Institutional Change

""Patient Safety is a global institution in the field largely assumed to have emerged following the
publication of To Err Is Human by the Institute of Medicine in 1999. In this paper we demonstrate
that Patient Safety has been constructed as an institution separately in the practice of
anaesthesia since 1954 and in hospitalised care since 1964. The publication of To Err was, in
fact, only one of a number of later field configuring events. We use Bruner's (1991) theory of
narrative to frame the institution building process which we term deliberative instauration in
recognition of the historic literature on the subject. We further link the process of institution
building to Vygotsky's theory of social mediation and the use of artefacts in relation to the object
of intended action. We conclude that a narrative can be understood as both an artefact and a
process used in the social construction of institutions by professional psychological collectives (in
this case physicians).""

This qualitative study examines the role of clients in petty corruption by analyzing actual corrupt exchanges between ordinary citizens and low level public and private employees in post-communist Hungary. Using a grounded theory approach, interviews reveal how clients from different social strata deal with low-level agents in corrupt situations. Findings suggest two contrasting forms of low-level corruption: transactions where the client and the agent do not have a prior relationship and where external factors dominate the relationship; and cases with stronger social ties between the actors, where the client has more freedom to structure the transaction. However, a client's social background frequently determines the form of corrupt transaction and the form of resources illegally exchanged in the deal.

"Agli inizi degli anni ‘60 il governo italiano decide di costruire a Taranto il IV centro siderurgico nazionale. La presenza dell’Italsider ha cambiato profondamente il panorama economico della provincia, rendendo Taranto l’area più industrializzata del Sud Italia. L’industria pesante, per altro già presente con la cantieristica naval-militare, ha influenzato molto lo sviluppo del territorio che è ancora oggi fortemente dipendente dalla produzione siderurgica, per altro la maggiore fonte di occupazione per la popolazione.
Questo lavoro analizza l’assetto socio-economico di Taranto attraverso i concetti di path dependence e di lock in integrandoli con alcuni assunti della sociologia storica sul cambiamento istituzionale e l’importanza della storia nell’influenzare le scelte future. L’utilità del modello classico di path dependence nell’analisi dei contesti socio-economici può essere, infatti, abbastanza limitata dato il suo focus sulla cristallizzazione anziché sul cambiamento istituzionale. L’approccio combinato qui usato permette invece di rilevare anche la presenza di significativi cambiamenti in atto a Taranto. Tra questi, il processo di privatizzazione - uno shock esogeno che ha profondamente modificato le precedenti relazioni industriali - e la nascita del movimento ambientalista, un cambiamento endogeno più recente che ha promosso la nascita di nuovi valori quali il diritto alla salute e a migliori condizioni di vita come parte di un concetto più generale di sviluppo sostenibile.
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"My dissertation contributes to a body of knowledge useful for understanding the evolution of subsistence economies based on agriculture from those based on hunting and gathering,
as well as the development of formal rules and norms of territorial ownership in hunter- gatherer societies. My research specifically combines simple formal and conceptual models with the empirical analysis of large ethnographic and environmental data sets to study feedback processes in coupled forager-resource systems. I use the formal and conceptual models of forager-resource systems as tools that aid in the development of two alternative
arguments that may explain the adoption of food production and formal territorial ownership among hunter-gatherers. I call these arguments the Uncertainty Reduction Hypothesis and the Social Opportunity Hypothesis. Based on the logic of these arguments, I develop expectations for patterns of food production and formal territorial ownership documented in the ethnographic record of hunter-gatherer societies and evaluate these expectations with
large ethnographic and environmental data sets. My analysis suggests that the Uncertainty Reduction Hypothesis is more consistent with the data than the Social Opportunity Hypoth-
esis. Overall, my approach combines the intellectual frameworks of evolutionary ecology and resilience thinking. The result is a theory of subsistence change that integrates elements of three classic models of economic development with deep intellectual roots in human ecology: The Malthusian, Boserupian and Weberian models. A final take home message of my study is that evolutionary ecology and resilience thinking are complemen-
tary frameworks for archaeologists who study the transition from hunting and gathering to farming."

This paper inquires about the conditions that enable the rise of new applied undergraduate fields in American universities and colleges. After identifying high-growth fields since 1950, the paper traces their professional development from an embryonic stage until universities and colleges started offering bachelor’s degrees in those fields. The experiences of the six fields of this study show that although pressures for academic differentiation were evident, governmental intervention was ultimately crucial. Qualitative evidence indicates that the independence of a new field hinges on the interaction of four factors: societal pressures, state intervention, academic resourcefulness of the field, and professional institutional processes.

Después de que Colombia aprobara reformas multiculturales y descentralizara la política, muchas comunidades indígenas no se beneficiaron de la expansión de estos derechos. Se ha argumentado que las reformas multiculturales, que dependen de la implementación del pluralismo legal, no fueron aplicadas a cabalidad, no lograron los cambios esperados y aumentaron las tensiones entre diferentes tipos de jurisdicción. Otros coinciden en que, como cualquier otra política, las reformas multiculturales no son monolíticas y por lo tanto tendrían efectos desiguales, lo que exige un análisis cuidadoso de las dinámicas locales de poder para apreciar los verdaderos resultados. Este trabajo toma el caso del suroeste antioqueño para evaluar la tesis de que los derechos de autonomía indígena se implementan cuando un movimiento social captura o transforma las instituciones establecidas y logra incrustar las leyes que protegen la autonomía étnica en varios niveles de gobierno. Karmata Rúa, una comunidad Embera Chamí en Antioquia ha combinado estrategias políticas formales e informales, incluyendo la toma de tierras y la negociación directa con los gobiernos regionales, para salvaguardar la autonomía indígena. Tomando este caso, el documento evalúa los beneficios y las tensiones que se dan cuando distintas autoridades y niveles de gobierno trabajan juntos en una región multiétnica.

In the Theravāda Buddhist polities on the mainland of Southeast Asia, abiding concerns about the proper structuring of the relationship between the “two wheels of dhamma” (i.e., the realm of religion and the realm of politics) have had a profound influence on processes of state formation and political legitimation. This paper explores one such religious “effect,” on the constitutions and electoral laws of modern Burma/Myanmar, Siam/Thailand, Cambodia, and Laos, namely the official disenfranchisement of Buddhist monks (and, in some instances, Buddhist “nuns” as well as non-Buddhist clergy). The paper traces the historical evolution of this Buddhist exception to the democratic principle of equal and universal suffrage, and assesses the extent to which dominant theoretical approaches in the social sciences help us understand the politics of religious disenfranchisement in Southeast Asia. It finds that neither secularisation theory nor the religious-economy approach can explain observed patterns. Instead, the paper offers an account of the politics of religious disenfranchisement that emphasises the role of ideas and historical context.

This study explores a corporate campaign to pass a referendum to enable the development of a hydropower plant in a small Swedish community. In the changing institutional context that grounds this case, the organization needed to develop communicative practices that embodied “cultural competence,” a set of processes identified as critical for the legitimacy and success of business organizations in the emerging global/intersectoral environment. Findings suggest that the MNC's communication strategy captured important components of cultural competence. However, institutional contradictions impeded enactment of the strategy and resulted in delegitimizing paradoxical communication. The results indicate that organizational awareness of institutional change and culturally competent strategy are insufficient without special attention to contradictions and resultant communicative paradoxes embodied within a particular institutional context. The importance of a reflective communication approach that engages contradictions and tensions in the surrounding micro–macro institutional contexts is underscored.

Modern economies are increasingly based on knowledge and, more generally, on the intangible assets that favor the economic development. Knowledge-based economies are founded on increasing specialization, research, innovation and learning. The change towards a knowledge-based economy is happening on a global scale, a transformation is taking place in all advanced industrialized economies and many developing economies are also aspiring to reach this target. Knowledge-based economies require some critical requisites to become real and efficient economies. These are the four pillars: education and training, innovation, information infrastructure, institutional regime. This contribution will focus mainly on one of those pillars: the institutional environment. Thus, after examining the definition and the characteristics of a knowledge-based economy, it focuses on the relationship between knowledge-based economies and the role of institutions. Institutions and the institutional environment play a key role in the development of a knowledge economy, so they do matter. The paper argues that various institutional changes must be introduced and these institutional changes that need to be made will involve the public and private sector, as it has been in the case of the Finland’s economy. In addition, because of the difficulties for the institutions to build and establish itself over time, it is necessary a certain degree of flexibility in the institutional regime and, hence, the ability to respond to uncertainties.

"This dissertation explores the mechanisms of institutional change in practice. The institutional change under study relates to the progressive penetration of Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) criteria into conventional investment funds, a phenomenon which appeared during the 2000s, known as SRI Mainstreaming. The dissertation aims to explain why SRI Mainstreaming has expanded into France and to identify its impacts on the practices of the French asset management sector. It mobilizes a three-year (2006-2009) longitudinal case study of a French asset management company, conducted as an SRI analyst. Research methods rely on the pragmatist concept of inquiry and combine participative observation, semi-structured interviews and documentary evidence. The dissertation comprises three articles that should be considered together. They explore 1) the origins of the SRI Mainstreaming phenomenon, 2) how asset management companies have transformed their practices in response to SRI Mainstreaming and 3) why practices have been transformed in a different way in fixed-income investment, compared to equity investment, respectively.

This dissertation received three awards:
> Best Thesis Award European FIR-PRI (French Socially Responsible Investment Forum & Principles for Responsible Investment) 2011.
> Highly Commendable dissertation in the EFMD Emerald 2011 Outstanding Doctoral Research Awards in the Interdisciplinary Accounting Research (category sponsored by the Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal).
> Second prize in the 2011 European EDAMBA (European Doctoral Programmes Association in Management and Business Administration) Thesis Competition.""