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.
AldrichH. E.FiolC. M.1994 “Fools rush in? The institutional context of industry creation.” Academy of Management Review, 19: 645–670.
2.
AlessiA.1998The Dream Factory: Alessi since 1921. Milan: Electa/Alessi.
3.
AlvarezS. A.BarneyJ. B.AndersonP.2013 “Forming and exploiting opportunities: The implications of discovery and creation processes for entrepreneurial and organizational research.” Organization Science, 24: 301–317.
4.
BattilanaJ.D’AunnoT.2009 “Institutional work and the paradox of embedded agency.” In LawrenceT. B.SuddabyR.LecaB. (eds.), Institutional Work: 31–58. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
5.
BattilanaJ.DoradoS.2010 “Building sustainable hybrid organizations: The case of commercial microfinance organizations.” Academy of Management Journal, 53: 1419–1440.
6.
BattilanaJ.LeeM.2014 “Advancing research on hybrid organizing—Insights from the study of social enterprises.” Academy of Management Annals, 8: 397–441.
7.
BattilanaJ.SengulM.PacheA.ModelJ.2014 “Harnessing productive tensions in hybrid organizations: The case of work integration social enterprises.” Academy of Management Journal (forthcoming), published online ahead of print. DOI: 10.5465/amj.2013.0903.
8.
BeckerH. S.1974 “Art as a collective action.” American Sociological Review, 39: 767–776.
9.
BeckerH. S.1978 “Arts and crafts.” American Journal of Sociology, 83: 862–889.
10.
BeckerH. S.1982Art Worlds. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
11.
BesharovM. L.SmithW. K.2014 “Multiple institutional logics in organizations: Explaining their varied nature and implications.” Academy of Management Review, 39: 364–381.
12.
BinderA.2007 “For love and money: Organizations’ creative responses to multiple environmental logics.” Theory and Society, 36: 547–571.
13.
BourdieuP.1983 “The field of cultural production: Contribution to an economy of symbolic goods.” Poetics, 12: 311–356.
14.
BourdieuP.1993 “The production of belief: Contribution to an economy of symbolic goods.” In JohnsonR. (ed.), The Field of Cultural Production: 74–111. New York: Columbia University Press.
CascianiS.1996The Art Factory. Milan: Editrice Abitare Segesta.
17.
CornelissenJ. P.ClarkeJ. S.2010 “Imagining and rationalizing opportunities: Inductive reasoning and the creation and justification of new ventures.” Academy of Management Review, 35: 539–557.
18.
D’AunnoT.SuttonR. I.PriceR. H.1991 “Isomorphism and external support in conflicting institutional environments: A study of drug abuse treatment units.” Academy of Management Journal, 34: 636–661.
19.
De FuscoR. 2002Storia del Design Italiano. Roma: Editori Laterza.
20.
DelbridgeR.EdwardsT.2008 “Challenging conventions: Roles and processes during non-isomorphic institutional change.” Human Relations, 61: 299–325.
21.
DelbridgeR.EdwardsT.2013 “Inhabiting institutions: Critical realist refinements to understanding institutional complexity and change.” Organization Studies, 34: 927–947.
22.
DjelicM.-L.AinamoA.2005 “The telecom industry as cultural industry? The transposition of fashion logics into the field of mobile telephony.” In JonesC.ThorntonP. (eds.), Research in the Sociology of Organizations, vol. 238: Transformation in Cultural Industries: 45–80. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group.
23.
DunnM. B.JonesC.2010 “Institutional logics and institutional pluralism: The contestation of care and science logics in medical education, 1967–2005.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 55: 114–149.
24.
EisenhardtK. M.1989 “Building theories from case study research.” Academy of Management Review, 14: 532–550.
25.
EmirbayerM.1997 “Manifesto for a relational sociology.” American Journal of Sociology, 103: 281–317.
26.
EmirbayerM.MischeA.1998 “What is agency?” American Journal of Sociology, 103: 962–1023.
27.
FriedlandR.AlfordR. R.1991 “Bringing society back in: Symbols, practices, and institutional contradictions.” In PowellW. W.DiMaggioP. J. (eds.), The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis: 232–266. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
28.
Gabra-LiddellM.1998Alessi: The Design Factory. London: Wiley-Academy.
29.
GautB.2007Art, Emotion and Ethics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
30.
GioiaD. A.MehraA.1996Book review: “Sensemaking in Organizations by Karl E. Weick.” Academy of Management Review, 21: 1226–1230.
31.
GlaserB. G.StraussA. L.1967The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine De Gruyter.
32.
GlynnM. A.2000 “When cymbals become symbols: Conflict over organizational identity within a symphony orchestra.” Organization Science, 11: 285–298.
33.
GlynnM. A.LounsburyM.2005 “From the critics’ corner: Logic blending, discursive change and authenticity in a cultural production system.” Journal of Management Studies, 42: 1031–1055.
34.
GreenwoodR.HiningsC. R.SuddabyR.2002 “Theorizing change: The role of professional associations in the transformation of institutionalized fields.” Academy of Management Journal, 45: 58–80.
35.
GreenwoodR.RaynardM.KodeihF.MicelottaE. R.LounsburyM.2011 “Institutional complexity and organizational responses.” Academy of Management Annals, 5: 317–371.
36.
GreenwoodR.SuddabyR.2006 “Institutional entrepreneurship in mature fields: The Big Five accounting firms.” Academy of Management Journal, 49: 27–48.
37.
HallettT.VentrescaM.2006 “Inhabited institutions: Social interaction and organizational forms in Gouldner’s Patterns of Industrial Bureaucracy.” Theory and Society, 35: 213–236.
38.
HaysS.1994 “Structure and agency and the sticky problem of culture.” Sociological Theory, 12: 57–72.
39.
HirschP. M.1972 “Processing fads and fashions: An organization-set analysis of cultural industry systems.” American Journal of Sociology, 77: 639–659.
HirschP. M.LounsburyM.1997 “Ending the family quarrel: Toward a reconciliation of ‘old’ and ‘new’ institutionalisms.” American Behavioral Scientist, 40: 406–418.
42.
HolmP.1995 “The dynamics of institutionalization: Transformation processes in Norwegian fisheries.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 40: 398–422.
43.
Howard-GrenvilleJ.Golden-BiddleK.IrwinJ.MaoJ.2011 “Liminality as a cultural process for cultural change.” Organization Science, 22: 522–539.
44.
Howard-GrenvilleJ. A.2005 “The persistence of flexible organizational routines: The role of agency and organizational context.” Organization Science, 16: 618–636.
45.
HsuG.2006 “Jacks of all trades and masters of none: Audiences’ reactions to spanning genres in feature film production.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 51: 420–450.
46.
HsuG.NegroG.PerrettiF.2012 “Hybrids in Hollywood: A study of the production and performance of genre-spanning films.” Industrial and Corporate Change, 21: 1427–1450.
47.
JayJ.2013 “Navigating paradox as a mechanism for change and innovation in hybrid organziations.” Academy of Management Journal, 56: 137–159.
48.
JenningsP. D.GreenwoodR.LounsburyM. D.SuddabyR.2013 “Institutions, entrepreneurs, and communities: A special issue on entrepreneurship.” Journal of Business Venturing, 28: 1–9.
49.
JonesC.Livne-TarandachR.2008 “Designing a frame: Rhetorical strategies of architects.” Journal of Organizational Behavior, 29: 1075–1099.
50.
JonesC.MaoretM.MassaF. G.SvejenovaS.2012 “Rebels with a cause: Formation, contestation, and expansion of the de novo category ‘modern architecture,’ 1870–1975.” Organization Science, 23: 1523–1545.
51.
KaplanS.OrlikowskiW. J.2013 “Temporal work in strategy making.” Organization Science, 24: 965–995.
52.
KentD.DacinM. T.2013 “Bankers at the gate: Microfinance and the high cost of borrowed logics.” Journal of Business Venturing, 28: 759–773.
53.
KraatzM. S.BlockE. S.2008 “Organizational implications of institutional pluralism.” In GreenwoodR.OliverC.SuddabyR.Sahlin-AnderssonK. (eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism: 243–273. London: Sage.
54.
LampelJ.LantT.ShamsieJ.2000 “Balancing act: Learning from organizing practices in cultural industries.” Organization Science, 11: 263–269.
55.
LangleyA.1999 “Strategies for theorizing from process data.” Academy of Management Review, 24: 691–710.
56.
LepoutreJ. M. W. N.ValenteM.2014 “Fools breaking out: The role of symbolic and material immunity in explaining institutional nonconformity.” Academy of Management Journal, 55: 258–313.
57.
LockeK.2001Grounded Theory in Management Research. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
58.
LounsburyM.2002 “Institutional transformation and status mobility: The professionalization of the field of finance.” Academy of Management Journal, 45: 255–266.
59.
LounsburyM.2007 “A tale of two cities: Competing logics and practice variation in the professionalization of mutual funds.” Academy of Management Journal, 50: 289–307.
60.
LounsburyM.CrumleyE. T.2007 “New practice creation: An institutional perspective on innovation.” Organization Studies, 28: 993–1012.
61.
LounsburyM.GlynnM. A.2001 “Cultural entrepreneurship: Stories, legitimacy, and the acquisition of resources.” Strategic Management Journal, 22: 545–564.
62.
MarquisC.LounsburyM.2007 “Vive la résistance: Competing logics and the consolidation of U.S. community banking.” Academy of Management Journal, 50: 799–820.
63.
MartinsL. L.RindovaV. P.GreenbaumB. E.2015 “Unlocking the hidden value of concepts: A cognitive approach to business model innovation.” Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 9: 99–117.
64.
McPhersonC. M.SauderM.2013 “Logics in action: Managing institutional complexity in a drug court.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 58: 165–196.
65.
MendiniA.1979Paesaggio Casalingo. La Produzione Alessi nell’Industrai dei Casalinghi dal 1921 al 1980. Milan: Editoriale Domus.
66.
NasraR.DacinM. T.2010 “Institutional arrangements and international entrepreneurship: The state as institutional entrepreneur.” Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 34: 583–609.
67.
NavisC.GlynnM. A.2010 “How new market categories emerge: Temporal dynamics of legitimacy, identity, and entrepreneurship in satellite radio, 1990–2005.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 55: 439–471.
68.
NigamA.OcasioW.2010 “Event attention, environmental sense-making, and change in institutional logics: An inductive analysis of the effects of public attention to Clinton’s health care reform initiative.” Organization Science, 21: 823–841.
69.
OakesL. S.TownleyB.CooperD. J.1998 “Business planning as pedagogy: Language and control in a changing institutional field.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 43: 257–292.
70.
OcasioW.JosephJ.2005 “Cultural adaptation and institutional change: The evolution of vocabularies of corporate governance, 1972–2003.” Poetics, 33: 163–178.
71.
OliverC.1991 “Strategic responses to institutional pressures.” Academy of Management Review, 16: 145–179.
72.
PacheA.-C.SantosF.2010 “When worlds collide: The internal dynamics of organizational responses to conflicting institutional demands.” Academy of Management Review, 35: 455–476.
73.
PacheA.-C.SantosF.2013 “Inside the hybrid organization: Selective coupling as a response to competing institutional logics.” Academy of Management Journal, 56: 972–1002.
74.
PettigrewA. M.1990 “Longitudinal field research on change: Theory and practice.” Organization Science, 1: 267–292.
75.
PolinoroL.1989L’Officina Alessi. Alberto Alessi e Alessandro Mendini: Dieci Anni di Progetto, 1980–1990. Crusinallo, Italy: FAO/Alessi.
76.
PollockT. G.RindovaV. P.MaggittiP. G.2008 “Market watch: Information and availability cascades among the media and investors in the US IPO market.” Academy of Management Journal, 51: 335–358.
77.
PorterM. E.1980Competitive Strategy. New York: Free Press.
78.
PurdyJ. M.GrayB.2009 “Conflicting logics, mechanisms of diffusion, and multilevel dynamics in emerging institutional fields.” Academy of Management Journal, 52: 355–380.
79.
ReayT.HiningsC. R.2009 “Managing the rivalry of competing institutional logics.” Organization Studies, 30: 629–652.
80.
RindovaV. P.DalpiazE.RavasiD.2011 “A cultural quest: A study of organizational use of new cultural resources in strategy formation.” Organization Science, 22: 413–431.
81.
RindovaV. P.PetkovaA.2007 “When is a new thing a good thing? Technological change, product form design, and perceptions of value for product innovations.” Organization Science, 18: 217–232.
82.
RuefM.PattersonK.2009 “Credit and classification: The impact of industry boundaries in nineteenth-century America.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 54: 486–520.
83.
SalvatoC.2006 “Micro-foundations of organizational adaptation: A field study in the evolution of product development capabilities in a design firm.” Unpublished dissertation, Jonkoping International Business School: http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:4096/FULLTEXT01.pdf.
84.
SalvatoC.2009 “Capabilities unveiled: The role of ordinary activities in the evolution of product development processes.” Organization Science, 20: 384–409.
85.
ScarzellaP.1985Il Bel Metallo. Storia dei Casalinghi Nobili Alessi. Milan: Arcadia Edizioni.
86.
ScottW. R.2001Institutions and Organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
87.
SeoM.-G.CreedW. E. D.2002 “Institutional contradictions, praxis, and institutional change: A dialectical perspective.” Academy of Management Review, 27: 222–247.
88.
SewellW. H.Jr.1996 “Historical events as transformations of structures: Inventing revolution at the Bastille.” Theory and Society, 25: 841–881.
89.
ShaneS.VenkataramanS.2000 “The promise of entrepreneurship as a field of research.” Academy of Management Review, 25: 217–226.
90.
ShepherdD. A.McMullenJ. S.JenningsP. D.2007 “The formation of opportunity beliefs: Overcoming ignorance and reducing doubt.” Strategic Entrepreneurship Journal, 1: 75–95.
91.
SmetsM.JarzabkowskiP.BurkeG.SpeeP.2015 “Reinsurance trading in Lloyd’s of London: Balancing conflicting-yet-complementary logics in practice.” Academy of Management Journal, 58: 932–970.
92.
SmetsM.MorrisT. I. M.GreenwoodR.2012 “From practice to field: A multilevel model of practice-driven institutional change.” Academy of Management Journal, 55: 877–904.
93.
StarkD., ed. 2009The Sense of Dissonance. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
94.
StarkD.GirardM.2009 “Creative friction in new media start-up.” In StarkD. (ed.), The Sense of Dissonance: 81–117. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
95.
StraussA. L.CorbinJ. M.1998Basics of Qualitative Research: Techniques and Procedures for Developing Grounded Theory. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
96.
SweetF.1998Alessi: Art and Poetry. London: Thames and Hudson.
97.
ThorntonP. H.2002 “The rise of the corporation in a craft industry: Conflict and conformity in institutional logics.” Academy of Management Journal, 45: 81–101.
98.
ThorntonP. H.2004Markets from Culture. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
99.
ThorntonP. H.OcasioW.1999 “Institutional logics and the historical contingency of power in organizations: Executive succession in the higher education publishing industry, 1958–1990.” American Journal of Sociology, 105: 801–844.
100.
ThorntonP. H.OcasioW.LounsburyM.2012The Institutional Logics Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
101.
TownleyB.2002 “The role of competing rationalities in institutional change.” Academy of Management Journal, 45: 163–179.
102.
TraceyP.PhillipsN.JarvisO.2011 “Bridging institutional entrepreneurship and the creation of new organizational forms: A multilevel model.” Organization Science, 22: 60–80.
103.
VergantiR.2006 “Innovating through design.” Harvard Business Review, 84 (Dec.): 114–122.
104.
VoronovM.YorksL.2015 “Did you notice that? Theorizing differences in the capacity to apprehend institutional contradictions.” Academy of Management Review, 40: 563–586.
105.
WryT.LounsburyM.JenningsP. D.2014 “Hybrid vigor: Securing venture capital by spanning categories in nanotechnology.” Academy of Management Journal, 57: 1309–1333.
106.
ZietsmaC.LawrenceT. B.2010 “Institutional work in the transformation of an organizational field: The interplay of boundary work and practice work.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 55: 189–221.
107.
ZilberT. B.2002 “Institutionalization as an interplay between actions, meanings, and actors: The case of a rape crisis center in Israel.” Academy of Management Journal, 45: 234–254.
108.
ZilberT. B.2013 “Institutional logics and institutional work: Should they be agreed?” In BoxenbaumE.LounsburyM. (eds.), Research in the Sociology of Organizations, vol. 39A: Institutional Logics in Action, Part A: 77–96. Bingley, UK: Emerald Group.
109.
ZuckermanE. W.1999 “The categorical imperative: Securities analysts and the illegitimacy discount.” American Journal of Sociology, 104: 1398–1438.
110.
ZuckermanE. W.KimT.UkanwaK.von RittmannJ.2003 “Robust identities or nonentities? Typecasting in the feature-film labor market.” American Journal of Sociology, 108: 1018–1073.
Supplementary Material
Please find the following supplemental material available below.
For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.
For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.
