Practice Variation as a Mechanism for Influencing Institutional Complexity: Local Experiments in Funding Social Impact Businesses

Abstract

Institutional complexity shapes what is perceived as possible by framing cultural debates about practices, but organizations in turn shape how logics interpenetrate fields, suggesting that we must consider both the degree of compatibility between logics and the degree of practice variation in a field. Our exploratory study of three entrepreneurial impact finance organizations considers how they situate their practices between the market and community logics. We offer a recursive view that considers how multiple institutional logics shape practices and how entrepreneurial organizations adapt and invent new practices that, through their continued use, can influence the institutional complexity of a field.

Citation

Thompson, T.A. and Purdy, J.M. (2016), "Practice Variation as a Mechanism for Influencing Institutional Complexity: Local Experiments in Funding Social Impact Businesses", How Institutions Matter! (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 48A), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 157-199. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X201600048A006