Decoupling institutional pressure: how and why academic journals do it

Purpose This study aims to verify empirically that when a group of isomorphic organisations is subjected to institutional pressure that conflicts with their technical efficiency or interests, this group will embrace opaqueness and decoupling. Design/methodology/approach This is a multiple case study of 16 Brazilian academic journals. The authors analyse whether the editorial boards of these journals play an effective or merely ceremonial role in the administration of the journals. Findings The authors find indications that isomorphic organisations revert to decoupling when the pressures they are subjected to are in conflict with their technical efficiency or interests. The authors also find indications of an inverted U-shaped relationship between the collaboration recruiting power of a journal in an academic field and decoupling. This collaboration recruiting power is closely related to the journal’s position in academic rankings. Practical implications The authors have shown that, although some scientific journals can deal with internationalisation pressures, for others, this is difficult and leads to decoupling and opaqueness. This is not a desirable situation. It can be counterproductive and draw attention to bureaucratic procedures. Originality/value This relation between opaqueness and institutional pressure for a group of organisations within the context of neo-institutional theory has not yet been verified empirically. This study’s results show how institutional pressure and organisational opaqueness are related in an organisational field. This theoretical contribution has practical implications because of decoupling’s potentially negative effects.