Social Skill and Institutional Theory

Abstract

The problem of the role of actors in institutional theory can be addressed in considering a model of institutional entrepreneurship. A sociological posing of this question defines institutional entrepreneurs as actors who have social skills, that is, the ability to motivate cooperation of other actors by providing them with common meanings and identities. The author argues that skill is applied differently across organizational fields that are forming, become stable, and are being transformed. To illustrate some of these principles, the author considers the example of the role of Jacques Delors in the framing of the Single Market Program of the European Union.