Reuter, Emmanuelle

2017-11-30, Reuter, Emmanuelle, Ueberbacher, Florian

From our case study on the deinstitutionalization of the Swiss banking secrecy, we developed a grounded process theory on how transnational institutional conflict leads to the deinstitutionalization of a national institution. Our theory suggests that deinstitutionalization unfolds through an interactive conflict process with four sequential practices of national actors’ resistance and transnational challengers’ power use. Our model highlights that when a national institution is problematized by transnational challengers, national institutional guardians' attempts at protecting the supremacy of the national institution can have important unintended consequences: On the one hand, by inducing feelings of safety among incumbent organiza-tions, guardians’ protection work can motivate incumbent organizations to circumvent the demands of transnational challengers. On the other hand, by inducing feelings of outrage among transnational challengers, protection work can lead these challengers to escalate the institutional conflict. Together, these developments can provoke institutional breaches and contribute to deinstitutionalization of a national institution.

2015, Reuter, Emmanuelle

Prior research uncovered that decision-makers face important cognitive constraints to strategically adapt to a discontinuous environment. With the purpose to further scholarly understanding of this managerial problem, this dissertation investigates how social influence mechanisms can support strategic decision-makers to overcome the cognitive constraints involved in strategic adaptation to discontinuous change. The dissertation has two overarching purposes: First, it seeks to develop theory on the dynamic processes through which decision-makers can overcome their cognitive constraints. Second, it develops theory on the particular roles of social influence mechanisms from the organization's internal and external context for shaping these dynamics. This dissertation proceeds as follows: Chapter A provides a summarized overview of existing literature and introduces the dissertation's overarching framework, with related conceptual definitions upon which the subsequent theoretical arguments build. It motivates the dissertation's overall research focus and three specific research questions that will be addressed within three single-standing articles. The first two articles (Chapters C and D) comprise conceptual studies. They offer conceptual accounts of how top managers vary in their use of attention capacity, and of reasoning routines by highlighting linkages between social influences and these cognitive processes. Chapter E comprises an empirical study on the deinstitutionalization of Swiss banking secrecy. This article elaborates on how social conflict processes force decision-makers to overcome institutionalized prescriptions in order to engage in institutional change. Chapter F offers a discussion of the dissertation's major implications - a detailed conceptual and empirical elaboration of the social influences dynamics that instigate decision-makers to overcome cognitive constraints and to foster strategic adaptation to discontinuities.