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This chapter develops the theoretical framework used to inform the study, which is based largely on neoinstitutional theory. This monograph recognizes that a holistic perspective and richer insights are needed when examining complex issues associated with the adoption of internationally acceptable practices. The proposed theoretical framework incorporates international influences, domestic influences, and intraorganizational dynamics. In the context of globalization, China’s convergence with internationally acceptable principles and standards is largely shaped by international forces, including supranational organizations, foreign investors, and international accounting firms. Furthermore, in order to examine the operation of those imported ideas, it is essential to consider China’s contextual setting, which comprises the political system, economic system, legal system, social and cultural system, and accounting infrastructure. In addition, the convergence process is also influenced by interaction among organizational players who may actively mobilize their power to preserve the status quo and protect their power and interests. The outcome and the process of loose coupling deeply intertwine with and reflect upon international influences, domestic influences, and intraorganizational dynamics.

This paper seeks to establish the influence of several types of factors on the use of accounting information in the public sector within a developing country context. Institutional theory with its branches NIS and OIE underlies the theoretical framework for explaining the factors influencing the use of accounting information. The analysis was based on structural equation modelling to test nine hypotheses. The data were collected by administering 208 questionnaires to the Tanzanian Local Government Authorities’ political and administrative actors.

At large, the findings of this study comprehend the role of institutionalised social and legal rule with professionalism in shaping actors to use accounting information instrumentally and symbolically in budget decision-making processes. Furthermore, the findings establish the importance of education and experiences on accounting and financial aspects of the actors who are involved in the public sector budget decision-making process. The findings also provide an understanding of the differences between political actors and administrative actors in terms of the factors influencing the symbolic use of accounting information in LGA’s decision-making processes.

Our findings challenge development partners (i.e. donors), reformers such as Central Government and National Accounting professional board such NBAA in Tanzania to coerce pressure by adoption of implementation of NPM techniques, which can lead to positive change in LGAs to influence instrumental rather than symbolic use of accounting information in the budgetary decision-making processes. For example, adoption of accrual basis accounting should also concur with the improvement of accounting information systems, legal and regulatory frameworks together with creation of trainings that increase skill and knowledge of using accounting information by the actors. This might ensure financial sustainability to LGAs that can increase provision of service with relevant quality to citizens. Moreover, the findings need the political parties to take responsibility of building capacity of their candidates. It might ensure that their representatives in the council are capable of making appropriate use of the accounting information at their disposal to improve the quality of budget decision making and their representation of the population for the benefit of their organisation and eventually of their political parties. The citizens are needed to be sources of professional behaviours to both councillors and administrators by making closer follow up and demands of quality services from their LGAs through budgeting processes.

The generalisation of this study’s findings can be limited because they were obtained only from LGAs operating in Tanzania

This is the first paper that establishes the factors influencing the instrumental–conceptual use and the symbolic use of accounting information in LGAs’ budgetary decision-making processes in developing country context, in particular, in Tanzania.

The main purpose of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of how different dimensions of the institutional environment of a region may influence the level of corporate entrepreneurship of firms.

The paper develops the relationship between the institutional environment, differentiated in regulatory, cognitive and normative dimensions, and entrepreneurship in existing firms, corporate entrepreneurship, via a questionnaire study covering 150 firms in Spain.

The relation between institutional environment and corporate entrepreneurship can be distinct. The results show that both the normative and cognitive dimension of the institutional environment influence an organisation's entrepreneurial orientation. They also show that regulatory dimension influences what type of corporate entrepreneurial activity is carried out.

Literature about institutional theory and entrepreneurship has been both descriptive and fragmented. This paper complements the increasing interest in the analysis of the influence of institutional frameworks on corporate entrepreneurship and answers recent calls in the literature to complete previous analyses in an empirical way that supports previous works.

Sustainability transformation in the construction industry is vital for the attainment of sustainable development goals. While conventional construction has been at the expense of social and economic sustainability, sustainable construction can enhance environmental, social and economic outcomes for the construction industry and society at large. However, the industry struggles with new initiates because its stakeholders are products of unique institutions which shape their decisions and intentions to adopt new practices. This study assessed the institutional pressures that influence the adoption of sustainable construction to enhance our understanding of other factors that can promote and accelerate the adoption of sustainable construction.

The study adopted a quantitative research design with the use of online questionnaires to elicit information from construction professionals in South Africa. Descriptive statistics of frequencies, mean and standard deviation were used to analyse the data obtained from the survey. Linear regression was also used to assess the influence of institutional pressures on the adoption of sustainable construction.

Mimetic pressures were found to have a significant influence on the adoption of sustainable construction. The decision to adopt sustainable construction was based on the sustainability actions of industry leaders (mimetic pressure). Normative and coercive pressures had no significant influence on the adoption of sustainable construction.

Mimetic pressure from competitors and normative pressures is already exerting some pressure on stakeholders to adopt sustainable construction. However, there cannot be a long-term commitment that will yield the needed sustainability transformations without additional normative pressure from learned societies and coercive pressure from the government. As one of the pioneering works from the global south, this study provides empirical validations of the influence of institutional pressures on the adoption of sustainable construction. It also enhances understanding of how institutional pressures from the social context can promote and accelerate the adoption of sustainable construction.

The findings present one of the pioneering efforts to empirically validate the influence of institutional pressures on the adoption of sustainable construction.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze entrepreneurship in the context of the second, third and fourth generations of family businesses, considering the family as an institution and mapping the reasons and influences to institutional forces across generations.

Three focus groups conducted for the study revealed that each generation has dealt differently with issues related to institutional forces, such as legitimacy, business professionalization and succession.

The perpetuation and transmission of entrepreneurial behavior has been greatly influenced by the family and this is especially clear when it is seen as an institution that unites and binds its members, while guiding or restricting the choices available to these agents through limits imposed on them. The family exerts a strong institutional influence across generations, both defining boundaries and creating opportunities for its members. Regardless of the generation of family business, the family founders and their successors’ responses are modeled by institutional forces.

The main limitation is concentration of focus on a specific context, Brazilian family businesses. Therefore, the results are limited to this case. With regard to the methodological approach, the authors employed cross-sectional data collection, making it difficult or even impossible to make a historical analysis of the facts that are limited to the present perceptions of the interviewees. It should also be considered, from the institutional perspective, that the authors only analyze the family as an institution, leaving out of the context other institutions and institutional dimensions such as the political and industrial, for example.

This study helps to explain entrepreneurship in the context of the second, thirrd, and fourth generation of family businesses, considering family as an institution, mapping the motivations and influences of institutional forces across generations. The relevance of family as an institution as drivers of family businesses, as demonstrated in this study, can contribute to decision making and succession of family businesses. Equally, the results can contribute to avoidance of the possible pitfalls of transgenerational changes and facilitate better management of problems such as legitimacy caused by a lack of norms and procedures or transfer of tacit knowledge.

There have been few attempts to understand the dynamics of the family business as an institution that also consider transgenerational changes. Rather, family business has been analyzed separately from institutions. Institutions are rarely taken into account in studies of family businesses. Consequently, a perspective that aims to understand the relationship between family businesses and institutions, taking account of transgenerational influences should further theory. Transgenerational family businesses are an appropriate object of study in this context, because of the institutional changes they undergo due to the influence of institutional forces over time.

This study shows the relevance of understanding how these issues are dealt with in different generations of a family institution. Aspects related to entrepreneurship in the context of family businesses have been attracting attention from researchers interested in family businesses and scholars of institutional entrepreneurship.

This paper aims to investigate funding and performance monitoring practices in Zambia’s health sector from an institutional and stratified ontology perspective. Such an approach was deemed appropriate in view of pluralistic institutional environments characterising most African economies that are also considered to be highly stratified.

Blended with insights from stratified ontology, the paper draws on institutional pluralism as a theoretical lens to understand the institutional structures, mechanisms, events and experiences encountered by actors operating at different levels of Zambia’s health sector. The study adopted an interpretive approach that helped to investigate the multifaceted and subjective nature of social phenomena and practices being studied. Data were collected from both archival sources and interviews with key stakeholders operating within Zambia’s health sector.

The study’s findings indicate the high levels of stratification within Zambia’s health sector as evidenced by the three sector levels that possessed different characteristics in terms of actor responses to donor influence. This study equally demonstrates the capacity of agents operating under highly fragmented institutional environments to engage in enabling and constraining responses depending on the understanding of their empirical world.

Through blending insights from stratified ontology with institutional pluralism, the study contributes to the literature by demonstrating the enabling and constraining reflexive capacity of agents to exercise choices under highly fragmented institutional environments while responding to multiple demands and expectations to sustain the co-existence of diverse stakeholders. Accordingly, the study advances thinking on the application of institutional theory to critical accounting research in line with recent ontological and epistemological shifts in institutional theory.

This study aims to incorporate macro- and micro-level institutional factors into the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) model to understand their effect on entrepreneurial intentions (EI) amongst students in nations from Latin America and Caribbean region and India.

Using non-probability sampling technique, data was collected from Colombia, Dominican Republic, India and Mexico, and consisted of 757 useable responses from students. Structural equation modelling was employed to conduct confirmatory factor analysis while path analysis was used to test the hypotheses.

Combined samples from all countries showed information and communications technology infrastructure, usage and adoption (ICTi) and educational support had an indirect effect on EI through personal attitude (PA) and perceived behavioural control (PBC) but not through subjective norms (SN). Additionally, it was found that while PA and PBC have a direct influence on EI; SN does not. Further, an inverse relationship was found between age and EI, while respondents' gender, academic programme and entrepreneurship education had no significant effect on EI.

This study suggests enhanced investments in developing and emerging economies by enabling institutional environments at the macro- and micro-level that could help promote EI.

The current paper contributes to the EI literature by incorporating institutional factors at macro- and micro-levels in developing and emerging economies towards a more integrative TPB.

The COVID-19 pandemic highlights the influence that nation-states can have on the engagement of international marketing activities. The purpose of this study is to understand the influence of the institutional response to the COVID-19 pandemic on international marketing activities and to highlight the need to formally incorporate institutional economics into the study of international marketing phenomena.

The paper uses institutional economics as the environmental element of the general theory of competitive rationality to present a foundation for understanding how state actions influence marketing and international marketing activities. Data are presented and empirically tested, demonstrating the heterogeneity of government influence on personal and economic freedoms during the pandemic, both of which influenced international marketing activities. To broaden the implications of this work, we also provide anecdotal illustrations unrelated to the COVID-19 pandemic to demonstrate the breadth of nation-state influence on international marketing activities.

Heterogeneity in nation-state formal and informal institutional elements influence international marketing activities during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, other incidents, unrelated to the COVID-19 pandemic, demonstrate the importance of contextualizing international marketing activities under a holistic institutional framework.

The paper employs the general theory of competitive rationality along with institutional economics to provide a theoretical foundation to better understand the differential impact on international marketing as a result of formal and informal institutional influences. This general framework can be employed to provide a holistic understanding of both international and cross-national marketing activities.

The purpose of this paper is to explore whether, how and why ethical investment practices of charities differ between two countries with quite different ideological and institutional frameworks – Norway and the UK.

The paper uses mixed methods and a cross-sectional field study design to explore the ethical investment practices of 300 of the largest charities by investments in the UK and Norway. Practices are theorized using the dual lens of institutional theory and social origins theory.

The paper provides evidence on why charities established the practice of ethical investment. The results show that large charities were more likely to have an ethical policy; that charities with moderate public sector funding were more likely to have an ethical policy. In line with institutional theory some Norwegian charities with public sector funding mimic the policy of the Government Pension Fund, and the ethical investment policy of Norwegian charities was more influenced by donors. Institutional entrepreneurs (charity founders) had a more prominent influence in UK charities.

The paper highlights that more research is needed on sovereign wealth funds, their investment practices and how they affect charities.

The findings of this paper highlight the potential role that the ethical investment practices of sovereign can play a soft regulatory function in changing the behaviour of other investors.

To the extent that ethical investment practices are construed as having a positive social impact, then this study shows how a government sovereign wealth fund can influence the spread of ethical investment practices.

This paper, which sits at the nexus of the charity and corporate social responsibility (CSR) literatures, contributes by responding to calls for more research on charity practices in different countries and CSR practices in different countries. This comparison also contributes to the development of institutional theory by shedding light on the institutional influence of a sovereign wealth fund and its impact on others. The paper will be of value to academics, policy setters and regulators.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the influence of SOEs on institutions. The authors argue that in some cases there are differences in institutional shape between the shape that is actually demanded by an institution’s institutional environment and the shape that the institution itself believes is demanded of its institutional framework. The authors observed a behavior specific to institutions that change their institutional shape in response to demands, irrespective of whether these demands are legitimate, and this behavior was primarily in response to demands from governments and SOEs. The authors call this situation institutional dysmorphia and contrast it with institutional isomorphism.

This study is characterized by the qualitative approach and descriptive form. It is also a documentary study employing the systematic review technique and critical appreciation in a research group. The case of the Brazilian National Development Bank (BNDES) is analyzed to examine the different relationships between Brazilian SOEs and BNDES. It used secondary data provided by reports, papers and relevant magazines. The authors compare them with the conceptual purpose originated in the Medicine field.

The study is illustrated by the case of the BNDES and the various different relationships between Brazilian SOEs and BNDES are examined. This is a qualitative and descriptive documentary study, employing the systematic review technique. Specific behavior is observed in institutions that change their institutional shape in response to demands, irrespective of whether these demands are legitimate, and these demands mainly come from the government and from SOEs.

The authors use of secondary data from only one country that was used to present these arguments. The focus was restricted to the institutional framework comprising one institution and SOEs. Private firms were not considered in this institutional framework, but they must be included in a macro-environment. Institutional pressures are dynamic and asymmetric. The dynamism of institutional change was not evaluated, and neither was the evolution of the relationships between government, SOEs and institutions. Finally, researchers need to understand not only top-down models of institutional effects but also the institutional process that incorporates both institutional influence and firm responses.

The term institutional dysmorphia is proposed through the contrast with concepts such institutional isomorphism, with reference to the institutional logics and institutional complexity of these institutions’ and SOEs’ environment. The situation described institutional dysmorphia happening in emerging countries context and might open new avenues for research.