Skip to main content

Institutional Environment

  • Living reference work entry
  • First Online:
The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Strategic Management

Abstract

The institutional environment is composed of regulations, customs and taken-for-granted norms prevalent in states, societies, professions and organizations, which impinge upon and shape organizational behaviour and outcomes. In early work in the field, the institutional environment was portrayed as an exogenous force that shaped and constrained organizational actions and policies. More recently, however, researchers have suggested that organizations can take steps to shape the institutional environment in which they are embedded. Here, we provide a brief summary of research on the institutional environment and discuss how it affects and can be affected by organizational actions.

This entry was originally published on Palgrave Connect under ISBN 978-1-137-49190-9. The content has not been changed.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Acemoglu, D., S. Johnson, and J.A. Robinson. 2001. The colonial origins of comparative development: An empirical investigation. American Economic Review 91: 1369–1401.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aldrich, H.E. 2010. Beam me up, Scott(ie)! Institutional theorists’ struggles with the emergent nature of entrepreneurship. Research in the Sociology of Work 20: 329–364.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Aldrich, H.E. 2011. Heroes, villains, and fools: Institutional entrepreneurship not institutional entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship Research Journal 1: 2157–5665.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Barnett, W.P., and G.R. Carroll. 1993. How institutional constraints affected the organization of early U.S. telephony. Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization 9: 98–126.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carroll, G.R., and Y.P. Huo. 1986. Organizational task and institutional environments in ecological perspective: Findings from the local newspaper industry. American Journal of Sociology 91: 838–873.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Carroll, G.R., J. Delacroix, and J. Goodstein. 1988a. The political environments of organizations: An ecological view. In Research in organizational behavior, vol. 10, ed. B. Staw and L.L. Cummings. Greenwich: JAI Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Carroll, G.R., J. Goodstein, and A. Gynes. 1988b. Organizations and the state: Effects of the institutional environment on agricultural cooperatives in Hungary. Administrative Science Quarterly 33: 233–256.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Figueiredo, R.J.P., and G. Edwards. 2007. Does private money buy public policy? Campaign contributions and regulatory outcomes in telecommunications. Journal of Economics and Management Strategy 16: 547–576.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • DiMaggio, P.J. 1988. Interest and agency in institutional theory. In Institutional patterns and organizations: Culture and environment, ed. L.G. Zucker. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.

    Google Scholar 

  • DiMaggio, P.J. 1991. Constructing an organizational field as a professional project: U.S. art museums, 1920–1940. In The new institutionalism in organizational analysis, ed. W.W. Powell and P.J. DiMaggio. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • DiMaggio, P.J., and W.W. Powell. 1983. The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American Sociological Review 4: 147–160.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dobbin, F., and T.J. Dowd. 2000. The market that antitrust built: Public policy, private coercion and railroad acquisitions: 1825–1922. American Sociological Review 65: 631–657.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dowell, G., A. Swaminathan, and J.B. Wade. 2002. Pretty pictures and ugly scenes: Political and technological maneuvers in high definition television. In Advances in strategic management, xix: The new institutionalism in strategic management, ed. P. Ingram and B.S. Silverman. Stamford: JAI Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Edelman, L.B. 1990. Legal environments and organizational governance: The expansion of due process in the American workplace. American Journal of Sociology 95: 1401–1440.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fligstein, N. 1987. The intraorganizational power struggles: Rise of finance personnel to top leadership in large corporations, 1919–1979. American Sociological Review 52: 44–58.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fligstein, N., and A. Stone Sweet. 2002. Constructing politics and markets: An institutionalist account of European integration. American Journal of Sociology 107: 1206–1243.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Friedland, R., and R.R. Alford. 1991. Bringing society back in, symbols, practices, and institutional contradictions. In The new institutionalism in organizational analysis, ed. W.W. Powell and P.J. DiMaggio. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenwood, R., R. Suddaby, and C.R. Hinings. 2002. Theorizing change: The role of professional associations in the transformation of institutionalized fields. Academy of Management Journal 45: 58–80.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hansen, W.L., and K.O. Park. 1995. Nation state and pluralistic decision making in trade policy: The case of the international trade administration. International Studies Quarterly 39: 181–211.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haveman, H.A. 1993. Follow the leader: Mimemtic isomorphism and entry into new markets. Administrative Science Quarterly 38: 593–627.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Henisz, W.J., B.A. Zelner, and M.F. Guillen. 2005. The worldwide diffusion of market-oriented infrastructure reform, 1977–1999. American Sociological Review 70: 871–897.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ingram, P., and K. Clay. 2000. The choice-within-constraints new institutionalism and implications for sociology. Annual Review of Sociology 26: 525–546.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ingram, P., and H. Rao. 2004. Store wars: The enactment and repeal of anti-chain store legislation in America. American Journal of Sociology 110: 446–487.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meindl, J.R., S.B. Ehrlich, and J.M. Dukerich. 1985. The romance of leadership. Administrative Science Quarterly 30: 78–102.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Merton, R.K. 1936. The unanticipated consequences of purposive social action. American Sociological Review 6: 894–904.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meyer, J.W. 1979. National development and the world system: Educational, economic, and political change, 1950–1970. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer, J.W., and B. Rowan. 1977. Institutionalized organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony. American Journal of Sociology 83: 340–363.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Meyer, J.W., and W.R. Scott. 1983. Organizational environments: Ritual and rationality. Beverly Hills: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Meyer, J.W., W.R. Scott, and D. Strang. 1987. Centralization, fragmentation, and school district complexity. Administrative Science Quarterly 32: 186–201.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miner, A.S., T.L. Amburgey, and T.M. Stearns. 1990. Interorganizational linkages and transformational shields. Administrative Science Quarterly 35: 689–713.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • North, D.C. 1971. Institutional change and economic growth. Journal of Economic History 31: 118–125.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • North, D.C. 1988. Ideology and political/economic institutions. Cato Journal 8: 15–28.

    Google Scholar 

  • North, D.C., and R.P. Thomas. 1973. The rise of the western world. London: Cambridge University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Oliver, C. 1991. Strategic responses to institutional processes. Academy of Management Review 16: 145–179.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Olson, M. 1982. The rise and decline of nations: Economic growth, stagflation, and social rigidities. New Haven: Yale University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Peltzman, S. 1976. Toward a more general theory of regulation. Journal of Law and Economics 19: 211–240.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pierson, P. 2004. Politics in time: History, institutions and social analysis. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Powell, W.W. 1991. Expanding the scope of institutional analysis. In The new institutionalism in organizational analysis, ed. W.W. Powell and P.J. DiMaggio. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott, W.R. 1992. Organizations: Rational, natural and open systems. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall.

    Google Scholar 

  • Scott, W.R. 2008. Institutions and organizations: Ideas and interests, 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Selznick, P. 1949. TVA and the grass roots: A study in the sociology of formal organization. Berkeley: University of California Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Singh, J.V., D.J. Tucker, and R.J. House. 1986. Organizational legitimacy and the liability of newness. Administrative Science Quarterly 31: 171–193.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stigler, G. 1971. The theory of economic regulation. Bell Journal of Economics and Management Science 2: 3–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Teece, D.J. 2007. Explicating dynamic capabilities: The nature and microfoundations of (sustainable) enterprise performance. Strategic Management Journal 28: 1319–1350.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Thornton, P.H., and W. Ocasio. 2008. Institutional logics. In The sage handbook of organizational institutionalism, ed. R. Greenwood, C. Oliver, R. Suddaby, and K. Sahlin-Andersson. Newbury Park: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Thornton, P.H., W. Ocasio, and M. Lounsbury. 2012. The institutional logics perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Tolbert, P.S., and L.G. Zucker. 1983. Institutional sources of change in the formal structure of organizations: The diffusion of civil service reform, 1880–1935. Administrative Science Quarterly 28: 22–39.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vogus, T.J., and G.F. Davis. 2005. Elite mobilizations for anti-takeover legislation, 1982–1990. In Social movements and organization theory, ed. G.F. Davis, D. McAdam, W.R. Scott, and M.N. Zald. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wade, J.B., A. Swaminathan, and M.S. Saxon. 1998. Normative and resource flow consequences of local regulations in the American brewing industry, 1845–1918. Administrative Science Quarterly 43: 905–935.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Anand Swaminathan .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

Copyright information

© 2016 The Author(s)

About this entry

Cite this entry

Swaminathan, A., Wade, J.B. (2016). Institutional Environment. In: Augier, M., Teece, D. (eds) The Palgrave Encyclopedia of Strategic Management. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-94848-2_608-1

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-94848-2_608-1

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-349-94848-2

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Business and ManagementReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

Publish with us

Policies and ethics