Neo-institutional Perspective Research Articles

The Indicators of the Corporate Social Responsibility

The objective of the present paper is to propose an explanatory model identifying the determinants of the recourse to the CSR indicators and spotting the real motivation of companies to use them: for efficiency or a concern for legitimacy towards stakeholders? To carry out this research, the researchers have chosen a qualitative methodology by analysing eight cases of companies labelled CSR. The researchers try to show that the use of CSR indicators obeys to two different but complementary theoretical frameworks. The contingent theory explains the architecture of management control systems according to the “technical environment” of the company that seeks greater efficiency. Whereas in the neo-institutional perspective, the use of CSR indicators can be explained by the “social and institutional environment” in which the enterprise, seeking greater legitimacy, evolves. Through the combination of these two theoretical frameworks, this paper provides an academic basis for future studies which envisage testing the model through a quantitative study.

Normativität und Wissenschaft in Zeiten von Populismus

The rise of populist parties throughout Europe is fostering the debate on normativism in science. Klaus von Beyme – one of Germany’s leading political scientists of the Second Generation after World War II – is an early sceptic of normative thinking in the field of political science. He campaigns for a neoinstitutionalist perspective which combines historical insights and empirical findings to describe and explain political phenomenons. Not only in the times of bloc confrontation before 1990 but also in the current debate on populism, Beyme’s hesitation against normative thinking is sharply criticised as a lack of normative comittment to the fundamental values of liberal democracy. Following the concept of Intellectual History, this paper analyses Beymes scientific writings against the backdrop of biographical and historical contextes. Further, the paper shows how methodological and epistemological assumptions can shape the production of knowledge in scientific discourses.

The Quality Management Standard DIN EN ISO 9001 in Home Education Discussion and analysis from a neo-institutionalist perspective

Mit dem Inkrafttreten der §§ 78a-g SGB VIII am 01. Januar 1998 wurde der Begriff Qualität in die kinder- und jugendhilfespezifische Gesetzgebung eingeführt und (teil-)stationäre Einrichtungen mit der rechtsverbindlichen Forderung nach Maßnahmen der Qualitätsentwicklung konfrontiert. Dieser Beitrag nimmt Einrichtungen der Kinder- und Jugendhilfe in den Blick, die den Gesetzesvorgaben mit einem nach DIN EN ISO 9001:2008 zertifizierten Qualitätsmanagement nachkommen und stationäre Hilfen zur Erziehung gemäß § 34 SGB VIII „Heimerziehung, sonstige betreute Wohnform“ erbringen. Den Ausgangspunkt bildet die Übersetzung dieser für die Soziale Arbeit umstrittenen Normenreihe, welche vermittelt über in Interviews erhobenen Erzählungen von Fach- und Leitungskräften zwei verschiedener Einrichtungen der Heimerziehung analysiert wurde.

¿De las carreras organizacionales a las carreras “sin fronteras”? El caso del profesorado de la Universidad de Valencia

Se aborda esta cuestión a partir del examen de las trayectorias individuales del profesorado de una universidad pública de España en los últimos cuarenta años desde una perspectiva neoinstitucional. Las investigaciones son insuficientes para dirimir si los inicios hasta la consecución de la permanencia han tenido lugar bajo vías ordenadas o bajo vías poco o nada organizadas y en este caso, si el fenómeno es reciente. La hipótesis es que los inicios se han hecho más indeterminados con la proliferación de vías, aunque siguen desarrollándose de manera pautada para la mayoría del profesorado. El examen se efectúa a partir de los datos disponibles del profesorado permanente que permiten identificar la vía de acceso recorrida y calcular el tiempo transcurrido hasta la consecución de la permanencia. Se ha observado que las vías de acceso han proliferado, pero los inicios siguen pautados: cada vez menos a medida que cambia la configuración institucional.

Observing local dynamics of ILSA projections in federal systems: a comparison between Germany and the United States

ABSTRACTBy comparing two federal education systems, namely Germany and the U.S., and their reactions to PISA we show how international, large-scale student assessments (ILSA) have been used by national stakeholders to gain leverage for legitimising or de-legitimising policy reforms in education. From a neo-institutionalist perspective we argue that country-specific path-dependencies and policy legacies, such as different systems of power devolution, testing traditions and also non-governmental actor influence, additionally moderate the impact of ILSA.

Questions to the structure and culture of the new paradigm of management of new public management

This paper aims to critically analyze the structure and the new culture of public administration paradigm named as the new administration or public management of public organizations. The main challenge is to try to explain why the dysfunctional management practices in the structure and the new culture of public organizations that are copied from focusing on administrative processes management practices of private organizations model. In doing so, it has been reviewed the literature in general from the perspective of neo-institutionalism on this subject and by using the method of critical analysis of organizations. More than dysfunctions, in this work the main challenges and worries to the implementation of the paradigm of management or governance are identified. Despite the theoretical -methodological nuances of the new institutional economy and its implications for economic theory, it is inadequate to describe only subtly strategies of the private management. This paper presents an original approach to the critical analysis of new public management. The revision of the paradigm of new public management is carried out essentially in the methodological steps needed to question and identify the action of the state in the administration of organizations and public agencies, by applying the specific management practices, based on the theoretical and methodological framework of the new institutionalism critical criteria.

A Neo-institutional Perspective on Equal Employment Opportunities

Despite a plethora of governmental and organisational policies to promote equality in the workplace, there remains significant theory-praxis gap. This issue is particularly challenging in Muslim ma...

Universities\u2019 pursuit of inclusion and its effects on professional staff: the case of the United Kingdom

This paper explores the proliferation of non-academic professionals as a cultural response to universities’ mission of inclusion. Departing from a neo-institutionalist perspective, the author argues that the diffusion of highly rationalised models of institutional action shapes universities as formal organisations who engage with new levels of professional expertise in the pursuit of goals and missions. The United Kingdom (UK) offers an illustrative example, the emergence of statutory equality duties on public institutions (race equality duty 2001, disability equality duty 2006 and gender equality duty 2007) nurturing an image of universities as strategic for the pursuit of demographic inclusion. Using yearly longitudinal data on 109 UK universities from 2003 to 2011, the author shows that universities increase their professional staff in catering for demographic inclusion in terms of ethnicity and disability, revealing highly rationalised institutional responses to the aforementioned equality duties. The findings contribute to the neo-institutionalist literature drawing attention to the transformation of universities into organisational actors (i.e. highly integrated entities, strategically oriented towards the pursuit of formally articulated goals and targets), which contrasts with traditional conceptions of the university as an institution with a taken-for-granted societal role and loosely defined organisational backbone. The findings provide the impetuous for further empirical research into the role of professional staff as universities assimilate new goals and missions.

Feeling the Squeeze: Nonmarket Institutional Pressures and Firm Nonmarket Strategies

This study investigates the drivers of pressures from various institutions in the nonmarket environment and the responses of MNEs to these pressures in a host country. By taking a broad institutional perspective, this study pairs and integrates the economic perspective of new institutionalism and the sociological perspective of neo institutionalism with the corporate political strategy perspective. This research provides a systematic review of the drivers underlying pressures from various types of nonmarket institutions that explain the preference of firms to use a transactional or relational strategy to deal with these pressures. The evidence is based on research involving MNEs in the Netherlands. The nonmarket institutions that exert the greatest pressures at the national level pushing MNEs to use transactional more than relational strategies and tactics are regulatory and standards agencies. The pressures of political institutions, interest groups, and the media, in contrast, trigger MNEs to employ relational rather than transactional strategies and tactics.

A neo-institutional perspective on ethical decision-making

Drawing on neo-institutional theory, this study aims to discern the poorly understood ethical challenges confronted by senior executives in Indian multinational corporations and identify the strategies that they utilize to overcome them. We conducted in-depth interviews with 40 senior executives in Indian multinational corporations to illustrate these challenges and strategies. By embedding our research in contextually relevant characteristics that embody the Indian environment, we identify several institutional- and managerial-level challenges faced by executives. The institutional-level challenges are interpreted as regulative, normative and cognitive shortcomings. We recommend a concerted effort at the institutional and managerial levels by identifying relevant strategies for ethical decision-making. Moreover, we proffer a multi-level model of ethical decision-making and discuss our theoretical contributions and practical implications.

Assessing State Support for the Development of International Economic Cooperation: a Case of Polish Trade Support Institutions’ Export Recommendations for Turkey

In times of increasing significance for national policies which support international economic cooperation, a special role is played by state trade support institutions (TSIs). This paper investigates whether such TSIs can be said to operate effectively, through an analysis of one essential element of the support provided to domestic entrepreneurs, namely export recommendations. The recommendations provided by Polish TSIs in respect of Turkey is employed as a case study. The theory of comparative advantage along with a neo-institutional perspective provide the conceptual framing for this analysis, in conjunction with both desk research, document analysis, and selected economic indices. Factors such as trade potential, comparative advantages, and the competitiveness of selected product groups exported by Polish firms to Turkey were also taken into account. The findings largely indicate that TSI export recommendations are adequate, and the majority of the recommended industries demonstrated considerable sales opportunities. Nevertheless, some discrepancies were also noted, which should be an issue for further investigation by both researchers and TSI analysts. Furthermore, the case study in this paper demonstrates that the choices within economic promotion policy – despite its partition between variously-oriented TSIs - were made on the basis of economic rationality.

Elusive implementation: an ethnographic study of intersectoral policymaking for health

BackgroundFor more than 30 years policy action across sectors has been celebrated as a necessary and viable way to affect the social factors impacting on health. In particular intersectoral action on the social determinants of health is considered necessary to address social inequalities in health. However, despite growing support for intersectoral policymaking, implementation remains a challenge. Critics argue that public health has remained naïve about the policy process and a better understanding is needed. Based on ethnographic data, this paper conducts an in-depth analysis of a local process of intersectoral policymaking in order to gain a better understanding of the challenges posed by implementation. To help conceptualize the process, we apply the theoretical perspective of organizational neo-institutionalism, in particular the concepts of rationalized myth and decoupling.MethodsOn the basis of an explorative study among ten Danish municipalities, we conducted an ethnographic study of the development of a municipal-wide implementation strategy for the intersectoral health policy of a medium-sized municipality. The main data sources consist of ethnographic field notes from participant observation and interview transcripts.ResultsBy providing detailed contextual description, we show how an apparent failure to move from policy to action is played out by the ongoing production of abstract rhetoric and vague plans. We find that idealization of universal intersectoralism, inconsistent demands, and doubts about economic outcomes challenge the notion of implementation as moving from rhetoric to action.ConclusionWe argue that the ‘myth’ of intersectoralism may be instrumental in avoiding the specification of action to implement the policy, and that the policy instead serves as a way to display and support good intentions and hereby continue the process. On this basis we expand the discussion on implementation challenges regarding intersectoral policymaking for health.

New Commission’s Guidelines on Stakeholder Consultation as a factor reducing the EU democratic deficit

The objective of the article is to assess the new Commission’s Guidelines on Stakeholder Consultation (2015) in the EU policy-shaping in view of raising effectiveness of the EU governance model and of reducing the EU democratic deficit. The hypothesis of the article is that the Commission’s revision of the stakeholder consultation procedures contributes to overcoming the EU crisis of the consultation model and, in general, to reducing the democratic deficit in the EU. The neoinstitutional research perspective permits to catch the relations between the EU institutions and stakeholders wanting to co-shape EU sectoral policies, and the concepts of the UE democratic legitimacy (by F. Scharpf) as well as of the deliberative democracy (by J. Habermas) make possible to verify the research hypothesis. The verification takes place also in the course of the analysis of the new guidelines by confronting them with the identified deficits in matters of the dialogue with stakeholders.

Why Low Political Participation of Rural Women in China: An Interpretation from Neo-Institutionalism Perspective

Gender inequality still exists in China. One of its reasons and manifestations is the low political participation of rural women. The data analysis of 970 questionnaires reveals that current political participation of rural women is characterized by low number, lack of motivation and organization, and self-interest driven participation. This article seeks to interpret their low po-litical participation from the perspective of neo-institutionalism. It argues that this low participation has been caused by informal institutions, such as the restraints of traditional gender concepts, women’s lack of desire for per-sonal rights and weak sense of organization, as well as by formal institutions, including imperfect policy system and women organizations in the rural are-as. Consequently, improving rural women’s political participation should start with reforming these institutions.

Drivers and implications of medical tourism: a neo-institutional perspective

Purpose of the paper : The paper aims at adding a new contribution to the field of Medical Tourism by proposing a Situationist View of the phenomenon. In doing this, we have taken into account the global dimension of Medical Tourism, thus widening the well-known neo-institutional framework. Methods : We scanned Business Source Premier, Elsevier Freedom Collection, and JSTOR, using “Medical Tourism and neo-institutionalism” search criteria. After realizing the lack of resources about the topic, we matched the available contributions about Medical Tourism and neo - institutionalism in order to develop a new theoretical framework. Findings : The original neo-institutional model has been widened for the first time in order to provide a better understanding of Medical Tourism’s worldwide dimension. Originality and limits of the study : The main contribution of the paper is its potential to reach beyond the more narrowly focused journals where many of the contributions about Medical Tourism reside. The lack of empirical evidence is one of the main limits of the paper. Because of the innovativeness of the developed theoretical framework, future investigations need to be carried out. Practical Implications : The developed theoretical framework provides the basis for a better understanding of Medical Tourism at a global level, as well as of the dynamics that underlie it. Additionally, our paper poses new and interesting research questions about the potential sustainability of Medical Tourism at a societal level, thus requiring future investigation into the issue.

Relacje między polityką i administracją w procesie tworzenia służby cywilnej w Polsce. Perspektywa nowego instytucjonalizmu

Civil service is an important element in the system of public administration and has a major impact on a state’s manner of functioning. The creation of civil service in Poland was intended to ensure that the public administration performed its duties in a professional and impartial manner, unhindered by special political interests. The aim of the paper is to analyze the process of creating civil service in Poland after 1989, and to show how, in practice, from the beginning of the transformation and under the governments of successive political groups, a division was formed between the political and administrative spheres, and to what degree the actual relations between politics and public administration ref lect the formal regulations contained in civil service acts. The paper concentrates in particular on personnel policy in regard to senior positions in civil service, because these appointments are connected with assuming control of decision making processes and human resource policy in administrative offices. In the research, various complementary qualitative and quantitative methods were used. Multidimensional analysis of the data leads to the conclusion that political parties in Poland strive to limit the autonomy of the government administration and to make it subordinate to their interests. The legislation in the area of civil service has been largely subjugated to the political interest of the moment, and not to the long-term interest of the state. The use of neo-institutional perspective helps to identify the reasons behind the adoption of specific legal measures and to show their actual effects.

Convergence towards internal audit effectiveness in the BRICS Countries

Internal auditing has been called upon to enhance its value proposition for organisations and one way of doing this is to demonstrate its effectiveness. By using the responses of participants from the BRICS countries on the 2010 global Common Body of Knowledge survey of the Institute of Internal Auditors in conjunction with the elements of the Internal Audit Capability Model this study examines the convergence towards internal audit effectiveness by the BRICS countries. The study uses a neo-institutional perspective to demonstrate how internal auditing in the BRICS countries has responded to coercive, normative and mimetic pressures to demonstrate effectiveness. The study shows that coercive pressures for internal auditing exist in all the BRICS countries, but owing to the voluntary internal audit structure in Russia, such pressure appears to be lower in that country. Using professionalism to demonstrate normative pressures, the emphasis on internal audit in the King III report of South Africa was evident. The results of this study seem to indicate that South Africa has responded more to mimetic pressures in relation to people management, professional practices and organisational relationships than other BRICS countries.

Natural Experiments and Causality in Economic History: On Their Relations to Theory and Temporality

A recent and influential research methodology, mainly endorsed by economists, proposes to renew historical analysis based on the notions of natural experiment and causality. It has the dual ambition of unifying various disciplines around a common understanding of causality in order to tackle major historical questions (such as the role of colonization, political regimes, or religion in economic development) and of making the analysis of history more scientific. The definition of causality it promotes—of the “interventionist” type—tends to liken historical events to laboratory experiments. This is articulated with a neo-institutionalist perspective aimed at measuring the long-term effects of past institutional changes, which are considered exogenous. In the first part of this article, we present the ambitions, contributions, methods, and hypotheses (implicit and explicit) of this approach, showing how it differs from more traditional quantitative economic history and placing it in the context of the recent empirical and neo-institutionalist “turns” of the economic discipline. In a second stage, we consider the criticism—often scathing—voiced by historians or economists against this method and its objectives. Finally, we emphasize the many difficulties posed by this approach when it comes to taking into account the historicity of phenomena, to producing general statements based on particular cases, and to providing a complete and coherent definition of causality in history.

External Financing Challenges in Prosocial Entrepreneurship

In the nascent entrepreneurship context, firm and owner characteristics are main factors that lenders use to evaluate loan applications. By drawing on the neo-institutional perspective, we advance ...

Corporate divestiture and performance: an institutional view

In this study, we investigate how the institutional environment affects shareholders’ reaction to a firm’s announcement of divestitures. Traditionally, divestiture research has adhered to a financial economics perspective, in which shareholders anticipate certain economic outcomes from corporate divestitures and react accordingly. However, this research has not delivered a distinct understanding of the performance effects of corporate divestitures. To structure and integrate previous work, we apply a neo-institutional perspective of the stock market. We argue that at certain times, the institutional support for corporate diversification is relatively low. During these periods, there is a high rate of divestitures. The high divestiture activity legitimizes this corporate action and leads to a positive reaction of the stock market to new divestiture announcements. This means that individual evaluations of the possible performance outcomes of divestments are not the only factor determining the stock market reaction to a corporate divestiture announcement. Rather, investors might consider the perceived institutionalization of this corporate action when making their purchasing decisions. Using a meta-analytical technique, we find support for our prediction that different performance effects of divestitures, as revealed by previous studies, can be attributed to different conditions of the macro-economic environment. We discuss the implications of this result for research and management practice.