Abumuamar, Mohsen (2021). Institutional entrepreneurship and institutional change: a comparative study of emerging and mature cases. University of Birmingham. Ph.D.
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Abstract
The notion of institutional entrepreneurship emerged to explain how actors change the institutions in which they are embedded. However, the introduction of institutional entrepreneurship into institutions creates a promising tension between actors as strategic agents – institutional entrepreneurs – and the powerful influence of institutional forces on actors. For the notion of institutional entrepreneurship to hold, it is necessary to address how institutionally embedded actors bring about institutional change. This thesis examines how institutional entrepreneurs bring about institutional change and explains success in entrepreneurial efforts.
Drawing on two in-depth case studies, the researcher examined which combinations of contextual elements constitute institutional entrepreneurship – in terms of deviation from existing institutional arrangements and institutionalisation of innovation – and which factors explain success or failure in institutional entrepreneurship. The cases provide comparative and contrasting perspectives on the process of institutional entrepreneurship. The first case focused on the entrepreneurial process in the emerging organisational field of positive psychology in Kuwait and led by actors outside the target institution for change. In contrast, the second case represented the mature organisational field of business incubation in Kuwait and led by actors inside the target institution. The researcher conducted semi-structured interviews with institutional entrepreneurs and their collaborators in each case and collected documents to augment and validate the data in the interviews.
The research shows that the differences in the characteristics of emerging and mature fields and positions of institutional entrepreneurs shape the entrepreneurial process and the form of change in fields. The findings suggest that outsider-driven institutional entrepreneurship in emerging fields requires multiple forces from within and outside the field working for the institutional change. As outsiders who lack centrality in the target institution, the institutional entrepreneurs connect with macro-level forces and draw on related mature fields and their associated institutions to bring about their innovation. The situation is rather different in insider-driven institutional entrepreneurship in mature fields. The evidence shows that the institutional entrepreneurs target field-level forces. As insiders to the target institution, the institutional entrepreneurs leverage their social position and draw strategically on the established institutional logic and its associated set of practices to realise their innovation.
Type of Work: | Thesis (Doctorates > Ph.D.) | |||||||||
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Award Type: | Doctorates > Ph.D. | |||||||||
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Licence: | All rights reserved | |||||||||
College/Faculty: | Colleges (2008 onwards) > College of Social Sciences | |||||||||
School or Department: | School of Government, International Development Department | |||||||||
Funders: | None/not applicable | |||||||||
Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HF Commerce | |||||||||
URI: | http://etheses.bham.ac.uk/id/eprint/11757 |
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