1. The Legitimacy Consequences of Bricolage.
- Author
-
Bascle, Guilhem
- Subjects
CORPORATION law ,INSTITUTIONAL theory (Sociology) ,INSTITUTIONAL environment ,LEGITIMACY of governments ,CORPORATE purposes - Abstract
A growing literature in institutional theory has recently brought organizational agency back in. In this paper, we concentrate on one type of agency, bricolage, where organizations manipulate already legitimate norms that they find around them in their institutional environment. We try here to bridge a gap in the literature by examining how, through bricolage, an organization can increase or preserve its legitimacy.We first propose that both legitimate and illegitimate organizations can benefit from bricolage, but that the rewards should be higher for the illegitimate ones. We then refine the concept of bricolage and come up with two different mechanisms that should lead to different outcomes in terms of legitimacy. Third, we tackle the issue of institutional change and offer that change may play a mediating effect in the bricolage-legitimacy linkage. Finally, we distinguish among the three institutional pillars and advance that the moderating role of the cultural pillar should be the strongest, thereby reducing the effectiveness of bricolage relative to its outcomes under the influence of the normative and regulative pillars.We conclude this paper by positioning our propositions in the institutional literature and explaining how it should benefit from the incorporation of the underexplored notion of bricolage. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2006