Revisiting the Phenomenon of Interests in Organizational Institutionalism

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dc.contributor.author	Crawford, Brett
dc.date.accessioned	2012-05-30
dc.date.accessioned	2012-05-30T11:46:00Z
dc.date.available	2012-05-30T11:46:00Z
dc.date.issued	2012-05-30
dc.identifier.isbn	9788792842657
dc.identifier.isbn	9788792842640
dc.identifier.issn	0906-6934
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10398/8452
dc.description.abstract	Much of the organizational institutionalism literature suggests that the phenomenon of interests is a central construct, however, portrays interests in an overly deterministic, rational, and liberal way. In this thesis, I challenge those views and suggest that interests are a complex and interdependent socially constructed phenomenon. Accordingly, interests represent an actor’s recognition, perceived importance, and participation in a number of figurations and social games. Illustrated through the institution of U.S. chambers of commerce, I explore how chambers of commerce have withstood a changing American culture to become both the world’s largest business federation and public-private partnership. Moreover, even as the United States represents the most liberal of liberal market economies, chambers of commerce represent a context where capitalists have set aside market competition and unified their interests to become one of the largest and most influential institutions in the world. Following a brief introduction of interests and chambers of commerce, this thesis begins with the first paper, which is a critical review of the phenomenon of interests within the organizational institutionalism literature. Tracing the conceptual variety of both the origins and functions of interests in institutional studies, I illustrate how an overly deterministic and rational view of interests is problematic. The critical review continues with a discussion of my critiques of the extant literature followed by an introduction of a less rational and calculative approach to interests by coupling Bourdieu’s (1998) conceptualization of interests with Elias’s (1978) sociology emphasizing figurations and social games. The three subsequent empirical papers test this approach to interests on macro-, meso-, and micro-levels of the institution of chambers of commerce.	en_US
dc.format.extent	230	en_US
dc.language	eng	en_US
dc.publisher	Copenhagen Business School	en_US
dc.relation.ispartofseries	PhD Series;19.2012
dc.title	Revisiting the Phenomenon of Interests in Organizational Institutionalism	en_US
dc.type	phd	en_US
dc.accessionstatus	modt12maj30 lbjl	en_US
dc.contributor.corporation	Copenhagen Business School. CBS	en_US
dc.contributor.department	Department of Business and Politics	en_US
dc.contributor.departmentshort	CBDS	en_US
dc.contributor.departmentuk	Department of Business and Politics	en_US
dc.contributor.departmentukshort	DBP	en_US
dc.idnumber	9788792842657	en_US
dc.publisher.city	Frederiksberg	en_US
dc.publisher.year	2012	en_US
dc.title.subtitle	The Case of U.S. Chambers of Commerce	en_US