How Do Embedded Agents Engage in Institutional Change?

Institutional theories offer more insight into the processes that explain institutional stability than those that explain institutional change. This article starts by elaborating this general diagnosis and proceeds with a more specific focus on institutional change in organizations. Much institutional research focuses on the relative stability of organizational practices over time (Burns and Scapens 2000). Notwithstanding that such research usually acknowledges that institutional change can occur, a major scholarly challenge is to further conceptualize and seek empirical evidence for when, why, and how organizational actors influence change while embedded in the institutional fabric of their organizational setting.