Combining logics to transform organizational agency: blending industry and art at Alessi
File(s)DalpiazRindovaRavasi__Final%20Pre-proof-2.pdf (600.36 KB)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Dalpiaz, E
Rindova, V
Ravasi, D
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
To understand how organizations combine conflicting institutional logics strategically to create and pursue new market opportunities, we conducted an in-depth longitudinal study of the multiple efforts of the Italian manufacturer of household goods Alessi to combine the logics of industrial manufacturing and cultural production. Over three decades, Alessi developed three different strategies to combine normative elements of the two logics, using each strategy to envision and pursue different market opportunities. By combining the logics of industrial manufacturing and cultural production, Alessi was able to envision new possibilities for value creation and to enact them through innovation in product design. The three strategies triggered a common set of mechanisms through which the purposeful combining of logics enabled the pursuit of opportunity, while each strategy structured the process differently. We develop a theoretical model linking the development of recombinant strategies to the dynamic restructuring of organizational agency and the related capacity to create and pursue new market opportunities. Our findings and theoretical insights advance understanding of the processes through which organizations challenge taken-for-granted beliefs and practices to create new market opportunities, use logics as resources to enable embedded agency, and design hybrid organizational arrangements.
Date Issued
2016-09-01
Date Acceptance
2016-02-26
Citation
Administrative Science Quarterly, 2016, 61 (3), pp.347-392
ISSN
1930-3815
Publisher
SAGE Publications
Start Page
347
End Page
392
Journal / Book Title
Administrative Science Quarterly
Volume
61
Issue
3
Copyright Statement
The final, definitive version of this paper has been published in Administrative Science Quarterly by Sage Publications Ltd, All rights reserved. © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2016. It is available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0001839216636103
Subjects
Social Sciences
Business
Management
Business & Economics
institutional complexity
multiple institutional logics
hybrid organizations
opportunity creation
design innovation
cultural production
INSTITUTIONAL COMPLEXITY
CULTURAL PRODUCTION
COMPETING LOGICS
FIELD
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
DYNAMICS
CREATION
RESPONSES
OPPORTUNITIES
MICROFINANCE
Business & Management
1503 Business and Management
1505 Marketing
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2016-02-26