Institutional carriers: reviewing modes of transporting ideas over time and space and considering their consequences

Institutions are defined as systems composed of regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive elements that act to produce meaning, stability and order. Institutional elements move from place to place and time to time with the help of carriers. Four types of carriers are distinguished--symbolic systems, relational systems, routines, and artifacts--and two of these--symbolic and relation systems--are described and illustrated. It is argued that carriers are not neutral vehicles but have important effects on the elements transmitted.