When Innovations Meet Institutions: Edison and the Design of the Electric Light

This paper considers the role of design, as the emergent arrangement of concrete details that embodies a new idea, in mediating between innovations and established institutional fields as entrepreneurs attempt to introduce change. Analysis of Thomas Edison's system of electric lighting offers insights into how the grounded details of an innovation's design shape its acceptance and ultimate impact. The notion of robust design is introduced to explain how Edison's design strategy enabled his organization to gain acceptance for an innovation that would ultimately displace the existing institutions of the gas industry. By examining the principles through which design allows entrepreneurs to exploit the established institutions while simultaneously retaining the flexibility to displace them, this analysis highlights the value of robust design strategies in innovation efforts, including the phonograph, the online service provider, and the digital video recorder.

[1]  Ronald R. Kline,et al.  The Papers of Thomas A. Edison: The Wizard of Menlo Park, 1878. Thomas A. Edison , Paul B. Israel , Keith A. Nier , Louis Carlat , 2001 .

[2]  Paul DiMaggio.  Culture and cognition , 1997 .

[3]  R. Eccles,et al.  Networks and Organizations: Structure, Form, and Action , 1992 .

[4]  Guje Sevón,et al.  Translating organizational change , 1996 .

[5]  Sten Jönsson.  Institutions and Organizations , 1997 .

[6]  W. Abernathy.  Innovation : Mapping the winds of creative destruction * , 2003 .

[7]  Huseyin Leblebici,et al.  Institutional Change and the Transformation of Interorganizational Fields: An Organizational History of the U.S. Radio Broadcasting Industry , 1991 .

[8]  Kim B. Clark,et al.  Architectural Innovation: The Reconfiguration of Existing Product Technologies and the Failure of , 1990 .

[9]  W. Powell,et al.  The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis , 1993 .

[10]  Brent D. Beal,et al.  The Embeddedness of Organizations: Dialogue & Directions , 1999 .

[11]  Thomas P. Hughes,et al.  Edison: A Biography , 1960 .

[12]  M. Callon.  Society in the making: The study of technology as a tool for sociological analysis , 1987 .

[13]  P. Sidey.  The grass roots , 1966 .

[14]  Elting E. Morison,et al.  American Genesis: A Century of Invention and Technological Enthusiasm 1870–1970 by Thomas P. Hughes (review) , 1989, Technology and Culture.

[15]  M. Tushman,et al.  Technological Discontinuities and Organizational Environments , 1986 .

[16]  Robert F. Silverberg.  Light for the world : Edison and the power industry , 1967 .

[17]  Alfred Kieser,et al.  Why Organization Theory Needs Historical Analyses-And How This Should Be Performed , 1994 .

[18]  M. Dacin,et al.  Isomorphism In Context: The Power And Prescription Of Institutional Norms , 1997 .

[19]  Walter Kintsch,et al.  Toward a model of text comprehension and production. , 1978 .

[20]  R. Friedland.  Bringing Society Back In : Symbols, Practices, and Institutional Contradictions , 1991 .

[21]  D. Leonard-Barton.  CORE CAPABILITIES AND CORE RIGIDITIES: A PARADOX IN MANAGING NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT , 1992 .

[22]  Nathan Rosenberg,et al.  Inside the black box , 1983 .

[23]  Herbert A. Simon,et al.  The Sciences of the Artificial , 1970 .

[24]  Ann Swidler.  CULTURE IN ACTION: SYMBOLS AND STRATEGIES* , 1986 .

[25]  D. Eleanor Westney.  Imitation and innovation : the transfer of Western organizational patterns to Meiji Japan , 1989 .

[26]  Harry Granick.  Underneath New York , 1991 .

[27]  Bertram C. Bruce,et al.  Theoretical issues in reading comprehension : perspectives from cognitive psychology, linguistics, artificial intelligence, and education , 1980 .

[28]  David L. Morgan,et al.  Actors as Observers: A Theory of Skill in Social Relationships. , 1992 .

[29]  Paul Israel,et al.  Edison: A Life of Invention , 1998 .

[30]  Pamela S. Tolbert,et al.  Institutionalization and Structuration: Studying the Links between Action and Institution , 1997 .

[31]  Eugene S. Ferguson,et al.  Edison’s Electric Light: Biography of an Invention by Robert Friedel, et al (review) , 1988, Technology and Culture.

[32]  J. Ruiz Moreno.  [Organizational learning]. , 2001, Revista de enfermeria.

[33]  Clayton M. Christensen,et al.  Disruptive Technologies: Catching the Wave , 1995 .

[34]  J. Law.  TECHNOLOGY AND HETEROGENEOUS ENGINEERING: THE CASE OF PORTUGUESE EXPANSION , 2018, SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY STUDIES.

[35]  Paul Israel,et al.  Edison and the Business of Innovation , 1990 .

[36]  Mark A. Mone,et al.  Determinants and Development of Schools in Organization Theory , 1999 .

[37]  E. Gombrich.  ART AND ILLUSION: A STUDY IN THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PICTORIAL REPRESENTATION. , 1960 .

[38]  荻野 昌利.  E.H.Gombrich, Art and Illusion: A Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation (First Princeton/ Bollingen Paperback Edition) (特集 研究書・わたしの一冊) , 1999 .

[39]  C. Geertz.  The interpretation of cultures: Selected essays , 1975 .

[40]  James D. Berkley,et al.  Beyond the Hype: Rediscovering the Essence of Management , 1992 .

[41]  L. Mumford.  Technics and Civilization , 1934, Nature.

[42]  M. Lounsbury.  Cultural Entrepreneurship: Stories, Legitimacy and the Acquisition of Resources , 2001 .

[43]  A. Bright,et al.  The electric-lamp industry : technological change and economic development from 1800 to 1947 , 1951 .

[44]  Richard Swedberg,et al.  Explorations in Economic Sociology , 1996 .

[45]  Mary Childs Nerney.  Thomas A. Edison : a modern olympian , 1934 .

[46]  E. Goffman.  The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life , 1959 .

[47]  A. Giddens.  The Constitution of Society , 1985 .

[48]  K. Clark,et al.  Innovation: Mapping the winds of creative destruction☆ , 1993 .

[49]  Mark S. Granovetter.  Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness , 1985, American Journal of Sociology.

[50]  S. Kiesler,et al.  Managerial Response to Changing Environments: Perspectives on Problem Sensing from Social Cognition. , 1982 .

[51]  Roger C. Schank,et al.  Scripts, plans, goals and understanding: an inquiry into human knowledge structures , 1978 .

[52]  Nelson Goodman,et al.  Art and Illusion; a Study in the Psychology of Pictorial Representation , 1960 .

[53]  T. P. Hughes,et al.  The Social Construction of Technological Systems: New Directions in the Sociology and History of Technology , 1989 .

[54]  W. Richard Scott.  Organizations: Rational, Natural, and Open Systems , 1981 .

[55]  Philip Selznick.  TVA and the grass roots , 1949 .

[56]  John F. Padgett,et al.  Robust Action and the Rise of the Medici, 1400-1434 , 1993, American Journal of Sociology.

[57]  Paul Israel,et al.  The Papers of Thomas A. Edison: The Wizard of Menlo Park, 1878 , 1999 .

[58]  S. Barley.  Technology as an occasion for structuring: evidence from observations of CT scanners and the social order of radiology departments. , 1986, Administrative science quarterly.

[59]  Michael Lewis.  Next: The Future Just Happened , 2001 .

[60]  R. Westrum.  The Social Construction of Technological Systems , 1989 .

[61]  Jeanne Liedtka,et al.  In Defense of Strategy as Design , 2000 .

[62]  Pamela S. Tolbert,et al.  Institutional Sources of Change in the Formal Structure of Organizations: The Diffusion of Civil Service Reform, 1880-1935 , 1983 .

[63]  M. Douglas.  How Institutions Think , 1986 .

[64]  P. Drucker,et al.  Beyond the information revolution , 1999 .

[65]  K. Eisenhardt,et al.  The Art of Continuous Change : Linking Complexity Theory and Time-Paced Evolution in Relentlessly Shifting Organizations , 1997 .