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PublicationCutting the Gordian Knot: A Microfoundational and Dynamic Based Typology of Institutional Actors(Academy of Management, 2019)Institutional theory has a Gordian knot to be solved. It lacks a theory of actorhood that defines actors as change agents who perceive institutional contradictions as opportunity for change while complying with institutional theory’s key principal of actors’ embeddedness. To cut this knot, we develop a microfoundational and dynamic based theory of actorhood that is based on two actors’ main properties: skills and identity. As these properties are shaped by macro-conditions such as stable social fields or institutional contradictions and as they evolve over time, our theory of actorhood explains dissimilar behaviour of actors in similar situations. On this basis, we develop four types of institutional actors that behave differently during situations of institutional contradictions.
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PublicationInstitutional Entrepreneurs’ Skills: A Multi-Dimensional Concept(Emerald Publishing Limited, 2019-11-25)Microfoundational research increasingly strives to examine the interlinkages between various higher- and lower-level structures. To better capture microfounded change processes, I develop the multi-dimensional concept of institutional entrepreneurs’ skills that defines actors’ abilities to enhance institutional change. By a systematic literature review on institutional entrepreneurship, I identify seven institutional entrepreneurs’ skill dimensions: (i) analytical skills, (ii) empathic skills, (iii) framing skills, (iv) translational skills, (v) organizational skills, (vi) tactical skills, and (vii) timing skills. The established concept provides opportunities for future microfoundational research by examining the formation and the application of the seven skill dimensions.
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PublicationOutcome Evaluation of StartBiz - How a Governmental Online-Tool Can Quantitatively Assess Its Benefits for SME(Springer International Publishing AG, 2017-08-04)
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PublicationBecoming an Institutional Entrepreneur: The Case of Swiss Spatial Planners' Life Journeys(Universität St. Gallen, 2020)This dissertation addresses the question of how to become an entrepreneur. Its approach to this question is through the application of the theory of organizational new institutionalism. It refers to one of the theory's often-discussed concept the institutional entrepreneur. Institutional entrepreneurs are agents that introduce change and innovation in different contexts, and thus they are able and willing to establish new and/or to change institutions (rules, norms, or cultural-cognitive beliefs within an organization and/or social field). The concept raises the so-called paradox of embedded agency, which states that actors in institutional theory are usually guided by macro-institutions and, therefore, are embedded in institutions. It remains unclear why institutional entrepreneurs act beyond institutions if their actions are restrained by institutions. To tackle this puzzle, the present dissertation targets the following question: How does one become an institutional entrepreneur by complying with institutional theory's core notion of actors being embedded in institutions? In answering this question, the dissertation focuses on the concept of institutional entrepreneurs' skills. Institutional entrepreneurs apply these qualities to amend institutions during enabling situations for change such as institutional contradictions (incompatible institutional arrangements). The dissertation examines the formation process of these skills. Swiss spatial planning provides a suitable research context to study the development of these skills since Swiss spatial planners regularly confront stakeholders of different logic backgrounds, and thus situations of institutional contradictions. By investigating the biographies of shortlisted cantonal planners, the findings reveal that institutional entrepreneurs develop an identity with crucial key values that they relate to formative experienced contradictions from their distant past. Their established identity enables them to embrace further contradictions throughout their lives, whereby they develop skills to act as institutional entrepreneurs. They are additionally motivated to embrace these enabling situations for change as they interpret them as an opportunity to realize their own key values. The findings have a theoretical and a practical contribution. The theoretical contribution tackles the discussed paradox of embedded agency by highlighting external factors as a trigger for the development of institutional entrepreneurs. The practical contribution is the deduction of the theoretical findings for study programs that aim to teach their students how to become entrepreneurs.
