Societal Logics, Institutional Entrepreneurship and Organizational Identity: The Case of Private Entrepreneurship in China

Abstract

This thesis expands existing understanding of institutional logics, institutional entrepreneurship and organizational identity based on longitudinal data from China. It consists of three empirical studies, focusing on the societal, organizational and individual levels. At the societal level, study one illuminates the process by which changes in societal logics of the state and the market shape field practices in the context of entrepreneurial firms over a period of 30 years. The results indicate that as field experimentation embodying the market logic evolves and becomes institutionalized, the corresponding societal logics of the state and the market further evolve and become further institutionalized. This study advances institutional analysis by offering a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between societal logics and field practices. At the organizational level, study two incorporates a political dimension to illuminate the process by which institutional entrepreneurs develop four distinctive strategies in building a new category of firm in a heavily politically-controlled context. Each strategy is associated with a particular outcome at different system levels. A sequential development is apparent whereby micro level economic acceptance of a new category of firm was a precondition for meso level political acceptance, and political acceptance then opened up the possibility of macro level social acceptance. The study offers a more nuanced understanding of how central and peripheral actors work together in driving institutional change. At the individual level, study three investigates the process by which entrepreneurs drew on multiple institutional logics to construct organizational identity during the formative stages of entrepreneurial firms. The results indicate that the construction of individual organizational identity preceded that of collective identity. Individual organizational identity construction efforts, although shaped by existing and emergent logics, aggregated and lent support to emergent logics. They were crucial for organizational survival, and ultimately legitimacy. Entrepreneurs leveraged emergent logics to support and/or influence existing logics in constructing collective identity. Institutional logics were transformed in the process. This study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between institutional logics and organizational identity.