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Moving from an Exception to a Rule: Analyzing Mechanisms in Emergence-based Institutionalization

Jeannette Colyvas, Northwestern University

Description

Semester:

  • Fall 2011

Speakers:

Jeannette Colyvas, Human Development & Social Policy, Learning Sciences, School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University

Lecture Time:

Fri, December 2, 2011 @ 1:30 pm to 3:00 pm

Lecture Location:

Room K1310, Ross School of Business

Speaker Webpage(s):

http://www.sesp.northwestern.edu/profile/?p=17827

Introduced By:

No introduction available.

Abstract

Despite a long legacy of scholarship, we lack a theoretical account of institutionalization that can distinguish between actions that reinforce existing structures and those that lead to broader, structural change. This gap is particularly problematic when attempting to understand the specific conditions under which local actions that are initially exceptions become self-reproducing, field-level structures themselves. To gain a better understanding of the mechanisms through which such exceptions become field-level rules, we blend computational agent-based modeling with insights from a setting where a seemingly deviant local practice became integrated into a self-reproducing social system–the case of the emergence of proprietary disclosure in the academic life sciences. Our approach enables us to 1) critique and extend existing conceptions of such processes in the academic life sciences; 2) develop specific propositions about “emergence-based institutionalization” that occurs through bottom up, relational processes in social systems; and 3) advance a mechanisms-based research program in neo-institutional analysis.

Recording & Additional Notes

Introducer: Suntae Kim, Management & Organizations