The Birth of the 'Kodak Moment': Institutional Entrepreneurship and the Adoption of New Technologies

In this paper, we adopt a discourse analytic methodology to explore the role of institutional entrepreneurs in the process of institutional change that coincides with the adoption of a radically new technology. More specifically, we examine how Kodak managed to transform photography from a highly specialized activity to one that became an integral part of everyday life. Based on this case, we develop an initial typology of the strategies available to institutional entrepreneurs who wish to affect the processes of social construction that lead to change in institutional fields. The use of discourse analysis in analysing institutional change provides new insights into the processes through which institutional fields evolve as well as into how institutional entrepreneurs are able to act strategically to embody their interests in the resulting institutions.

[1]  A. Chandler.  The Beginnings of “Big Business” in American Industry , 1959, Business History Review.

[2]  B. Coe.  The Birth of Photography: The Story of the Formative Years, 1800-1900 , 1976 .

[3]  L. Zucker.  The role of institutionalization in cultural persistence. , 1977 .

[4]  John W. Meyer,et al.  Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony , 1977, American Journal of Sociology.

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

[6]  P. David.  Clio and the Economics of QWERTY , 1985 .

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

[8]  W. Scott.  The Adolescence of Institutional Theory. , 1987 .

[9]  Wiebe E. Bijker,et al.  Science in action : how to follow scientists and engineers through society , 1989 .

[10]  M. Tushman,et al.  Technological Discontinuities and Dominant Designs: A Cyclical Model of Technological Change , 1990 .

[11]  R. Pringle,et al.  Texts, Facts and Femininity: Exploring the Relations of Ruling , 1991 .

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

[13]  D. Boorstin.  The image : a guide to pseudo-events in America , 1992 .

[14]  E. Romanelli,et al.  The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis , 1992 .

[15]  N. Fairclough.  Discourse and social change , 1992 .

[16]  M. Tushman,et al.  On the Organizational Determinants of Technological Change: Towards a Sociology of Technological Evolution , 1992 .

[17]  M. Cusumano,et al.  Strategic Maneuvering and Mass-Market Dynamics: The Triumph of VHS over Beta , 1992, Business History Review.

[18]  T. V. Dijk.  Principles of Critical Discourse Analysis , 1993 .

[19]  Martin Heidenreich,et al.  The Vulnerable Fortress: Bureaucratic Organization and Management in the Information Age.@@@Computers and Culture in Organizations: The Introduction and Use of Production Control Systems in French, Italian, and German Enterprises. , 1993 .

[20]  W. Arthur,et al.  Increasing Returns and Path Dependence in the Economy , 1996 .

[21]  Gen Doy.  Family snaps: the meaning of domestic photography , 1994 .

[22]  Patricia Rodden Zimmermann,et al.  Reel Families: A Social History of Amateur Film , 1995 .

[23]  N. Fairclough,et al.  Critical Discourse Analysis: The Critical Study of Language , 1995 .

[24]  François Cooren,et al.  The Communicational Basis of Organization: Between the Conversation and the Text , 1996 .

[25]  James M. Utterback,et al.  Mastering the Dynamics of Innovation , 1996 .

[26]  J. Chalaby.  Beyond the Prison-House of Language: Discourse as a Sociological Concept , 1996 .

[27]  M. Hirsch.  Family Frames: Photography, Narrative and Postmemory , 1997 .

[28]  Editorial: Analysing Discourse Analysis , 1997 .

[29]  R. Cowan.  A social history of American technology , 1997 .

[30]  Clayton M. Christensen.  The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail , 2013 .

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

[32]  Stuart Hall,et al.  Doing Cultural Studies: The Story of the Sony Walkman , 1997 .

[33]  T. V. Dijk.  The Study of Discourse , 1997 .

[34]  Taking pictures, making movies and telling time : charting the domestication of a producing and consuming visual culture in North America , 1998 .

[35]  Tom Keenoy,et al.  Discourse and Organization , 1998 .

[36]  Cynthia Hardy,et al.  No Joking Matter: Discursive Struggle in the Canadian Refugee System , 1999 .

[37]  K. Gergen.  An invitation to social construction , 1999 .

[38]  N. West.  Kodak and the Lens of Nostalgia , 2000 .

[39]  M. Alvesson,et al.  Varieties of Discourse: On the Study of Organizations through Discourse Analysis , 2000 .

[40]  Andrew Hargadon,et al.  When Innovations Meet Institutions: Edison and the Design of the Electric Light , 2001 .

[41]  A. Hoffman,et al.  Not All Events are Attended Equally: Toward a Middle-Range Theory of Industry Attention to External Events , 2001 .

[42]  Linda L. Putnam,et al.  Discourse Analysis in Organizations. Issues and Concerns , 2001 .

[43]  Monika I. Winn,et al.  The Temporal Dynamics of Institutionalization , 2001 .

[44]  R. Greenwood,et al.  Theorizing Change: The Role of Professional Associations in the Transformation of Institutionalized Fields , 2002 .

[45]  C. Hardy,et al.  Inter-organizational collaboration and the dynamics of institutional fields , 2002 .

[46]  C. Hardy,et al.  Institutional effects of interorganizational collaboration: The emergence of proto-institutions , 2002 .

[47]  A. Kumaraswamy,et al.  INSTITUTIONAL ENTREPRENEURSHIP IN THE SPONSORSHIP OF COMMON TECHNOLOGICAL STANDARDS: THE CASE OF SUN MICROSYSTEMS AND JAVA * , 2002 .

[48]  K. Munir.  Competitive dynamics in face of technological discontinuity: a framework for action , 2003 .

[49]  R. Wodak.  Critical Discourse Analysis , 2003 .

[50]  Stewart Clegg,et al.  Debating organization : point-counterpoint in organization studies , 2003 .

[51]  T. Lawrence,et al.  From Moby Dick to Free Willy: Macro-Cultural Discourse and Institutional Entrepreneurship in Emerging Institutional Fields , 2004 .

[52]  C. Hardy,et al.  Discourse and Institutions , 2004 .

[53]  K. Munir.  The Social Construction of Events: A Study of Institutional Change in the Photographic Field , 2005 .

[54]  J. Sheyholislami,,et al.  Critical Discourse Analysis , 2019, Research Methods for Classroom Discourse.