University Knowledge Commercialisation‘ (UKC) has come to be seen as a stimulant for developing economic performance. Regardless of the increasing body of literature in the UKC, it is revealed to be undertheorized, whilst existing theories are the result of inductive theorizing based on successful KC stories within the western context. Moreover, the literature provides modest practical directions and pay insufficient attention to the role of mechanisms, such as power, mimetic isomorphism, and intermediation, in bridging differences in institutional logics between actors. These gaps inspired the study aim, which is to explore the implication of such mechanisms in bridging differences in logics within UKC institutionally emerging context, Oman. Through a qualitative, multiple case-study approach, data was collected from four contract research projects through semi-structured interviews. The first three interviews served as a pilot study, the results of which were then used to formulate the second stage which was interviews with participants from academia, industry, and government. This approach improves the internal validity of the research, and provides a rich picture of the Omani UKC emerging institutional environment. The findings suggest that the influences of power, mimetic isomorphism, and intermediation have significantly shaped bridging, though not always positively, in logics in the Omani UKC context. The findings show that adverse influences in this process included: asymmetric power relationships, mimetic isomorphism‘s simplistic view of logics convergence and negligence of institutional fragmentation, and insufficient intermediation activities. The novelty of introducing the concept of power adds a new theoretical dimension into the UKC and ILP theories. Additionally, the novelty of using case of Oman as an empirical study added new contribution into the field. In addition, this study contributes to a better understanding of the Omani policy actions with regard to shift to an effective UKC approach.

This case study examines why the Freedmen's Bureau, a Federal agency that existed within the War Department between 1865 and 1872, formed collaborative relationships with church-supported charitable organizations to establish schools during the Civil War Reconstruction Period in Virginia. This project examines the relationships between Freedmen's Bureau officials and the leadership of church-supported charitable organizations. Specifically, this project examines the formation of these relationships, the nature of the relationships that formed, the norms and values that shaped the relationships, and the impact those relationships had on education policy in the South. The examination of a historical federal agency through archival research methods generated findings that were consistent with current knowledge of the collaborative process. Preexisting relationships formed during the Civil War served as the foundation for collaborative relationships that formed between the Bureau and church-supported charitable organizations. These relationships were integral to the formation of schools that served formerly enslaved persons as well as other war refugees. Ultimately, political and social pressure facilitated the closing of the Bureau, but the schools remained, forming the foundation for public school systems throughout the South. Examining an extinct agency which worked alongside church-supported charitable organizations, shows that facets of collaborative governance occurred much earlier than presently identified, especially as it pertains to discrete steps in the collaboration process, specifically antecedent and initial conditions of collaboration, pre-existing relationships, and impacts of collaboration. The project also adds to the study of public administration as a field by extending the timeline of the practice of public administration. This dissertation also adds to the scholarship on the impact of race on policy implementation and administrative practice. / Doctor of Philosophy / This case study examines why the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (the Freedmen’s Bureau), a controversial federal agency that existed within the War Department between 1865 and 1872, formed collaborative relationships with church-supported charitable organizations to establish schools during the Civil War Reconstruction Period in Virginia. This project will examine the relationships between Freedmen’s Bureau officials and the leaders of various church-supported charitable organizations. Specifically, this project will examine the types of relationships that formed, the customs and values that shaped those relationships and the impact of those relationships had on education policy in Virginia. Relationships between charitable organizations and army officials formed during the Civil War and served as the foundation for relationships that formed between the Bureau and charitable aid organization. Although not unique for its time the Freedmen’s Bureau relied upon nongovernmental actors and entities in performing its functions, especially education. The schools that were established, served formerly enslaved persons as well as other war refugees and served as the foundation for the public school system across the South. Although the Freedmen’s Bureau would be abolished in 1872, the schools that were established with the help of the Bureau, remained. The fact that organizations were involved in Reconstruction-era schooling is known. That the Freedmen’s Bureau helped organizations establish schools throughout the South is known. Less is known about the extent of those relationships, however. Examining a historical and extinct agency which developed relationships with a number of church-supported charitable organizations shows that collaborative relationships occurred much earlier than we once thought.

Yes / This paper explores whether MacIntyrean virtue ethics concepts are applicable in non-Western business contexts, specifically in SMEs in Taiwan a country strongly influenced by the Confucian tradition. It also explores what differences exist between different polities in this respect, and specifically interprets observed differences between the Taiwanese study and previous studies conducted in Europe and Asia. Based on case study research, the findings support the generalizability of the MacIntyrean framework. Drawing on the institutional logics perspective and synthesizing this with MacIntyrean concepts, the paper explains the differences between the studies largely by reference to the Confucian tradition operating at both the micro-level within firms and at the macro-level as a means of harmonizing the potentially competing institutional logics to which firms are subject. The recent weakening of this tradition, however, suggests that increased conflict may characterize the future.

Yes / We examine how managers in Oman make sense of localization policies (Omanization) through their use of talent management (TM). Through an institutional logics (IL) lens, it is possible to examine how organizations confront institutional complexity and understand the interplay between state, market and societal logics. The paper analyses twenty-six interviews with managers in the Petroleum and Banking sector and is the first to examine TM within the context of Omanization using a layered, IL perspective. The paper finds that punitive state logics encourage organizations to focus on the societal wellbeing of their TM measures and inspires a sense of corporate social responsibility. Yet, the market logic dictates a stratified and differentiated approach that manages impressions of inclusivity while safeguarding organizational interests.

Thesis advisor: Mary Ann Glynn / Thesis advisor: Jean Bartunek / Organizational scholars use the concept of institutional logics to define and distinguish between multiple co-existing institutions that constitute the diverse cultural landscapes of contemporary societies. Research on institutional logics has devoted considerable attention to understanding how actors use rhetoric associated with distinct institutional logics as tools of institutional transformation. However, prior research has not typically examined rhetoric aimed at transforming institutions with broad societal impact, such as public or governmental institutions, which limits the generalizability of empirical findings. This dissertation renews the logics literature’s original emphasis on societal institutions and offers necessary clarification on how the central logics of two major societal institutions, the state and the market, may change in relation to each another through the rhetorical agency of state actors. In two studies, the dissertation examines the dynamics between the state logic and the market logic embedded in the rhetoric of the Clinton administration on its high-profile federal management reform, known as “Reinventing Government,” and related discussions in the United States Congress over a seven-year period (1993-2000). Study 1 focuses on how the administration constructed and revised rhetoric to justify replacing the prevailing state logic with the market logic to key stakeholders. Study 2 focuses on how the rhetoric of congressional lawmakers expressed heterogeneous legitimacy criteria that differed in priority given to the state logic versus the market logic. The studies provide convergent findings that suggest logic replacement is an unlikely form of institutional change at the societal level of analysis; however, the state logic may change by combining with elements of the market logic to form new layers of content over time. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2024. / Submitted to: Boston College. Carroll School of Management. / Discipline: Management and Organization.

Evaluation is an institutionalized practice in the western public sector with several applications and uses. At the same time, the effectiveness and use of evaluation is seldom demonstrated. This evaluation paradox is due to the fact that evaluation is constrained and shaped in relation to, among others, a political context.  In this dissertation, the political context is examined from the assumption that governance shapes evaluation. The aim is to analyze the relationship between governance and evaluation, by studying the translation (i.e. inter­pretation) of the European Union evaluation approach ongoing evaluation in Sweden, in the context of Cohesion policy 2007-2013, which in Sweden aims at reinforcing competitiveness and employment. The relation­ship is examined through documents and interviews on a European union and a Swedish level, and in the translation process in between. With key concepts such as steering logics, participatory evaluation and translation through framing, the formation of evaluation in relation to governance has been mapped. This is particularly interesting in Sweden where the approach puts forth ideals of learning and interaction that seem to depart from ongoing evaluation.    Results show that governance cannot fully explain the shape of evaluation. Instead, Swedish agencies and other implementing actors have promoted their evaluation norms while at the same time fulfilling the Swedish ministries’ learning frame. It is an actor perspective comple­menting the relation­­ship between gover­nance and evaluation previously presented. The evaluation approach in Sweden has been translated to a practical participatory evaluation approach within a larger group of collabora­tive inquiry. In conclusion, evaluation on both levels has functioned as a relatively un­critical supportive resource for decision making within predetermined boundaries, more connected to the object of evaluation than to a larger gover­nance context. Evaluation in Sweden is being separated from questions of accounta­bility, and participation in evaluation is for goal fulfillment rather than for critical examination of basic assumptions underpinning projects and programs. Results made possible through the lens of trans­lation show that the Swedish approach was made possible by the vague borders of the field of evaluation, the rhetorical use of evaluation terminology in translation, skilled institutional entrepreneurs using legitimizing strategies, and the framing by the Commission and state ministries that opens up for national variation.

Sports clubs today are exposed to multiple, sometimes contradictory, forces and expectations. This study is about sports coaches and their problems with and experiences of multiple institutional logics in Swedish sports. The aim of the study was therefore to provide further knowledge about the relationship between sports coaches’ leadership and institutional complexity. The study focused on the context of football in northern Sweden. The research questions that were examined were about institutional pressures, legitimacy, institutional logics, sports clubs’ impact and coaches’ strategies to manage institutional complexity. The data was collected through the means of qualitative interviews with 12 active football coaches. The results showed that the football coaches experience multiple institutional pressures and legitimacy claims. The coaches engage with 4 different coexisting institutional logics depending on the situation. Despite the fact that the institutional complexity is institutionalized in the context, it is sometimes viewed as problematic due to lack of control and support by the sports clubs. This indicated that the coaches are relatively autonomous and free to plan the activities as they wish and pursue the goals they see appropriate. Furthermore, the sports clubs have an important role in helping the coaches manage the institutional complexity and provide guidelines.

Prisons are a specific type of organization with distinct challenges for their management. Most importantly, prisons - as well as understandings of how to 'successfully' manage them - are embedded in a pluralistic environment that consists of a variety of stakeholders with different ideas and expectations with regard to role and governance of prisons. This study addresses the question of which different understandings of 'good' prison management can be found in the Austrian discourse and how the expected complexity constituted by contradictory expectations is manifested in the shared narratives of prison managers. I draw on an institutional theory perspective in order to reconstruct the distinct constellation of institutional logics at the field level as well as at the individual level. Empirically, the study has four central elements: First, I identify the institutional logics at the field level as well as the relevant actors in the field. Second, I reconstruct the prevalent institutional logics as well as the metaphors in use at the individual level. Third, I compare field level and individual level. Finally, I am particularly interested in whether and how metaphors are used by prison managers to enact institutional logics and establish relationships between them. To answer the questions concerning the field level, I focused on articles in five Austrian newspapers from 1970 to 2015. Regarding the individual level, I conducted eight narrative interviews with (former) Austrian prisons managers. Methodologically, I combine a variety of different analytical approaches, namely content analysis, metaphor analysis, and objective hermeneutic analyses. The findings reveal two different 'types' of logics, namely governance and purpose logics. These logics differ in their content (what they claim jurisdiction over), their structure (their relationships within and across types), and in the metaphors used (purpose logics have a more restricted set of metaphors, while governance logics have a more differentiated set). Further, the empirical analyses show that metaphors play a variety of roles with regard to logics. They may either specify individual logics, set up competing logics against each other, stress complementarities between logics, or create relationships between otherwise unrelated logics. Summing up, this dissertation contributes, first, to literature on cross-level relationships of institutional logics by linking field-level results with individual-level results. Second, it extends literature on institutional pluralism and institutional complexity by arguing that constellations of logics do not only exist at different levels but there may also be different types of logics within a constellation. Third, I contribute to rhetorical approaches in institutional theory by showing how metaphors are a way of manifesting institutional pluralism. Fourth, for the practice of prison management, the study has implications for the planning and realization of change management efforts.

Institutional logics create order and stability. They organize interaction and prescribe how we should behave towards each other. Such logics have generally been regarded as exclusive, in the sense that an organizational field is always guided by a single institutional logic. If there are two or more institutional logics in one setting at the same time this will create conflicting demands and contradictions. So how do organizations and individuals that act in these settings, where different institutional logics do meet, cope with the conflicting demands?    This question is researched by studying actors who organize partnerships between corporations and non-profit organizations. Institutional logics have typically been studied at field level. My study follows a more recent literature strand focusing on individuals and their way of coping with conflicting institutional logics. In this thesis, interviews, text analysis and observations are used. The interviews were conducted with CSR managers of corporations, managers of corporate partners at non-profit organizations, CSR consultants, and project managers of intermediary organizations. These actors are working in an environment where conflicting institutional logics are played out. Using a narrative approach it is shown how these actors are aware of their institutional environment and its conflicts which requires them to constantly act as translators. The study shows that the actors organize an interplay between a market-logic and a social-welfare logic by bringing together the logics and establishing limits to what extent logics can be mixed. Thus, the actors can be understood as bilingual, rather than hybrids. Furthermore, it is argued that a narrative approach provides the possibility to understand institutional logics in empirical contexts as more present and visible than they are usually considered to be. The study concludes that bilingual actors balance conflicting demands and negotiate requirements set by institutional logics in their day-to-day work.  Settings where institutional logics meet can hence be understood as both a contradiction and an ongoing interplay.

Research has shown that socially-focused partnerships that cross sectors (referred to as social partnerships within) are necessary in order to effectively address pressing societal issues such as poverty. Yet, in these complex organizational contexts, there is often variability within and between involved organizations as it relates to basic assumptions around work and the meanings given to practices at macro, meso and micro levels of analysis. Put differently, there are often a plurality of meaning systems at play in such multi-faceted organizational arrangements. Accordingly, the purpose of this dissertation was to understand to what extent multiple meaning systems exist in social partnerships focused on addressing multi-faceted societal challenges and, whether and how such differences in meaning systems are strategically negotiated over time. At a deeper theoretical level, this research was focused on illuminating the processes by which meaning systems are negotiated when organizational boundaries are blurred and when a plurality of meaning systems are at play, with a central focus on players that act as boundary spanners within these complex organizational contexts. To understand the complexities at play in social partnerships emanating from multiple meaning systems, I conducted a multi-site ethnographic study, involving in-depth interviews and participant observation, of the Greater Victoria Coalition to End Homelessness Society (Coalition) located in Victoria, British Columbia. In doing so, I utilized the principal literature streams that address multiple meaning systems at work: the culture literature in organization studies and the institutional logics perspective. As well, I incorporated other literatures based upon the emergent findings, namely organizational identity. Through this work I make a number of contributions within the area of sustainability, particularly the social partnership literature, as well as organizational theory. Empirically, I develop a process model that elucidates how players negotiate multiple meanings of organizational identity over time in a social partnership setting characterized by permeable boundaries and shared authority, at the group level of analysis. This is significant as we know little about how identity plays out in such multi-faceted organizational settings with continual blurred boundaries even as research has indicated that such arrangements are likely to surface identity issues among players (Maguire & Hardy, 2005). I also elucidate how individual players bridge across multiple meaning systems in a social partnership over time, answering the call for more research concerning the role of individuals and their interactions with organizations in the collaboration process over time (Manning & Roessler, 2014). To my knowledge, this work is one of the first of its kind to empirically explore tri-sector socially focused collaborations – involving players from the public, private and nonprofit sectors – that are more integrative and interconnected in nature (Austin & Seitanidi, 2012a) and that employs a process based perspective to understand how such collaborations unfold over time. In addition, I theoretically develop the link between institutional logics and organizational culture that emerged empirically via this study to guide future integrative work to holistically account for the multiplicity of meaning systems at work within and between such multi-faceted arrangements. / Graduate / 2020-04-01