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Field emergence poses an intriguing problem for institutional theorists. New issue fields often arise at the intersection of different sectors, amidst extant structures of meanings and actors. Such nascent fields are fragmented and lack clear guides for action; making it unclear how they ever coalesce. The authors propose that provisional social structures provide actors with macrosocial presuppositions that shape ongoing field-configuration; bootstrapping the field. The authors explore this empirically in the context of social impact investing in the UK, 2000–2013, a period in which this field moved from clear fragmentation to relative alignment. The authors combine different computational text analysis methods, and data from an extensive field-level study, to uncover meaningful patterns of interaction and structuration. Our results show that across various periods, different types of actors were linked together in discourse through “actor–meaning couplets.” These emergent couplings of actors and meanings provided actors with social cues, or macrofoundations, which guided their local activities. The authors thus theorize a recursive, co-constitutive process: as punctuated moments of interaction generate provisional structures of actor–meaning couplets, which then cue actors as they navigate and constitute the emerging field. Our model re-energizes the core tenets of new structuralism and contributes to current debates about institutional emergence and change.

The study aims to investigate the comparatively under‐researched relationship between ownership structure and capital structure in an emerging market. It is also one of the first studies to apply both single and reduced‐form equation methods using a panel data approach. Design/methodology/approach – The study applies econometrics modelling using both single equation and reduces equation models for panel data.

The results demonstrate that Jordanian firms follow the same determinants of capital structure as occur in developed markets, namely: profitability, firm size, growth rate, market‐to‐book ratio, asset structure and liquidity. In addition, institutional ownership structure is found to be determined by: assets structure, business risk (BR), growth opportunities and firm size. Finally, the results reveal that assets tangibility, firm size, growth opportunities and BR are considered to be joint determinants of ownership structure and capital structure.

The practical implication of the study is that investors and managers should consider both capital structure and ownership structure when they take their investment decisions.

This is the first study of the interaction between institutional ownership and capital structure in Jordan where there are differences, as regards institutional and financial structures, relative to those in developed markets.

Over the last decades, the social sciences have become increasingly concerned with the role of the state and the politics of institutional restructuring. Within mainstream political science this has led to the development of a “state-centered” research program that emphasizes the autonomy of institutions. Marxist theory, however, has continued to adhere to a “society-centered” perspective, seeking to combine an ability to account for institutional change with the analysis of more structural social and economic forces. After some introductory comments that frame the problematic within which the paper is situated (Section 1), I discuss in Section 2 three of the most important recent Marxist attempts to construe the relation between socio-economic imperatives and political institutions. My argument is that Marxists’ attempts to relativize the autonomy of state institutions are too often still based on the postulation of an unexplained structural moment. This leaves them vulnerable to institutionalist claims concerning the autonomous nature of institutions. Section 3 proposes a different way of thinking the role of institutions in capitalist society. This approach breaks with a causalist, structuralist mode of explanation and relies on a more hermeneutic understanding of the role of institutions. I will shift the problematic to the relation between institutions and agency, arguing for a more pragmatist understanding of the role of institutions and an agency-based understanding of the formation of socio-economic imperatives. Section 4 concludes with some thoughts on the prospects held out, as well as the challenges faced, by the approach proposed in this paper.

This paper aims to examine the role of country-level institutional structures in strengthening the level of investor confidence in Africa while controlling for real GDP growth, interest rate spread, inflation and country credit rating.

The paper uses panel data for the period 2009-2013. It takes into account the rule of law, political stability, regulatory quality, voice and accountability, control of corruption and property rights as potential institutional drivers of the level of investor confidence. These factors are based on their relative relevance from the extant literature. Correlated panels-corrected standard errors model was used to establish the relationship between the institutional structures and the strength of investor confidence.

The overall results show that rule of law, voice and accountability, property rights and political stability exhibit significant positive relationship with the strength of investor confidence in African economies. This implies that asking African economies to strengthen these institutional structures will result in enhanced investor confidence in their economies. This suggests that the establishment of these institutional structures is an effective tool to enhance investor confidence in African economies.

In addition to the long-term goal of promoting economic reforms, a corresponding long-term goal of strengthening institutional structures in African economies should be taken into consideration. Instead of waiting for their economic reforms to take effect, governments in African countries can, to some degree, attract investors into their economies by establishing credible institutional structures.

This paper contributes to the knowledge on how country-level institutional structures influence the level of investor confidence in the context of Africa.

The emergence of an evidence-based medicine logic represents a major change in the large and complex field of American healthcare. In this analytical case study, the authors show that the intellectual school of evidence-based medicine became an important meso-structure that facilitated the growth of the new logic in American healthcare. The new intellectual school was a community of scholars who generated shared rules and resources through intergenerational mentoring. The school engaged in advocacy to advance new intellectual paradigms for conceptualizing healthcare quality that, when connected with material practices in the field of American healthcare, came to form a new institutional logic.

The strategic management perspective suggests that organizations structure their governing boards to complement the strategic goals of the organization. In contrast, the institutionalization perspective holds that organizations structure their governing boards to respond to institutional pressures in their task environment. Regardless of which perspective is followed, three structural dimensions of governing boards are expected to be affected: size, diversity of composition, and medical staff representation. A study was conducted to relate the institutional requirements and strategies of acute care hospitals to the structural characteristics of their boards of directors. Results indicated that, after controlling for organizational size and membership in a multihospital system, the governing board structure of 109 acute care hospitals varied significantly both as a function of their overall business strategy and as a function of institutional linkages. However, the proportion of the total variance in board structure accounted for by strategy variables was approximately twice as much as that accounted for by institutional variables.

This study investigates the capital structure determinants of the Middle East tourism sector by examining intellectual capital (IC) efficiency and institutional governance along with firm-specific and macroeconomic variables. This research also identifies the determinants of capital structure for tourism companies in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and non-GCC countries.

Data were collected from 45 listed tourism companies of nine Middle Eastern countries over five years from 2014 to 2018. The data were analysed using ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and checked for robustness using the generalised methods of moment (GMM) estimation.

Overall, the results indicate that tourism companies rely more on short-term debt (STD) than long-term debt (LTD), thus decreasing liquidity and increasing financial risk. Furthermore, tourism companies in non-GCC countries have higher IC efficiency compared to those in GCC countries. The aggregate institutional index is much higher for GCC countries compared to non-GCC countries. The OLS estimations suggest IC efficiency and institutional governance index provide inconclusive evidence as a determinant of capital structure proxy. High capital employed efficiency (CEE) is associated with more leverage for tourism firms. Theoretically, the results support pecking order and trade-off theories due to the relationships between firm-specific indicators and debt.

This study closes the gap in the capital structure debate by providing valuable insights into IC efficiency and institutional governance. These two factors serve as capital structure determinants in the Middle East and the GCC and non-GCC regions.

There is still an ongoing debate on the value relevance of capital structure and its determinants. Recently the issue has been explored in family firms after being explored in mature firms. This paper investigates the role of institutional investors and the firm's innovation activity in influencing the firm's decision and ability to acquire debt capital.

A large sample of 700 privately-held family firms in Italy from 2010 to 2019. Two analysis techniques are used: panel analysis and path analysis. The value of debt and the debt ratio are used as leverage measures. The value of patent (as a proxy for innovation) and institutional investor are the explanatory variables.

The results show that institutional investors have no relationship with financial leverage measures except when controlling for an interaction variable (Institutional investors × Lombardy region). The patent value is positively correlated with debt; however, the ratio patent-to-asset is negatively related to financial leverage indicating higher risk exposure. The nonlinearity test demonstrates a turning point when the relationship between patent value and debt inverts.

Firms should monitor their innovation activity since excessive innovation increases risk exposure and affects financing opportunities and value. The involvement of institutional investors does not always enhance value.

Existing literature focuses separately on family firm innovations and financial leverage as outcome variables, emphasizing the role of institutional investors in both fields by adopting agency theory and socioemotional wealth framework. In this study, the authors go further by merging both relationships, investigating the dynamics of the institutional-family firm innovation relationship in influencing the firm's capital structure. The authors contribute to the ongoing debate by providing original findings on capital structure, governance and innovation, supported by rigorous methods to enhance family firms' decision-making.

Examines the implications of institutional theory in the study of instructional leadership within the school organization. Outlines the implementation of this theory with the school, at the boundary between the school and the environment and also the organization of the institutional environment to which schools respond. Claims that theory enhances the administration of the school by the adoption of structures embodying cultural rules, and that it helps teachers to precipitate work‐related activity.

The purpose of this paper is to review extant accounting research combining institutional and critical theories to examine whether the paradigmatic tensions associated with such research can be alleviated whilst engendering politically engaged scholarship aimed at facilitating processes of emancipation in organisational fields.

The paper provides a review of relevant accounting research and offers recommendations for how to combine institutional and critical research approaches in a paradigmatically consistent way.

Extant accounting research combining institutional and critical theories has not dealt effectively with the partly inter-related problems of ontological drift (i.e. misalignment of ontological assumptions and epistemological commitments) and the conflation of notions of agency and structure. If such problems remain unaddressed institutional research aimed at generating politically engaged scholarship and human emancipation is unlikely to progress in a paradigmatically consistent direction. Recommendations for how to address these issues, grounded in recent advances in critical realism, are elaborated upon. This results in a contingent view of the ontological possibilities of emancipation in organisational fields as well as the epistemological premises that need to be filled to engender processes of emancipation.

The paper reviews an emerging body of research seeking to radicalise institutional accounting research and enhance its contributions to democratic debate in organisations and society. It also outlines how some pertinent paradigmatic tensions associated with such research may be addressed.