in Germany’s Cooperative Federalism

Abstract Federal systems create complex institutional settings that foster and encourage cooperation while also enabling self-serving and even opportunistic political behavior. Focusing on parliamentary discourses, we argue that political parties can navigate these conflicting incentives skillfully, employing a set of five distinct discursive strategies that integrate both the need for cooperation and the possibility of self-interest. Leveraging a qualitative content analysis of 212 German parliamentary debates and 4,524 manually coded statements, we demonstrate that the use of these discursive strategies is shaped by parties’ level of integration into federal institutions. The data reveal that parties which are more strongly involved in intergovernmental bodies uphold a more cooperative discourse, while refraining from confrontational strategies toward federal institutions and actors. We also find that the linkage between the vertically integrated party system, which incentivizes co-partisans to stick together across levels and constituent units, and multiparty coalition governments, counteracts federal blame games.

Do digital platforms promote or hinder corporate brand prestige?

PurposeIn the era of digital evolution, companies are increasingly deploying digital platforms to optimize operational efficiencies and to connect with customers more directly. However, little is known about whether and how companies can leverage digital platforms to enhance their brand prestige. Integrating insights from the resource-based view of the firm into the branding literature, this study aims to compare and distinguish the effects of the two digital platform functions, technical and social functions, on a company’s brand prestige. This study also assesses the moderating roles of two institutional factors, market uncertainty and brand imitation.Design/methodology/approachThis study estimates a moderated regression model using a survey of 240 companies in China that deploy digital platforms. This study uses SPSS 24.0 to perform regression analysis.FindingsThe study finds that technical functions positively, whereas social functions negatively affect brand prestige. Moreover, the technical functions of digital platforms are more beneficial for companies to build their brand prestige when the market is turbulent and the extent of brand imitation is high, whereas, under the same conditions, social functions lead to lower brand prestige.Research limitations/implicationsThere are several limitations of this study that offer future research opportunities. First, due to the difficulties of data collection, measures were taken from the same source for which common method bias could be a potential concern. Second, this study considered two institutional boundary conditions in these models. Future research should consider mediators as well as other potential moderators to understand the underlying mechanisms of how digital platforms affect brand prestige. Third, future studies may develop better constructs to manifest these two types of digital platform functions. Finally, this sample was limited to companies in China.Practical implicationsThis study provides important implications for companies leveraging digital platforms to build brands. First, companies must distinguish between the different functions of digital platforms. The findings reveal that companies that leverage digital platforms to build brand prestige are suggested to make greater use of technical functions yet should be cautious in developing social functions. Second, this research suggests although market uncertainty and brand imitation are not conducive to enhancing brand prestige, it is possible for companies to take advantage of these unfavorable environments to better serve niche customers.Originality/valuePrior marketing studies emphasize the benefits of digital platforms and largely overlook the double-edged sword effect of digital platforms on companies’ brand building. This study contributes to the marketing literature by revealing the benefits of technical function and the challenges of social function in driving brand prestige in complex institutional settings.

Threshold Concepts in Social Anthropology: Literature and Pedagogical Applications in a Bridging Project

This article considers what UK-based higher education researchers Jan Meyer and Ray Land describe as “threshold concepts,” asking how these concepts might apply to the field of social/cultural anthropology. This is explored in relation to the practical pedagogical project of constructing a curated online resource kit to support students who are “bridging” into social anthropology from other disciplines. In this article, we review the literature on threshold concepts in social anthropology as well as some adjacent writings on “key,” “core,” or “signature” anthropological concepts. The potential value of boundary work and troubled/troubling knowledge as a generative space emerge as useful points of consideration. We then present findings from our own surveys and focus groups with University of Otago students, summarizing their emphasis on “felt” and applied levels of understandings, the significance of ethnography, and a “hidden curriculum” of values. We explain how the lens of threshold concepts helped us interpret these responses, evaluate possible resources to meet their needs, and shape the content and structure of the online resource kit we called “AnthNav.” We conclude that while the threshold concepts framework is not the only way to understand anthropological education, it can be a valuable discussion-starter for those teaching in complex institutional settings.&nbsp

Knowledge use analysis as a way to understand planning conflicts. Two cases from Gothenburg, Sweden

Knowledge integration is often highlighted as a necessary precondition for sustainable urban planning. It is also a way to manage conflicts in complex institutional settings and practices. However, analyses of knowledge use practices in empirical planning cases are rare. In this paper, we aim to better understand knowledge-related aspects of conflict development and resolution. We perform a detailed analysis of how different types of knowledge are used by conflicting actors in two urban development projects in Gothenburg, Sweden and reflect on the implications that such practices have for conflict resolution. We show how integration of knowledge can be identified in the context of planning conflicts and how knowledge use related roots of conflicts become more visible. Attention to how knowledge is used and integrated in conflict management can shed more light on shortcomings of resolution processes and serve as a base to improve conflict resolution towards more lasting, long-term oriented, and therefore more sustainable solutions.

Institutional entrepreneurship: collaborative change in a complex Canadian organization

PurposeThis study adopts an institutional entrepreneurship perspective in the context of public–private partnerships (P3s) to highlight the role of social actors in enacting institutional change in a complex organizational setting. By studying the actions of two prominent social actors, the authors argue that successful institutional change is the result of dynamic managerial activity supported by political clout, organizational authority and the social positioning of actors.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted a field-based case study in a complex institutional and organizational setting in Alberta, Canada. The authors employed an institutional entrepreneurship perspective to identify and analyze the activities of two allied actors motivated to transform the institutional environment for public infrastructure delivery.FindingsThe empirical study suggests that the implementation of institutional change is both individualistic and collaborative. Moreover, it is grounded in everyday organizational practices and activities and involves a coalition of allies invested in enacting lasting change in organizational practice(s), even when maintaining the status quo seems advantageous.Originality/valueThe authors critique the structural explanations that dominate the literature on public–private partnership implementation, which downplays the role of agency and minimizes its interplay with institutional logics in effecting institutional change. Rather, the authors demonstrate that, given the observed impact of social actors, public–private partnership adoption and implementation can be theorized as a social phenomenon.

Development of the University Food Environment Assessment (Uni-Food) Tool and Process to Benchmark the Healthiness, Equity, and Environmental Sustainability of University Food Environments.

Globally, there is increasing interest in monitoring actions to create healthy, equitable and environmentally sustainable food environments. Currently, there is a lack of detailed tools for monitoring and benchmarking university food environments. This study aimed to develop the University Food Environment Assessment (Uni-Food) tool and process to benchmark the healthiness, equity, and environmental sustainability of food environments in tertiary education settings, and pilot test its implementation in three Australian universities in 2021. The Uni-Food tool development was informed by a review of the literature and input from an expert advisory panel. It comprises three components: (1) university systems and governance, (2) campus facilities and environments, and (3) food retail outlets. The process for implementing the tool is designed for universities to self-assess the extent to which they have implemented recommended practice in 68 indicators, across 16 domains, weighted based on their relative importance. The pilot implementation of the tool identified moderate diversity in food environments across universities and highlighted several opportunities for improvements at each institution. The assessment process was found to be reliable, with assessors rating the tool as easy to use, requiring minimal resources. Broad application of the tool has the potential to increase accountability and guide best practice in tertiary education and other complex institutional settings.

Propiska regime regulating mobility and migration in post-Soviet cities

The paper sheds light on the composition of the institution of propiska regime in post-Soviet urban space as part of the post-Soviet policies of mobility control and migration restrictions. Based on the case studies of internal and international migration, comparing internal migrants in post-Soviet capital cities (Central Asia) and international migrants within post-Soviet space (migrants in Moscow), the paper highlights the implications of the propiska regime.Mobility within the boundaries of former Soviet Union as well as within the national boundaries of the most post-Soviet republics is complicated by the propiska regime. Registration entitles a holder of propiska to social welfare and other benefits, its absence throws a person out of the realm of state provisions, and welfare support, in other words this person becomes illegal. This can happen not only to international migrants for example in Moscow but also to internal migrants in Russia or in Central Asia.Furthermore, the paper highlights implications of propiska regime for state and society relations in two different contexts illegal residents (without propiska) within their own country and illegal migrants outside their country within the post-Soviet region. The propiska regime is constituted not only by the registration procedures comprising its legal provisions and the administrative tools necessary to install it, but rather by a wider taxonomy and complex institutional setting. This complex is a mixture of legal, illegal, formal and informal rules, practices of police, border security, administrative employees, propiska makers issuing fake propiskas, propiska brokers, clients, discourses and other practices.

The lack of sufficiency among management researchers through the institutionalization of air travel

Research on environmental sustainability within higher education institutions (HEIs) neglects mostly the behavior of the researchers themselves. Applying to this problem, it should not be overlooked that academics face competing logics within HEIs. While on the one hand sufficient behavior could reduce air travel, exactly those flights encourage careering in neoliberal academia. To analyze why there is still a lack of sufficiency among management researchers and how their established behavior can be sufficiently restructured, we build on Delbridge and Edwards’s (2013) approach of “inhabiting institutions” and investigate how the (dominant) institutional logic of academic careering in the era of neoliberalism thwarts the (subordinated) logic of sufficiency. Forty-three interviews with pre-docs, postdocs, and professors disclose which barriers (e.g., personal benefits, structural barriers, and consequences of neoliberalism) and promoters (e.g., personal commitment, rule making, and system change) to sufficiency exist on micro, meso, and macrolevels. Our results show which interdependencies these levels are subject to and how actors are able to initiate a change toward sufficiency while inhabiting complex institutional settings.

Institutional and firm-level factors for mobile money adoption in emerging markets–A configurational analysis

Mobile money is a widespread innovation throughout emerging countries. Since neither country-level institutions nor firm-level factors alone offer satisfactory explanations for mobile money's success, we draw on institutional theory to uncover how firms interact with institutions in target markets and explain the adoption of mobile money services. We perform a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis on 110 mobile money services from 46 emerging countries revealing four recipes for widespread adoption. In configuration 1, providers with high market power reach high adoption–irrespective of enabling institutions–if institutional voids are large. However, configurations 2 and 3 suggest that in most cases either enabling regulation or sufficient mobile and educational infrastructure are key for successful adoption. In these three configurations, providers are part of multinational telecommunication firms operating in markets with financial market voids. Configuration 4 suggests that certain fintech firms reach high adoption rates in more developed financial services sectors because they offer a broad scope of services. We highlight the usefulness of a configurational lens for institutional theory to understand phenomena at the intersection of innovation, society, and business – especially in emerging markets with complex institutional settings.

Trust, Coordination and Multi-level Arrangements: Lessons for a European Health Union

In the wake of the outbreak of the COVID-19 crisis, the Swedish and Swiss governments adopted a similar policy approach. They enacted mostly non-binding measures to contain the epidemic, relying on the high level of interpersonal trust and trust in political institutions that exist in both of these (broadly comparable) countries to ensure compliance. However, unlike Sweden’s strategy, the Swiss policy response evolved during the early weeks of the “first wave”, achieving public health and socioeconomic results that have been considered as satisfactory, notwithstanding the complex institutional setting and policy process, the central location of Switzerland in continental Europe, its openness and its closeness with deeply affected regions in Italy and France. To shed light on this policy response and to draw lessons from it, this paper firstly discusses the role played by the new Swiss Epidemics Act. This law centralises decision-making capacity at the federal level and expands the competences of the central government, while leaving leeway to subnational units for implementation and recognising the need for increased international regulatory cooperation. Secondly, it shows how such a solution – a multi-level arrangement steered from the federal level with quite strong vertical and horizontal coordination mechanisms – could work as a blueprint for a European Health Union.

Network neutrality in the European Union: A communications policy process analysis

Few Internet governance issues raised a similar level of public alertness, as it has been the case with network neutrality. Advocates in favour of strict rules feared the end of the Internet itself, while access providers fought against interferences in their business areas. The regulatory process in the European Union was multi-faceted and faced several key changes and turning points. This paper examines the positions at stake from the emergence of the network neutrality debate in 2009 during the amendment of the Telecom Single Market Directive to its aftermath in 2019. Focussing on the implications for public and private online communication, a normative and social value framework provides us with the basis for interpreting key developments. The methodological setting is a multi-method-design consisting of a comprehensive literature review, a document analysis as well as expert interviews with involved stakeholders. The results shed light on the importance of the EU Internet market, its characteristics and challenges and allow to draw a comprehensive image of the European Union’s performance in regulating network neutrality. Albeit the complex institutional setting slowed down the process, the outcome is characterized by the inclusion of multiple stakeholders and the possibility to adapt legal norms on a dynamic basis.

Attributing responsibility in devolved contexts. Experimental evidence from the UK

In devolved contexts, people may get it wrong in their responsibility assignments because they are unsure about who does what or because they filter their attributions of credit and blame through their political lenses. This paper theorises about these two mechanisms and tests the role of cognitive bias in moderating responsibility judgements in multilevel systems. Using a survey experiment on responsibility attribution for the NHS outcomes in Scotland and Wales, results show that partisanship is the strongest bias of responsibility assignments between regional and central authorities. Yet national identity also operates as cognitive bias, a role that so far has been theoretically and empirically overlooked in the literature. The empirical findings point to the role of partisanship and identity as cognitive guides to make responsibility judgements in complex institutional setting, such as the one that emerges from increasing devolution in the United Kingdom.

Clinical trials and venture tribulations: Stem cell research and the making of Vietnamese bio-entrepreneurs

The article is concerned with biomedical technologies and the entrepreneurial ways through which these vital technologies come to life. Focusing on stem cell ‘clinical trials’ conducted in hospitals in Việt Nam, it traces the processes through which tentative experiments and uncertain results are being translated into commercial ventures. It pays particular attention to the complex institutional settings and collaborative engagements through which biomedical enterprise and markets come to be instituted. Of particular concern are network partnerships involving public bodies, policymakers and private business interests that facilitate the process of turning clinical experiments into vetted therapies for the healthcare marketplace. The article contributes to anthropological reflections on emerging bioscience economic formations that are widely termed as ‘bioeconomies’. It does so, by reorienting the analytical gaze away from understandings of economic value as inherently rooted in biological substances that hold a future promise of cure, towards ongoing processes of assembling biomedical entrepreneurial networks and turning biotechnical matters into commodities.

Implementing pay-for-performance in primary health care: the role of institutional entrepreneurs

Institutional entrepreneurs are vital for facilitating non-incremental health policy change in complex institutional settings where established traditions and practices carry considerable weight. This paper describes a comparative case study of health policy-making which shows that Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Framework for non-incremental policy change requires enhancement to explain results in policy-making in two Westminster unitary majoritarian jurisdictions. The most similar systems comparative study found that historical, rational choice, organisational and discursive institutionalist approaches explained the policy change and variation observed better than agency-based approaches did. However, institutional entrepreneurs were important in both cases. Differences in coordinative discourse help to explain the differences in degree of change achieved in each case study and highlight the importance of discursive institutionalist approaches in bridging institutional and agency-based approaches.

Building Relationships Between a Market Logic and Multiple Logics in Complex Institutional Settings

Research in institutional logics tends to neglect to emphasize how logics relate to one another when enacted by interacting actors. We explore how variants of a market logic enacted by private firms relate to an array of public sector logics when the firms aim to commercialize innovative welfare solutions in healthcare. Two findings are obtained: First, conflicting or convergent logics relationships are continuously built between a market logic and different public sector logics. Second, the logics relationships influence the firms’ space for actions: Where some firms focus on commercializing in their home market other firms shift focus to international markets depending on whether their market logic has a convergent or conflicting relationship with public sector logics in their home market. The findings contribute to institutional logics theory by refining our understanding of how different relationships between logics develop continuously and enable actors to take different forms of actions.

Toward participatory decision-making in river corridor management: two case studies from the European Alps

River managers are aware that river restoration entails addressing and effectively solving wicked social-ecological problems. Contemporary river corridor management is characterized by a variety of actors with different perspectives and interests, and by complex institutional settings and legal landscapes. Additionally, at the intersection between litho-, hydro-, and biological fields, new research suggests that river restoration should reactivate matter and energy fluxes, re-establish spatial connections with the floodplains, and enhance aquatic and terrestrial habitats without exacerbating flood risk. First, we outline a general structure of participatory river corridor management that addresses the following key requirements: (1) unambiguous, participatory spatial delineation of the river corridor; (2) comprehensive assessment of the river corridor's hydro-geomorphological, ecological, socio-economic and cultural processes; (3) transparency and consistency of the decision-making process; as well as (4) a coherent envisioning process. Subsequently, we present an overview of two river corridor management processes, conducted in South Tyrol, Italy. Specifically, we analysed the Etsch/Adige River corridor between Laas/Lasa and Glurns/Glorenza in the Upper Vinschgau/Venosta valley characterized by intense agricultural land use and the densely populated Eisack/Isarco River corridor in Brixen/Bressanone. Based on structured interviews with project managers, we highlight strengths and shortcomings of the proposed participatory management and envisage procedural improvements.

The Dilemmas of Equity Planning in the Global South: A Comparative View from Bangkok and Medellín

This paper examines equity planning in the face of growing adversity in cities of the Global South. The literature broadly addresses this question from the perspective of empowered social movements and/or insurgent citizenship practice. The actual experience of how equity practitioners interface with grass-roots efforts, however, remains understudied. Using case study data from urban upgrading programs in Medellín and Bangkok, we show that equity planners can be effective advocates to marginalized communities as they become embedded in local systems of trust. The paper also evinces the limitations and dilemmas planners confront in two extremely complex institutional and political settings.

The Political Economy of Hydropower in the Communist Space: Iron Gates Revisited

AbstractThis paper proposes a critical discussion of the political economy of hydropower construction in the communist space. We use political economy, economic history and political ecology literature in order to reveal the economic and political relations in which hydropower is embedded in socialist states. The case analysed is the Iron Gates, a joint Romanian‐Yugoslav project which raises specific questions about the techno‐political framework of the new ‘hydraulic landscape’ and its place in socialist economies and societies. The case reveals important transformations in the political and economic relations within the Soviet bloc and provides a description of the complex institutional setting used in the construction of the hydropower system. In parallel, the paper explores the contribution of political power in the construction of the Iron Gates and especially its use in connection with the ideological production of the new communist regime.

The EU Floods Directive trickling down: tracing the ideas of integrated and participatory flood risk management in Sweden

This study examines how the EU Floods Directive – an extensive and innovative legislative instrument for integrated and participatory flood risk planning in all EU member states – influences local flood risk management in one member state, Sweden. The study identifies that: many municipalities have received new knowledge; cross-sectoral organisational structures for water and flood risk issues at the local level are being formed or strengthened; and the flood risk issue has been elevated up the political agenda. There are also however clear signs that a number of other fundamental issues are not being adequately addressed in the complex institutional setting that results from the directive's implementation. These issues are undoubtedly obstructing the development of a more integrated and participatory flood risk management system. Of key importance here are questions relating to how roles and mandates are communicated and adopted, the lack of coordination between the Floods Directive and the Water Framework Directive, and the inadequate involvement of the municipal level and other stakeholders. Practical recommendations on how to redirect development towards more positive outcomes in these areas are thus formulated.