The Influence of Institutional and Task Environment Relationships on Organizational Performance: The Canadian Construction Industry

This study compared the influence of organizations' relationships to the institutional versus task environment on organizational performance in the Canadian construction industry. This industry is characterized by both intense institutional regulation and strong market competition. Regulatory stringency and resource stringency were proposed as key determinants of the relative importance of institutional versus task environment relations in predicting organizational profitability and productivity. Results favoured the contribution of task environment relations to organizational success in support of an economic or strategic perspective on organizations. However, under highly stringent conditions, institutional relations were shown to be associated significantly with performance, suggesting that future research needs to consider both institutional and task environment effects on organizational performance and success.     

Determinants of employee training: impact on organizational legitimacy and organizational performance

Employee training is one of the most studied human resource practices, as it is considered critical for organizational success. However, employee training and its impact on organizational performance have usually been studied from an economic-rational perspective, in terms of the economic and competitive advantages that companies can achieve by training employees. This study goes beyond the economic-rational approach and draws on institutional theory. We introduce contextual factors in the analysis of the determinants of employee training to complement the variables of competitive advantage and explain the relationship between employee training and organizational outcomes. Data were collected from 374 organizations using a questionnaire administered in Spain. The findings support the idea that both economic-rational and institutional determinants influence employee training. There are also two different kinds of outcome from training employees: organizational legitimacy improves at the same time as organizational performance.     

Analysing the Influence of Institutional,Organizational and Interpersonal Forces in Shaping Inter‐Organizational Relations*

abstract Much of the literature on inter‐organizational relations assumes that firms operate as relatively autonomous and cohesive units that are (1) unimpeded by wider institutional norms governing the industry as a whole, and (2) allow little or no role for the boundary spanning agents who oversee and monitor ‘contracts’ on a daily basis. This perspective is not surprising given that so many studies rely solely on questionnaires completed by a single respondent within one or more of the organizations. Nor has there been much recognition of the dynamic interplay between forces at the institutional, organizational and interpersonal levels. In order to address these issues, we propose a framework that explicitly focuses on forces at these three levels, as well as the interplay between them, in order to analyse how and why inter‐organizational relations take the forms they do. We argue that trusting, OCR‐type relations are more likely to be produced and reproduced when there are strong institutional forces promoting common obligations on both parties, and there is a relative mutuality of power relations between the organizations. However, because the contract is maintained by boundary spanning agents, agreed norms at the institutional and organizational levels are a necessary but not sufficient factor for OCR to develop. Conversely, in the absence of these forces, there is less incentive for either organization to establish and maintain close interpersonal relations, and indeed ACR‐type, distant relations may be beneficial for organizations and individuals that wish to dispense with existing contracts.     

Organizational Legitimacy and the Strategic Bridging Ability of Green Alliances

Alliances with environmental non‐governmental organizations may benefit multinational corporations (MNCs) operating in developing countries where uncertain socio‐cultural and institutional conditions present higher investment risks. Such ‘green alliances’ can provide strategic bridging services by interceding between MNCs and distant, yet important, stakeholders. From an institutional perspective, strategic bridging success may depend on stakeholder perceptions of alliance legitimacy. In this study the relationship between alliance legitimacy and strategic bridging ability is explored through the case of the Turtle Village Trust in Trinidad and Tobago. Findings suggest that bridging success occurs when organizational legitimacy peaks; that new alliance partners temporarily weaken legitimacy; and bridging with every new targeted stakeholder requires continued acquisition of legitimacy based on their respective values. MNC decisions to form alliances that bridge targeted stakeholders on their behalf should therefore consider the potential of the alliance to acquire and accumulate organizational legitimacy without which strategic bridging efforts may be futile. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

Southwest airlines: A case study linking employee needs satisfaction and organizational capabilities to competitive advantage

This article analyzes the sources of Southwest Airlines' competitive advantage using an integrative approach, employing economic analysis tools to illustrate the roles of commitment and organizational capabilities in delivering competitive advantage at Southwest. A framework is presented illustrating that much of the value Southwest generates is (1) created through employee needs satisfaction, (2) converted to customer and shareholder value via organizational capabilities, and (3) captured by the firm as a result of its cost advantage and superior service. This three-part framework may be applicable to other labor-dependent service organizations. © 1996 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Politics and Organizational Learning

In this paper it is argued that organizational learning is facilitated by a free and open form of politics in the workplace based on a system of political, social and civil rights and obligations within a framework of legitimate authority, parallel to the system that exists in the wider society. The argument is developed by examining issues at three related levels: why 'psychic' space is needed to nurture selfidentity and learning; the institutional pressures in the wider social environment that bring about learning within a whole business sector through open political activity; and how existing organizational learning theory and practice reveal numerous ways in which space for learning and innovation can be made available within work organizations through political processes. Finally, suggestions are made for ways of creating a framework within organizations that will enable such processes to develop.     

Launching professional services automation: Institutional entrepreneurship for information technology innovations

Why do some information technology innovations come to be adopted widely while others do not? One promising research stream has begun to investigate how institutional factors shape the diffusion of IT innovations. Here we examine how these institutional factors themselves are shaped. Specifically, we explore how interested actors termed institutional entrepreneurs develop institutional arrangements to launch an IT innovation toward widespread adoption. Undertaking a contemporary case study of a new class of enterprise software, professional services automation (PSA), we found that to launch PSA, institutional entrepreneurs sought to mobilize an organizational community by developing and recognizing leaders and facilitating members’ focus on PSA. They further struggled to legitimate PSA by developing a coherent organizing vision that incorporated compelling success stories. We tie these findings together in a model that usefully shifts the focus of IT innovation research from assessing institutional effects to understanding institution-building. This new focus suggests an alternative IT diffusion theory with several practical implications.     

Organizational Goals,Outcomes, and the Assessment of Performance: Reconceptualizing Success in Management Studies

We revisit the study of organizational goals, outcomes, and assessment of performance that together define the process leading to ‘success’. We begin by conducting a systematic review of existing research which allows us to develop an integrative framework discussing this large body of work. We then describe contemporary research examples in light of our proposed framework. We close by proposing four new areas to continue to advance the field: reconceptualizing performance (and success) as achievement of goals; diversity of goal systems in research designs, and their relationship with the purpose of an organization; multilevel and temporal dynamics; and governance of goal setting. Overall, our efforts inform future research on organizational success in the context of our new societal challenges and accomplish the intriguing task of re-defining success in management studies.     

Do Birds of a Feather Flock Higher? The Effects of Partner Similarity on Innovation in Strategic Alliances in Knowledge‐Intensive Industries

In spite of the consensus on the benefits of strategic alliances for learning and innovation, our understanding of the effects of partner similarity remains conflicted. This paper develops an integrative theoretical framework in which we propose that similar partners in a focal firm's alliance portfolio contribute to the firm's innovation up to a threshold, beyond which additional similar partners can lead to a decrease in innovation because of the trade-offs embedded in collaboration between similar partners. In this integrative framework, we also draw on organizational ecology and institutional perspectives to propose that the effect of partner similarity on innovation is positively moderated by organizational aging and the industry norm of collaboration at the firm's founding. Results from an analysis of 176 biotechnology firms between 1988 and 1999 support our arguments. This study contributes to research on strategic alliance and innovation by considering both the benefits and costs of partner similarity in the context of alliance portfolios and by exploring the multilevel contingencies for the effects of partner similarity.     

The challenges associated with the capitalization of managerial skills and competencies

Drawing on the theoretical framework of the institutional competency-based perspective, this paper develops a model to explain the process of capitalizing managerial competencies and skills into intangible capital stocks of an organization. It is argued that the effective and cumulative utilization of human, social, political, and cross-cultural capitals can help an organization sustain its competitive advantage, ultimately exerting a positive influence on organizational performance.     

The economic system as an end or as a means, the socialization of consumption, and the future of socialism and capitalism

After the demise of “real” socialism, socialism can be salvaged as a social preference system oriented towards equality and social justice, to be implemented without systemic constraints in the organizational and institutional sense. At the same time there is a case for creating an institutional framework allowing different forms of economic organization, capitalist and non-capitalist, to compete on equal footing, in an evolutionary perspective. Another way for a spontaneous extension of the domain of socialism could derive from the socialization of consumption, if the consumption of public goods continues to make up a growing component of real consumption.     

Organizational career management practices and objective career success: A systematic review and framework

The theorization of the relationship between organizational investments in career development and individual success remains underdeveloped, and empirical tests of this relationship, which have been dispersed among several disciplinary areas, have produced inconsistent results. Addressing these issues, the purpose of this article is to propose a theoretical framework that illustrates why and how organizational career management practices translate into career success and under what circumstances the relationship is effective. Using a systematic review of empirical studies on career management practices and objective success, we identify three theoretical mechanisms - developmental, informational, and relational - and two groups of contingency factors that explain this relationship. Our framework advances the extant literature on organizational career management and provides suggestions to companies for designing effective career management systems.     

INTEGRATING MARKETING AND R&D PROJECT PERSONNEL WITHIN INNOVATION PROJECTS: AN INFORMATION UNCERTAINTY MODEL*

Technological innovation within the firm can be modelled as a process of uncertainty reduction. The four major sources of uncertainty are user needs, technological environments, competitive environments, and organizational resources. Reducing these uncertainties is the responsibility of the marketing and R&D functions within the firm. Because these functions are reciprocally interdependent, their success in reducing uncertainty requires integration and collaboration between them. A contingency framework is developed which shows the effect and the determinants of interfunctional information transfer. It is argued that the synergistic results of integration can best be understood as a within-role increase of uncertainty reduction, and a between-role convergence of functional uncertainty reduction. The implications of the model are discussed.     

Institutionalism and its effect on HRM in the ASEAN context: Challenges and opportunities for future research

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) has emerged as a dynamically developing market with remarkable economic achievements. However, HRM research in this bloc seems to lag behind Western countries. We conduct a systematic literature review to examine the development of HRM in ASEAN in accordance with its historical and institutional attributes and conditions. To do so, our analysis is mainly rooted in the relevant literatures on the core themes that are searched from a variety of databases such as ProQuest, ESBCO, books and webpages of relevant journals. This analysis helps to identify institutional constraints that may influence HRM practices in ASEAN, and thus develop an ASEAN-based HRM framework, and accordingly propose important directions for future research in this promising and under-researched context. This integrative framework would lay the useful foundation for researchers to theorize and examine the determinants of HRM and their effects on organizational performance.     

Introduction: New Labour,the new public management and changing forms of human resource management

The existence of distinctive and durable business systems has been a well-researched feature of the ‘varieties of capitalism’ literature. Organizational practices of firms belonging to and operating in these business systems reflect institutional logics that are unique to each particular system. However, the last decade has seen a large growth in cross-border mergers and acquisitions (M&;A), including acquisitions by firms from one business system of firms from another. A model is presented, utilizing an institutional framework and focusing on the acquisition of Japanese companies by foreign firms, to analyse and predict the trajectory of organizational change in such cases.     

Conceptualizing entrepreneurial capital in the context of institutional change

This paper explores the building of entrepreneurial capital from an entrepreneurship and contextual/institutional position. In taking this position, it is possible to understand “entrepreneurial capital” as the content of the process that unfolds when individuals are exposed to certain characteristics of the environment. Drawing on findings from an ethnographically inspired longitudinal case study, the paper identifies the various actions attributed to entrepreneuring actors. Using the context of Poland as an illustrative case, the paper traces a variety of entrepreneuring accounts which appear to define entrepreneurial capital. This in turn provides a preliminary theoretical framework for the nature and the key elements of entrepreneurial capital. The study indicates that entrepreneurial capital is relationally and contextually constituted. The findings draw attention to the value of entrepreneurial capital in the context of an organizational and institutional change process that (1) involves the active creation Lachmann (Organization Studies 31: 219–244, 1986) of entrepreneuring actors within an organizational and societal context, (2) creates beneficial and supportive conditions that incorporate internal (organizational, personality) and external (environmental) resources for entrepreneuring, and (3) is facilitated by the entrepreneuring process. Finally, implications for entrepreneurship inquiry are drawn.     

A Multilevel Appraisal and Conceptualization of Company Downsizing

Downsizing is widely used to improve corporate efficiency and competitiveness. Although downsizing can be useful, the process has a number of associated disadvantages, and companies commonly overlook the negative impact on society, the business profession, the company, and employees' collective attitudes and perceptions. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to present a multilevel framework that examines the impact of societal, institutional, organizational, and individual factors on corporate downsizing. The potential negative effects of downsizing on each of these domains are also examined, and recommendations regarding the successful implementation of employee reduction programs are presented based on information highlighted in the framework.     

Coordination Networks Within and Across Organizations: A Multi‐level Framework*

ABSTRACT There are important organizational phenomena that cannot be fruitfully examined without crossing levels of analysis, as others have shown. We argue that coordination of patient care in the current institutional environment is one such phenomenon. As organizations vertically disintegrate and outsource services that were once produced internally, coordination with external organizations becomes increasingly important for achieving desired performance outcomes. We describe the efforts of one hospital to extend the intra‐organizational coordination of patient care to encompass coordination with its external partners. The organization design and network perspectives are both conducive to spanning multiple levels of analysis. We show that the two perspectives together serve as a useful vehicle for developing a framework that links intra‐ and inter‐organizational coordination.     

Managerial and organizational learning in Hungarian–Western mixed management organizations

The radical changes in Eastern Europe which aim to transform these economies into market economies put the issue of organizational and individual adaptation at the centre of attention. Hungarian-Western mixed management organizations are regarded as effective tools for helping this adaptation process. This paper examines, through the example of five joint ventures, what practices are to be changed and what problems arise in terms of organizational and individual adaptation and learning. For the theoretical framework, the author draws together the insights of four types of learning approaches with structural contingency theory, strategy-structure and strategic choice theories, institutional theory of organizations and organizational change theories. The paper finds that there are changes in the organizational routines and procedures as a response to changes in the contingent factors. Westerners do not, however, necessarily play a positive role as agents of change in introducing strategic thinking among Hungarian managers. This problem relates to the phenomenon of new paternalism which also makes it easier for Westerners to cope with the problems of not being able to change the old philosophies of their Hungarian staff.     

Organizational sponsorship and service co-development: A contingency view on service co-development directiveness of business incubators

We address the lack of studies focusing on internal organizational sponsorship mechanisms, while considering environmental influencers and focus on a specific type of organizational sponsorship to do so: Business incubators. We argue that to be able to offer a customized incubatee-strengthening service pack, incubator-incubatee interaction is key, requiring clear-cut and directive service co-development instructions, which is our focal construct. To better understand the functioning of this focal construct, we adopt a contingency approach to examine how the incubator's human capital, and the institutional environment impact the incubator's service co-development directiveness. A quantitative empirical study reveals that both human capital and an entrepreneurially-minded regulative and cognitive institutional environment allow an incubator to be directive, thereby laying a foundation for co-development of customized service offerings. Moreover, the incubator's human capital turns out to further stimulate the positive effects of an entrepreneurially-minded regulative environment. All in all, we find that both internal organizational and external institutional elements are pivotal for first-best implementation of the internal sponsorship mechanism ‘service co-development directiveness’.