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This paper aims to deepen the understanding of logics and practice variation in sustainability reporting in an emerging field.

This paper adopts the institutional logics perspective and its conceptualization of society as an inter-institutional system as a theoretical lens to understand reasons for the presence of and variation in sustainability reporting. The empirical findings are based on analysis of 28 semi-structured interviews with significant social actors, and extensive documentary evidence focusing on eight companies pioneering sustainability reporting in Pakistan.

This paper confirms the presence of multiple co-existing logics in sustainability practices and lack of a dominant logic. Sustainability reporting practices are underpinned by a combination of market and corporate (business logics), state (regulatory logics), professional (transparency logics) and community (responsibility logics) institutional orders. It is argued that institutional heterogeneity (variations in logics) drives the diversity of motivations for and variations in sustainability reporting practices.

The paper offers a deeper theoretical explanation of how various logics dominate sustainability reporting in a field where the institutionalization of practice is in its infancy.

Understanding the conditions that influence the logics of corporate decision-makers will provide new insights into what motivates firms to engage in sustainability reporting. A broader understanding of sustainability reporting in emerging fields will foster its intended use to increase transparency, accountability and sustainability performance.

This paper contributes to relatively scarce but growing empirical research on emerging fields. Its major contribution lies in its focus on how multiple and conflicting institutional logics are instantiated at the organizational level, leading to wide practice variations, especially in an emerging field. In doing so, it advances the institutional logics debate on practice variations within the accounting literature.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretically informed analysis of social and environmental reporting (SER) evolution, i.e. how and why the SER evolved over time in a cooperative bank in Italy.

The paper is based on a qualitative fieldwork case study conducted from 2011 to 2015. Information and data were collected through several methods including: interviews with managers involved in the SER’s process; analysis of the SER-related documents; analysis of the website; and observations in the field. The analysis of the empirical evidence draws on the institutional logic (IL) perspective, which provides theoretical insights to interpret the role of the contrasting institutional forces in the evolution of SER.

The empirical analysis unveils three different stages in the evolution of SER: the “birth” whereby a new form of social reporting was initiated; the “development” through which SER was implemented to become a formal component of the organizational management; and the “de-structuring” when the SER was gradually de-composed. This gradual de-structuring, as well as the initiation and implementation processes, was influenced by different institutionally infused rationalities and logics. These institutionally infused rationalities and logics, along with the specific organizational and contextual events, provided the resources, and created the space and opportunity, for the SER-related changes to occur.

The analysis offers theoretical insights to understand “how” (i.e. processes) and “why” (i.e. the conditions under which) SER gradually evolved, i.e. emerged, was constructed and developed during the phases of implementation and post-implementation. Furthermore, it is shown that SER is multifunctional in nature and unveils how and why these multiple functions change over time. Finally, the analysis provides a theoretical contribution by illuminating the role that different and contrasting ILs play in driving the adoption of organizational practices.

The authors’ focus is on the way in which sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) discourses and practices emerge in the collaboration of multinational companies (MNCs) with the local hotels in developing country contexts. This paper aims to identify the prevailing institutional orders and logics that bring about CSR and sustainability discourse in tourism industry in Turkey. It also investigates how and to what extent the CSR and sustainability practices align with the local institutional logics and necessities.

Empirical evidence is generated through case studies covering Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc. (Hilton), its Turkish subsidiary and a local hotel chain to ensure data triangulation. Primary data were collected through interviews with the executives of the selected case hotels, which was supported by extensive secondary data.

Some components of CSR and sustainability logics developed in the headquarters diffuse into local affiliate hotel, not all. Local affiliate hotels seek to acquire local legitimacy in their host environment, despite a standard format imposed by their headquarters. Local necessities and priorities translate themselves into such initiatives in a very limited way in the affiliates of the Hilton where there is mostly a top-down approach. Similar approach has also been observed in the case of the local hotel which is part of a family business group. Family’s values and family business headquarter shape the CSR and sustainability strategy and the logics reflecting the local component.

This paper addresses a theoretical and empirical gap by demonstrating the role of MNCs in the diffusion of sustainability and CSR practices, as acknowledged by Forcadell and Aracil (2017). The authors contribute to the critical writings about the positive impact of CSR and sustainability in the context of the MNCs and their subsidiaries, which is not substantiated due to limited empirical evidence. In addition to these contributions to the CSR and sustainability literatures in tourism and hospitality domains, the authors add to the institutional theory by demonstrating the link between institutional orders and institutional logics. They also show the multiplicity of logics that emanate from the differences of logics developed in the headquarters (centrally imposed) and local affiliate organizations (context-specific) and contribute to theory by highlighting tensions.

This study appeals to management teams and executives of hotels dealing with these issues of tailoring of CSR practices to local necessities. The authors do not only raise awareness of this consciousness but also demonstrate practical application of some of these strategies and prioritization by detecting market specificities and distinctive societal needs. Hotel managers should resist against the headquarter- or family business-driven uniform approach to CSR and sustainability and reflect on corporate policies through checking isomorphic tendencies. This entails being cognizant of local conditions and necessities and respond to them in a flexible and accommodating way. It involves engaging with a full spectrum of stakeholders, including the leadership in headquarters as well as local organizations (e.g. NGOs, suppliers, etc.) and other institutional forces (e.g. state) to align their sustainability and CSR practices with the locally dominant logics. Managers should be aware of certain logics governing CSR and sustainability practices; some of these logics might be constraining critical thinking and innovative practices.

Managers should be proactive in interpreting different institutional logics and process them through critical reflection and boundary spanning and mapping of new opportunities. Moreover, MNC hotel executives should be aware of the limitations of a blanket approach toward CSR and sustainability and increase their sensitivity toward local conditions.

Through this study, the authors are able to add further value to the critical writings about the positive contribution of CSR and sustainability in the context of the MNCs and their subsidiaries, which is not substantiated due to limited empirical evidence.

Once introduced and conceptualized as a factor that causes erosion and decay of social institutions and subsequent deinstitutionalization, the notion of entropy is at odds with predictions of institutional isomorphism and seems to directly contradict the tendency toward ever-increasing institutionalization. The purpose of this paper is to offer a resolution of this theoretical inconsistency by revisiting the meaning of entropy and reconceptualizing institutionalization from an information-theoretic point of view.

It is a theoretical paper that offers an information perspective on institutionalization.

A mistaken understanding of the nature and role of entropy in the institutional theory is caused by conceptualizing it as a force that counteracts institutional tendencies and acts in opposite direction. Once institutionalization and homogeneity are seen as a product of natural tendencies in the organizational field, the role of entropy becomes clear. Entropy manifests itself at the level of information processing and corresponds with increasing uncertainty and the decrease of the value of information. Institutionalization thus can be seen as a special case of an increase in entropy and a decrease of knowledge. Institutionalization is a state of maximum entropy.

It is explained why institutionalization and institutional persistence are what to be expected in the long run and why information entropy contributes to this tendency. Contrary to the tenets of the institutional work perspective, no intentional efforts of individuals and collective actors are needed to maintain institutions. In this respect, the paper contributes to the view of institutional theory as a theory of self-organization.

Institutional theory shows promise as a viable framework for understanding police organization structures and activities but difficulties in measuring its core concepts make testing problematic. In order to advance the application of institutional theory in policing, this paper's aim is to develop a measurement model of institutional pressures derived from DiMaggio and Powell's discussion of institutional isomorphism.

First and second‐order confirmatory factor analyses are performed on secondary data originally collected in a 1997 national survey of law enforcement agencies about their approach to community policing.

The results showed a refined model of institutional processes including three constructs – professionalization, publications, and mimesis. A construct indicated by funding measures does not seem to be consistent with other institutional pressures.

The research made use of available data and existing measures not explicitly constructed for the purpose of theory testing. Nevertheless, the results appear to be consistent with institutional theory.

The model provides a framework for future testing of institutional theory in policing and avenues for the development of additional indicators.

Project marketing is the specific activity of companies selling projects-to-order. Interpersonal practice is known to be important in this type of marketing. While this interpersonal practice has been little studied, some previous research suggests that changes in the institutional macro environment have affected it. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to study today’s interpersonal practice in project business and how the institutional environment conditions it.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with marketing managers at project-based firms in different business sectors in France and Sweden. Data collection and analysis was informed by grounded theory.

The paper identifies three types of interpersonal practice in project marketing, referred to as the transactional, the work-based and the socializing. Changes in these are explained in relation to the three institutional logics identified in the data: the market institutional logic of business ethics, the corporate institutional logic of rationalization and the family institutional logic of gender equality.

Future studies can continue and broaden this work as it regards how the institutional conditioning of interpersonal practice varies with context.

By clearly categorizing the three types of interpersonal practice and their relative role today, companies can orient the activities of salespeople, business developers and other project marketers.

The paper highlights how business ethics and gender equality have changed interpersonal practices in project marketing.

The paper contributes to the current debate on project marketing by identifying three types of interpersonal practice and by illustrating how institutional logics condition and change these. The paper shows that extra-business activities are needed less than previous research has argued with regard to maintaining customer relationships in-between projects.

The purpose of this paper is to resolve a puzzle in the explanation of organisational change, where change appears to be within-form but results unintendedly in a transition between forms, yet first appearances suggest the absence of “noise” of the kind expected during shifts between forms.

The paper uses qualitative analysis of primary archival and secondary sources on an historical case, analysing the data by coding using categories derived from neo-Durkheimian institutional theory. It examines the case of the cabinet, treated as an organisation, in the British government led by premier Harold Macmillan between 1959 and 1963, when a strategy for increasing hierarchy resulted unintendedly in an isolation dynamic.

It demonstrates that the neo-Durkheimian institutional approach can explain such puzzling cases. Appropriately for a special issue in honour of Mars’ work, it shows that his method of following rule violation and an adapted version of his concept of capture can provide a method of causal process tracing and a causal mechanism for resolving the puzzle.

The argument is presented for purposes of theory development, not testing. It examines a single case study in depth.

The findings demonstrate some of the risks which arise in changing informal institutional ordering, especially within decision-making executives, from the process by which informal institutions shape styles of judgement and decisions driven by those styles then feed back upon those executive bodies.

This is the first examination of puzzling unintended between-form transitions, the first to propose an adaptation of Mars’ concept of capture to resolve such puzzles and the first detailed causal process tracing analysis of such a case using neo-Durkheimian institutional theoretic tools. It therefore offers a significant advance in institutional explanation of organisational change.

This essay raises a concern about the trajectory that new institutionalism has been following during the last decades, namely an emphasis on heterogeneity, change and agentic behavior instead of isomorphism and conformist behavior. This is a crucial issue from the perspective of the philosophy and methodology of science since a theory that admits both change and stability as a norm has less scientific weight then a theory that predicts a prevalence of passivity and isomorphism over change and strategic behavior. The former provides explanations and predictions while the latter does not.

The paper offers an analysis of the nature, characteristics, functions and boundaries of institutional theories in the spirit of philosophy and methodology of science literature.

The power of the former institutional theory developed by Meyer, Rowan, DiMaggio and Powell lies in its generalization, explanation and prediction of observable and unobservable phenomena: as a typical organizational theory that puts forward directional predictions, it explains and predicts the tendency for organizations to become more similar to each other over time and express less strategic and interest-driven behavior, conforming to ever-increasing institutional pressures. A theory of isomorphism makes scientific predictions while its modern advancements do not. Drawing on Popper's idea of the limit of domains of explanation and limited domains of theories we present two propositions that may direct our attention towards the strength or weakness of institutional theories with regard to their explanations of organizational processes and behavior.

The paper draws implications for further theory building in institutional analysis by suggesting the nature of institutional explanations and the place of institutional change in the theoretical apparatus. Once institutional theory explains the tendency of the system towards equilibrium, there is no need to explain the origins and causes of radical change per se. Institutional isomorphism theory explains and predicts how even after radical changes organizational fields will move towards isomorphism, that is, institutional equilibrium. The task is, therefore, not to explain agency and change but to show that it is natural and inevitable processes that organizational field will return to isomorphic dynamics and move towards homogenization no matter how much radical change occurred in this field.

The paper discusses the practical problems with instrumental utility of institutional theories. In order to be useful any theory must clearly delineate its boundaries and offer explanations and predictions and it is only the former 1977/1983 institutional theory that satisfies these requirements while modern advancements merely offer ambiguous theoretical umbrellas that escape empirical tests. For researchers therefore it is important to recognize which theory can be applied in a given limited domain of research and which one has little or no value.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the immediate impact of firm-specific announcements on the trading volume of individual and institutional investors on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), during a period when the market becomes fragmented.

This study uses intraday trading volume data in five-minute intervals prior to and after firm-specific announcements to measure individual and institutional abnormal volume. There are 70 such intervals per trading day and 254 trading days in the sample period. The first 10 minutes of trading (from 10.00 to 10.10 a.m.) is excluded to avoid the effect of opening auction and to ensure consistency in the “starting time” for all stocks. The volume transacted during five-minute intervals is aggregated and attributed to individual or institutional investors using Broker IDs.

Institutional investors exhibit abnormal trading volume before and after announcements. However, individual investors indicate abnormal trading volume only after announcements. Consistent with outcomes expected from a dividend washing strategy, abnormal trading volume around dividend announcements is statistically insignificant. Both individual and institutional investors’ buy volumes are higher than sell volumes before and after scheduled and unscheduled announcements.

The study is Australian focused, but the results are applicable to other limit order book markets of similar design.

The results add to the understanding of individual and institutional investors’ trading behaviour around firm-specific announcements in a securities market with continuous disclosure.

The results add to the understanding of individual and institutional investors’ trading behaviour around firm-specific announcements in a securities market with continuous disclosure.

These results will help regulators to design markets that are less predatory on individual investors.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the role of power relations in initiating and blocking accounting change that involves increased “responsibilisation” and “incentivisation”, and to understand how institutional entrepreneurship is steered by power strategies.

An in-depth case study was carried out between 2010 and 2015 in a cardiothoracic surgery service (CSS) where a responsibility centre was introduced.

Introducing a responsibility centre within a CSS led to a change process, despite pressures for stability. The institutionalisation of change was conditioned by entrepreneurship that flowed through three circuits of power. Strategies were adapted according to changes in exogenous environmental contingencies and alterations in the actors’ relationships.

The contributions of the paper are several: first, it demonstrates that the existing literature discussing the implementation of responsibility centres cannot be isolated from power issues; second, it expands understanding of the power dynamics and processes of institutional entrepreneurship when implementing accounting change; third, it shows how change introduced by exogenous political economic events structured organisational circuits of power and blocked the introduction of the change initiative.