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Institutional Entrepreneurship, Partaking, and Convening

University of Massachusetts, USA

This paper proposes that processes of institutional change vary depending on the form taken by the three factors that define them: agency, resource mobilization, and opportunity. The paper builds on a conceptualization of agency that considers that change may result from diverse forms of agency (i.e. strategic, routine, and sense-making). It develops the concept of resource mobilization, focusing on the process as opposed to the skills required for mobilization. It then suggests that the mobilization of resources, support and acceptance, accompanying the diffusion and legitimation of institutional changes may follow leverage, partaking, or convening processes. Finally, the paper defines institutional opportunity as an objective condition of organizational fields, suggesting that fields may be opportunity opaque, transparent, or hazy. Opportunities, of course, only become real when perceived by actors. Building on current sociological work, the paper suggests that actors’ perception of the opportunity transparency of fields varies with their temporal orientation and social networks. Considering the possible variations of agency, resource mobilization, and opportunity, and how they may combine, the paper defines three profiles of institutional change: entrepreneurship, partaking, and convening.

Key Words: economic sociology • entrepreneurs • institutional change • institutional organization theory • agency • institutional opportunity

Organization Studies, Vol. 26, No. 3, 385-414 (2005)
DOI: 10.1177/0170840605050873


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