Institutional entrepreneurs performing in meaning arenas: Transgressing institutional logics in two organizational fields

Abstract

How are institutional logics transgressed in the organizational fields of open source software and of commercial proprietary software, respectively, by developing a new practice of commercial open source software? I argue that by combining a Critique of Ideology Critique and a Critique of New Institutional Organizational Theory, we become better equipped for understanding institutional change in organizations applying concepts such as institutional entrepreneurs, discursive devices, and meaning arenas. The analysis show that many institutional entrepreneurs apply discursive devices to convince actors in the two organizational fields of the legitimacy of the new practice. This happens in many different meaning arenas such as in the market, in the public discourse, and in concrete open source projects. I advance the assumption that a relation established between institutional entrepreneurs of different legitimacy in the two original fields renders possible their institutional work.

Citation

Westenholz, A. (2009), "Institutional entrepreneurs performing in meaning arenas: Transgressing institutional logics in two organizational fields", Meyer, R.E., Sahlin, K., Ventresca, M.J. and Walgenbach, P. (Ed.) Institutions and Ideology (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 27), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 283-311. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X(2009)0000027011