Institutional destabilisation and the new public management: the case of tax incremental financing

Byline: Mark A. Covaleski, Mark W. Dirsmith, Katrina L. Mantzke With the goal of extending the New Public Management perspective by focusing on the play of vested interests and power, our study examines the active agency of a single company contracting with local and state governments to implement a Tax Incremental Financing (TIF) programme. Extending beyond the traditional focus of institutional theory on organisational conformity to institutionalised expectations, our analysis expands upon an emerging strand of research which argues that regulated organisations may manipulate the laws which govern them to serve their own ends. We find that even though the TIF programme was constructed in a relatively concrete manner with very little uncertainty as to its provisions, it was manipulated through strategic action on the part of the company regulated. What proved more interesting, however, was the social process by which stakeholders interpreted, negotiated and grudgingly came to agree on the meaning of this regulation.