How organizations cope with multiple and sometimes conflicting institutional demands is an increasingly familiar yet little understood question. This paper examines how four French business schools responded to demands that they internationalize their management education whilst retaining their...

This paper describes the role of rhetoric in legitimating profound institutional change. In 1997, a Big Five accounting firm purchased a law firm, triggering a jurisdictional struggle within accounting and law over a new organizational form, multidisciplinary partnerships. We analyze the...

To consider the argument presented in Stubbart and Knight's paper (see, Stubbart C. I. and Knight M. B. (2006), "The Case of the Disappearing Firms: Empirical Evidence and Implications", Journal of Organizational Behaviour, Vol. 27, pp. 79-100) that, since the majority of organizations have...

This paper examines how founders' work experiences and beliefs about an industry's prevailing practices influence the degree of novelty exhibited by their firms. Our results indicate that extensive experience in the core of an organizational field constrains individuals into acting as "imitative...

How do new professional service firms strategically position themselves in fields where developing a favourable external reputation is critical to performance? Are certain positioning strategies more effective than others? This study reveals that most professional service firm start-ups attempt...

Our conception of the ideal organization has changed from the machine-like efficiency of Weberian bureaucracy to a post-industrial ideal (Bell, 1973) in which organizations spurn the bureaucratic form to become more adaptive, receptive and generative. Such ideal organizations, we are told, will...

Looks at how one large international accounting organization, discussed under a pseudonym, has responded to competition on a global scale, focusing on its organizational structure and alliance strategies. Offers a review of recent research which examines strategic alliances and joint ventures....

The paper examines the stated reasons for recent mergers between members of the (former) Big Eight accounting firms. The reasons are expressed in terms of hypotheses about the perceived advantages of very large size and the hypotheses are tested using 1986-9 data from the top 1000 Canadian...

The general study of organizational change and the specific development of the concepts of transformation and transition has come about in a way which is typical of organization theory. On the one hand there were increasing theoretical and methodological criticisms of the 1970s...

Max Weber’s influence upon the study of organizations has been profound, perhaps unrivaled. But his contemporary relevance is less certain. This special issue celebrates the achievements of Weber and, at the same time, reflects on his current influence. Contributors vary in their assessment...