This symposium makes a direct contribution to the 2020 AOM’s theme to “Broaden our Vision,” promoting cross-disciplinary dialogue among scholars from organization theory, entrepreneurship, and economics, to deepen our understanding of “how, why, and when” institutions matter for entrepreneurial activity and innovation. To discuss the latest advancements in literature, we feature the work of both strong emerging scholars and established institutionalists that blend theory-building with empirical rigor. Inspired by recent calls made in editorials of the Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of Business Venturing, and Entrepreneurship Theory & Practice to ensure rigor in scholarship, we feature papers that address some of the most challenging empirical issues associated with studying institutions and entrepreneurial activity. Our symposium also makes a methodological contribution to the 2020 AOM theme as it blends quantitative and qualitative methods showcasing a mixture of empirical tools that include field experiments, multi-level approaches, panel data econometrics, topic modeling, and case studies. New Advancements in Quantitative Institutional-Theory-Testing Research Presenter: Vartuhi Tonoyan; U. of Alberta Presenter: Christopher Boudreaux; Florida Atlantic U. Presenter: Christopher I. Rider; U. of Michigan, Ross School of Business Presenter: Angelique Slade Shantz; U. of Alberta School of Management Presenter: Robert Neal Eberhart; Stanford U. Presenter: Renee Maria Rottner; U. of California, Santa Barbara Presenter: Michael Lounsbury; U. of Alberta Presenter: Adam Robert Castor; Sungkyunkwan U. Presenter: Patricia H. Thornton; Texas A&M U., College Station Presenter: Kim Klyver; U. of Southern Denmark Presenter: Karl Täuscher; U. of Manchester Presenter: Luciano Barin Cruz; HEC Montreal