TY - JOUR
T1 - Organizational adaptation to institutional change
T2 - A comparative study of first-order change in prospector and defender banks
AU - Fox-Wolfgramm, Susan J.
AU - Boal, Kimberly B.
AU - Hunt, James G.Jerry
PY - 1998/3
Y1 - 1998/3
N2 - Using grounded theory, we examined a "defender" and a "prospector" bank's strategic adaptation to the Community Redevelopment Act across seven years during which they were under increasing regulatory pressure to comply. The interplay of institutional, organizational, and strategic issue context patterns led the defender to an aborted adaptation and the prospector to a reorientation. Each demonstrated a different form of resistance to demands for compliance to the act: identity resistance (change inconsistent with organizational identity) and virtuous resistance (change not needed since already part of the bank's identity). We observed both incremental and punctuated equilibrium change modes, though only incremental change was sustained. Institutional isomorphism and organizational performance exerted counterintuitive pressures for initiating and sustaining change. Drawing on our results, we develop propositions on organizations' adaptations to change.
AB - Using grounded theory, we examined a "defender" and a "prospector" bank's strategic adaptation to the Community Redevelopment Act across seven years during which they were under increasing regulatory pressure to comply. The interplay of institutional, organizational, and strategic issue context patterns led the defender to an aborted adaptation and the prospector to a reorientation. Each demonstrated a different form of resistance to demands for compliance to the act: identity resistance (change inconsistent with organizational identity) and virtuous resistance (change not needed since already part of the bank's identity). We observed both incremental and punctuated equilibrium change modes, though only incremental change was sustained. Institutional isomorphism and organizational performance exerted counterintuitive pressures for initiating and sustaining change. Drawing on our results, we develop propositions on organizations' adaptations to change.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=0032220596&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.2307/2393592
DO - 10.2307/2393592
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0032220596
SN - 0001-8392
VL - 43
SP - 87
EP - 126
JO - Administrative Science Quarterly
JF - Administrative Science Quarterly
IS - 1
ER -