The Liminality of Trajectory Shifts in Institutional Entrepreneurship

In this paper, we develop a process model of trajectory shifts in institutional entrepreneurship. We focus on the liminal periods experienced by institutional entrepreneurs when they, unlike the rest of the organization, recognize limits in the present and seek to shift a familiar past into an unfam...

Ausführliche Beschreibung

Bibliographische Detailangaben
Veröffentlicht in:Organization Science. in. - Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences. - 25(2014), 3, Seite 932-950
1. Verfasser: Henfridsson, Ola (VerfasserIn)
Weitere Verfasser: Yoo, Youngjin
Format: Online-Aufsatz
Sprache:English
Veröffentlicht: 2014
Zugriff auf das übergeordnete Werk:Organization Science. in
Schlagworte:Business Behavioral sciences Applied sciences Philosophy
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:In this paper, we develop a process model of trajectory shifts in institutional entrepreneurship. We focus on the liminal periods experienced by institutional entrepreneurs when they, unlike the rest of the organization, recognize limits in the present and seek to shift a familiar past into an unfamiliar and uncertain future. Such periods involve a situation where the new possible future, not yet fully formed, exists side-by-side with established innovation trajectories. Trajectory shifts are moments of truth for institutional entrepreneurs, but little is known about the underlying mechanisms of how entrepreneurs reflectively deal with liminality to conceive and bring forth new innovation trajectories. Our in-depth case study research at CarCorp traces three such mechanisms (reflective dissension, imaginative projection, and eliminatory exploration) and builds the basis for understanding the liminality of trajectory shifts. The paper offers theoretical implications for the institutional entrepreneurship literature.
ISSN:15265455