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Field theory is one of the most visible approaches in the new political sociology of science, and Fligstein & McAdam’s (F&M) Theory of Fields is the most visible recent attempt to further it. This paper evaluates F&M’s theory of field transformation by comparing it with Berman’s (2012a) field-based explanation of the changes in the field of US academic science. While F&M’s general framework is quite useful, their explanation, which focuses on struggles between incumbents and challengers over whose conception of the field should dominate, does not map neatly onto the changes in academic science, which saw no such field-level struggles. This suggests that tools are also needed for explaining new settlements that do not result from intentional efforts to establish them. In particular, the case of US academic science shows that local innovations with practices based on alternative conceptions of the field can lead to field-level change. Attention to the interaction between local practice innovations and larger environments provides insights into how change ripples across fields, as well as the ongoing contention and dynamism within even relatively stable fields.

This paper develops the practice-driven institutionalist perspective by introducing the concept of “restless practices.” Drawing on the practice theory of Theodore Schatzki, the authors distinguish practices by their “teloi”: some practices are devoted to replication, others are restlessly aimed at change. These restless practices are themselves composed of constitutive practices orientated toward “collecting,” “selecting” and “directing.” The authors illustrate restless practices and their constitutive practices by drawing on examples from consulting and standard-setting, both repeatedly generators of purposive, field-level change. The authors conclude that practice-driven institutionalism can accommodate change originating both from local improvisatory activities on the ground and from the designs of restless practices oriented toward fields at large.

The purpose of this paper is to focus on analysing how foreign entry by a multinational enterprise (MNE) can act as a catalyst for change in field-level institutional logics in a transition economy context.

The paper presents an empirical single-case study on the effects of an MNE’s entry on a particular industry in an emerging market’s context. The empirical study follows abductive reasoning; based on the interplay of previous literature and empirical observations, it identifies mechanism through which MNEs can catalyse change in field-level institutional logics.

The study shows that in addition to general market transition influenced by state-level policies, individual companies’ strategies, actions and market behaviour also significantly contribute to the development of a host industry’s field-level institutional logics. More precisely, a case study of a Finnish MNE’s entry into the Russian bakery market identifies the mechanisms and various change pathways through which the entry of a single MNE into a transition economy can significantly alter the institutional logics of a particular industry.

The study employs a novel perspective that incorporates the ideas, concepts and insights of an institutional logics perspective to MNE entry research for empirical analysis and theory building.

The purpose of this study is to optimize and improve conventional welding using EMF assisted technology. Current industrial production has put forward higher requirements for welding technology, so the optimization and improvement of traditional welding methods become urgent needs.

External magnetic field assisted welding is an emerging technology in recent years, acting in a non-contact manner on the welding. The action of electromagnetic forces on the arc plasma leads to significant changes in the arc behavior, which affects the droplet transfer and molten pool formation and ultimately improve the weld seam formation and joint quality.

In this paper, different types of external magnetic fields are analyzed and summarized, which mainly include external transverse magnetic field, external longitudinal magnetic field and external cusp magnetic field. The research progress of welding behavior under the effect of external magnetic field is described, including the effect of external magnetic field on arc morphology, droplet transfer and weld seam formation law.

However, due to the extremely complex physical processes under the action of the external magnetic field, the mechanism of physical fields such as heat, force and electromagnetism in the welding has not been thoroughly analyzed, in-depth theoretical and numerical studies become urgent.

The world of management and technology has become accustomed to the notion of “2.0” advancements and transformative innovations. Is the field of Change Management/Organizational Development itself in this story? Not enough! We re-examine the field’s foundational beliefs, practices, focus, research directions, and value add. We conclude that there is strong evidence from the front line and from an IBM Case Study that the field must “reboot” – to rethink our methods and frameworks; the role and skills of change leadership for the future; change practitioner capabilities for the future; the metrics needed to evaluate progress; and the knowledge exchange between Academe and practitioners.

This chapter revisits social space and field theory, constructs foundational to the work of Kurt Lewin but largely abandoned by his followers. It describes the “mystification” surrounding these concepts in the work of Lewin and the sociologist, Pierre Bourdieu. It then attempts to demystify social space and field theory by looking at their roots in the idea of “relational thinking” – an idea set forth by the philosopher Ernst Cassirer, who had a powerful influence on both Lewin and Bourdieu. Finally, it suggests how these concepts can generate innovative thinking about organizational change and development.

We analyze the structure and the dynamics of a field, drawing on data from organizational public behavior in the digital sphere. Organizational self-representations afford rich insights into how organizations position themselves with regard to their peers, both in terms of web page language and hyperlink affiliations. Our empirical example is the lively and important discussion of the social impact of nonprofit organizations. We follow how it has evolved from 2011 to 2018 and with what consequences. We begin with portraits of the discursive movements of powerful, individual organizations, where we observe extensive changes. These portraits show how influential organizations alter their public faces. We then analyze discourse at the field level, which is surprisingly stable even though individual organizations change their discursive and relational positions frequently. Finally, we turn to groups of organizations with similar positions and highlight their ability to integrate vocabularies of other groups. Here we observe that a lingua franca increases integration at the field level, while affording distinction with individual organizations’ positioning. We conclude with a discussion of complementary research avenues that can advance the relational and linguistic view we present in this paper.

Preparation of bibliographic data for the production of CD‐ROM public access catalogs (PACs) requires several services: merging records from various vendors or libraries, the elimination of duplicate records, the identification and decoding of holdings information, updating the database (often in an offline mode), and authority control. The nature of specific CD‐ROM catalogs affects the priorities for processing the database. For example, some systems exploit controlled vocabulary and cross references, making subject authority critical. Others provide powerful Boolean searching on key words derived from all parts of the bibliographic record; as a result, the need for quality control checks beyond those typically provided by library vendors is increased. This article identifies the services and processes offered by seven vendors that provide CD‐PACs and one vendor that processes MARC bibliographic databases.

In this study, we develop further understanding of how institutional change is created within a mature and local industry. In this pursuit, we examine how a collaborative large project governance model was institutionalized at an industrial sector-level through both industry-level activities and “institutional projects”.

This study builds on the foundations of institutional fields and institutional change, suggesting that projects are not only shaped by their contexts but also produce institutional change themselves. We conducted extensive fieldwork on the institutionalization of a collaborative project governance model in Finland.

The findings illustrate how institutional change in governance of large and complex inter-organizational projects is created at the institutional field level. The institutionalized collaborative project governance model includes aspects of both relational and contractual governance. The change was facilitated by temporal links between the institutional projects as well as vertical links between the institutional projects and the field-level development programs.

This is one of the first studies to address how a collaborative large project governance model becomes the norm at the institutional field level beyond the boundaries of an individual project or organization.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the multi-level mechanisms of institutional formation and change and, in particular, how this occurs through the interplay of multi-level mechanisms? This is answered with a processual analysis of the International Paralympic Committee which is the international governing body of sports for people with an impairment.

This study uses a case-study approach based upon archival records, collected in relevant national and international sport organizations. More than 2,700 pages of archives were gathered, some of them being accessible to researchers for the first time. Embargo was also successfully lifted on recent and sensitive documents.

This study highlights multi-level mechanisms involved in institutional change processes triggered by a shifting institutional logic at the organizational field level. This paper also shows how field logic shifted at the moment of alignment between the societal, field and organizational levels. Moreover, it underlines how societal discourses influenced processes of institutional change by shaping the range of organizational actions available at the organizational and field levels.

This paper proposes a rare account of institutional change processes in which interplay between the societal, field, and organizational levels is analyzed. Furthermore, this paper provides a longitudinal investigation of an under-researched empirical setting, the Paralympic movement. Finally, this study integrates insights from the disability studies’ research field, which significantly deepens this analysis.