Institutional Entrepreneurship

This book is about the role of agents in policy and institutional change. It draws on cross-country case studies. The focus on ‘agency’ has been an important development, enabling researchers to better reveal the causal mechanisms generating institutional change (i.e., how institutional change actually takes place). However, past research has generally been limited to specific intellectual silos or scholarly domains of inquiry. Policy scholars, for example, have tended to focus on the various mechanisms and levels at which agency operates, drawing on institutionalist perspectives but not always actively contributing to institutionalist theory. Institutionalist perspectives, by contrast, have tended to operate at macro-levels of enquiry, embracing the ontological primacy of institutions in processes of isomorphism but not necessarily contributing to or embracing policy perspectives that engage in more granular analyses of policy making processes, implementation, and the instantiation of institutional and policy change. Despite the obvious complementarities of these two intellectual traditions, it is surprising how little collaborative work, or indeed cross fertilization of theory and analytical design has occurred. The core novelty of this volume is thus its focus on agential actors within institutional settings and processes of entrepreneurship that facilitate isomorphism and policy change. The book’s theoretical framework is grounded in variants of institutional theory, especially historical, sociological and organisational institutionalism and policy entrepreneurship literature. The overall conclusion is that that both institutionalists and public policy scholars have largely overlooked the importance of complex interactions between interdependent structures, institutions, and agents in processes of institutional and policy change.

The study of dynamics of institutional change in emerging markets are subjects of great interest in contemporary political economy. The dynamics and quality of institutional change can have significant impacts on the long-run performance of economies, economic growth and development of nations, and play a fundamental role in societies. It provides a comprehensive understanding of legal-economic institutions, and sheds light on the way to global peace by producing a better understanding of the dynamics of historical change. Topics range from institutional uncertainty, hybrid market order and labor market institutions, to good governance of institutions and WTO rules as trade institutions, as well as entrepreneurship and institutional change in emerging markets, and the role of modern technologies. This edited volume emphasizes legal-economic institutions, and the role of management and entrepreneurship on dynamics, trends, and implications of institutional change in emerging markets. Presenting research articles by eminent scholars and experts engaged in education and research, who address and discuss the most recent issues in the field, they reveal new insights into the dynamics of institutional change for researchers interested in development of new theories and comparative studies, especially in the era of emerging markets. The book is appealing to a wide range of global audience, can serve as a useful reference work in education and research, offers innovative and productive discussions, and can satisfy scholarly and intellectual interests, regarding institutional development and a broad spectrum of its interactions with functioning of markets and economies.

This comprehensive volume builds on Baumol's 1990 framework to categorize and classify the growing research field that explores the interplay between institutions and entrepreneurship.

Examines how the institutional environment affects entrepreneurial organizations, and vice-versa.

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. The authors of this book advise the economies of the European Union to become more entrepreneurial in promoting innovation and economic growth. The authors propose a reform strategy with respect to several aspects to achieve this goal. Starting with the rule of law and the protection of property rights; the tax system; the authors deal with regulations governing savings, capital and finance, and the organization of labor markets and social insurance systems. Framework strategies related to the regulations governing goods and service markets, bankruptcy and insolvency are also put forward. A core understanding and future path is also provided towards R&D, commercialization and knowledge spillovers; human capital investments; and informal institutions.

Introducing the institutional logics perspective to street-level analysis, this book examines how street-level workers deal with the institutional logics that guide their organization – whether they follow or challenge them. While doing so, the book develops a theoretical framework to study street-level workers’ institutional agency within organizations from different institutional backgrounds. The book conceptualizes street-level workers as institutional entrepreneurs and presents an original process model to capture deinstitutionalization efforts in street-level discourse. This ordinal model accounts for embedded agency and institutional entrepreneurship as well as for more gradual moves towards deinstitutionalization through the hybridization of institutional logics. The author tests the model empirically using interview data and discusses how street-level workers diverge from the institutional logic of their organization in almost two thirds of their statements, indicating a tendency towards institutional entrepreneurship. The book finally combines two literature strands: institutionalism and implementation research, showing how street-level workers may be perceived as institutional entrepreneurs. This book will appeal to students, scholars, and researchers of political science, public policy, public administration, and organizational studies, as well as to practitioners and policy-makers interested in a better understanding of institutional entrepreneurs, street work, and the institutional logics perspective.

The Academy of Management is proud to announce the inaugural volume of The Academy of Management Annals. This exciting new series follows one guiding principle: The advancement of knowledge is possible only by conducting a thorough examination of what is known and unknown in a given field. Such assessments can be accomplished through comprehensive, critical reviews of the literature--crafted by informed scholars who determine when a line of inquiry has gone astray, and how to steer the research back onto the proper path. The Academy of Management Annals provide just such essential reviews. Written by leading management scholars, the reviews are invaluable for ensuring the timeliness of advanced courses, for designing new investigative approaches, and for identifying faulty methodological or conceptual assumptions. The Annals strive each year to synthesize a vast array of primary research, recognizing past principal contributions while illuminating potential future avenues of inquiry. Volume 1 of the Annals explores a wide spectrum of research: corporate control; nonstandard employment; critical management; physical work environments; public administration team learning; emotions in organizations; leadership and health care; creativity at work; business and the environment; and bias in performance appraisals. Ultimately, academic scholars in management and allied fields (e.g., sociology of organizations and organizational psychology) will see The Academy of Management Annals as a valuable resource to turn to for comprehensive, up-to-date information--published in a single volume every year by the preeminent association for management research.

Using institutional economics as a theoretical framework, this book analyzes institutional environment conducive to entrepreneurial activity in order to enhance economic performance across countries. In particular, the main contributions of this book to the entrepreneurship literature are the following: • Identify past and current research about the institutional context shaping entrepreneurial activity and its effect on economic growth • Examine social progress orientation as those institutional factors that are shaping innovative entrepreneurial activity • Explore the effect of different types of entrepreneurial activities on economic growth • Examine how social progress orientation through opportunity-driven entrepreneurship affects economic development • Analyze the interrelationships between institutions, entrepreneurial activity and economic development across countries • Study how the country's institutional context influences the way in which entrepreneurial activity affects social progress Two sides of the same coin might be observed when analyzing policy aspects of those institutions affecting entrepreneurial activity. On the one hand, effective public policy to promote entrepreneurship is predicated on understanding the underlying forces as well as the consequences and impacts of entrepreneurship. On the other hand, different endeavors to promote entrepreneurial activity might have deleterious economic effects since they could actually reduce employment in the long-term. Thus, it is crucial to understand the institutional environment in which entrepreneurs are interacting and making decisions. The comprehension of these phenomena serves to move forward the theoretical, practical and policy debate on entrepreneurship as a mechanism to achieve higher economic performance.