Filtering Institutional Logics: Community Logic Variation and Differential Responses to the Institutional Complexity of Toxic Waste

Although many recent studies have emphasized the multiplicity of institutional logics and the competition among them, how some institutional logics become prioritized over others in shaping organizational decisions is undertheorized. Drawing on panel data of 118 industrial facilities across 34 communities in Texas and Louisiana, we show that the saliency of different kinds of community logics significantly affects environmental practices—specifically, toxic waste emissions—of facilities in a community. Our results show that community logics not only have direct effects but also have indirect effects by filtering organizational reactions to broader field-level institutional logics. We theorize how community logics can amplify or dampen the influence of broader field-level logics and discuss the implications for the study of institutional complexity, social movements, and values in the configuration of institutional logics.