Action at a Distance: Client Relations as a Conduit for External Institutional Influence

49 Pages Posted: 23 Apr 2020

See all articles by Michael Falk

Michael Falk

Government of the Commonwealth of Australia - IP Australia

Brandon H. Lee

Melbourne Business School; Melbourne Business School

Kwanghui Lim

Melbourne Business School

Date Written: March 27, 2020

Abstract

Prior empirical research on institutional change shows that the actions of institutional actors in one locale can impact organizational behavior in another. In this paper, we explore how extrajurisdictional regulative and normative pressures faced by a set of organizations affect the strategic decision making of their suppliers. We utilize a novel dataset that tracks the adoption of a green building practice by a panel of 226 architecture studios in Australia from 2008–2015. In line with our theoretical predictions, firms respond to regulation, social norms and competitive pressures from cities where they do not operate but where their prospective clients do. We find that a focal studio’s position in the market for the new practice shapes its response to extrajurisdictional regulation but not its response to extra-jurisdictional norms. The study advances our understanding of how network mechanisms shape firms’ conceptions of the institutional field that governs exchange. We discuss resultant effects on organizational behavior which may be crucial to market formation.

Keywords: Institutional theory, green building, regulation, norms, network, resource dependence

Suggested Citation

Falk, Michael and Lee, Brandon H. and Lee, Brandon H. and Lim, Kwanghui, Action at a Distance: Client Relations as a Conduit for External Institutional Influence (March 27, 2020). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3562159 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3562159

Michael Falk

Government of the Commonwealth of Australia - IP Australia ( email )

PO Box 200
Woden, ACT 2606
United States

Brandon H. Lee (Contact Author)

Melbourne Business School ( email )

200 Leicester Street
Carlton, VIC 3053
Australia

Melbourne Business School ( email )

200 Leicester Street
Carlton, Victoria 3053 3186
Australia

Kwanghui Lim

Melbourne Business School ( email )

200 Leicester Street
Carlton, Victoria 3053 3186
Australia
+61-3-93498294 (Phone)

HOME PAGE: http://www.mbs.edu

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
29
Abstract Views
405
PlumX Metrics