1. Combining Logics to Transform Organizational Agency
- Author
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Elena Dalpiaz, Davide Ravasi, and Violina P. Rindova
- Subjects
DYNAMICS ,HD ,Entrepreneurship ,050402 sociology ,Knowledge management ,Public Administration ,Sociology and Political Science ,multiple institutional logics ,cultural production ,COMPETING LOGICS ,Social Sciences ,opportunity creation ,Business economics ,0504 sociology ,Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous) ,Business & Economics ,MICROFINANCE ,0502 economics and business ,Agency (sociology) ,Design innovation ,Business ,design innovation ,Sociology ,FIELD ,Business management ,1505 Marketing ,institutional complexity ,business.industry ,Field (Bourdieu) ,05 social sciences ,Institutional complexity ,Management ,ENTREPRENEURSHIP ,CREATION ,OPPORTUNITIES ,Business & Management ,1503 Business and Management ,hybrid organizations ,business ,050203 business & management ,RESPONSES - Abstract
To understand how organizations combine conflicting institutional logics strategically to create and pursue new market opportunities, we conducted an in-depth longitudinal study of the multiple efforts of the Italian manufacturer of household goods Alessi to combine the logics of industrial manufacturing and cultural production. Over three decades, Alessi developed three different strategies to combine normative elements of the two logics, using each strategy to envision and pursue different market opportunities. By combining the logics of industrial manufacturing and cultural production, Alessi was able to envision new possibilities for value creation and to enact them through innovation in product design. The three strategies triggered a common set of mechanisms through which the purposeful combining of logics enabled the pursuit of opportunity, while each strategy structured the process differently. We develop a theoretical model linking the development of recombinant strategies to the dynamic restructuring of organizational agency and the related capacity to create and pursue new market opportunities. Our findings and theoretical insights advance understanding of the processes through which organizations challenge taken-for-granted beliefs and practices to create new market opportunities, use logics as resources to enable embedded agency, and design hybrid organizational arrangements.
- Published
- 2016
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