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Bases of Conformity and Institutional Theory: Understanding Organizational Decision-Making

Microfoundations of Institutions

ISBN: 978-1-78769-124-7, eISBN: 978-1-78769-123-0

Publication date: 25 November 2019

Abstract

This analysis investigates the micro-dynamics of organizational decision-making by exploring connections between institutional theory, on the one hand, and both social psychological research on conformity and recent work in economics on herd behavior and information cascades, on the other hand. The authors draw attention to the differences between normative and informational conformity as distinct motivational drivers of adoption behaviors by exploring their differential effects on the post-adoption outcomes of decoupling (e.g., Westphal & Zajac, 1994), customization (e.g., Fiss, Kennedy, & Davis, 2012), and abandonment (e.g., Ahmadjian & Robinson, 2001). The authors conclude that normative conformity leads to certain post-adoption outcomes while informational conformity is associated with others.

Keywords

Citation

Tolbert, P.S. and Darabi, T. (2019), "Bases of Conformity and Institutional Theory: Understanding Organizational Decision-Making", Haack, P., Sieweke, J. and Wessel, L. (Ed.) Microfoundations of Institutions (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 65A), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 269-290. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0733-558X2019000065A027

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

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