Competition and Actorhood: A Further Expansion of the Neo-institutional Agenda
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Competition and Actorhood: A Further Expansion of the Neo-institutional Agenda
Hasse, Raimund | Krücken, Georg
Sociologia Internationalis, Vol. 51(2013), Iss. 2 : pp. 181–205 | First published online: October 03, 2017
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Prof. Dr. Raimund Hasse, Soziologisches Seminar, Universität Luzern, Bruch-Str. 9a, Postfach 7456, CH-6000 Luzern 7
Prof. Dr. Georg Krücken, International Centre for Higher Education Research, Universität Kassel, Mönchebergst. 17
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Abstract
Der Fokus dieses Beitrags liegt auf der Entwicklung eines neo-institutionalistischen Verständnisses der sozialen Konstruktion von Wettbewerb sowie auf Auswirkungen des Wettbewerbs auf Organisationen. Ausgangspunkt ist die Vernachlässigung von Wettbewerbsthemen im Neo-Institutionalismus. Vor diesem Hintergrund werden Ideen zur Konzeptualisierung von Wettbewerb aus einer makro-soziologischen und konstruktivistischen Ausrichtung des Neo-Institutionalismus vorgestellt. Entsprechend dieser Perspektive sind Wettbewerbsakteure Resultate andauernder Konstruktionsprozesse. Die Figur des “Anderen“ – um ein Konzept von George Herbert Mead zu beleihen, das eine grosse Rolle im neo-institutionalistischen Denken spielt – ist dabei von entscheidender Bedeutung. Diese “Anderen” können einen Sinn für Wettbewerb in Gebieten entfalten, die ehedem nicht durch Wettbewerb geprägt waren. Es wird argumentiert, dass Wettbewerb-Settings Vergleichshorizonte eröffnen und dass sie zur wechselseitigen Beobachtung sowie zur Identifikation von Trends und Trendsettern führen. Zudem erfordert Wettbewerb interne Managementkapazitäten, mit denen Organisationen sich selbst und ihre Umwelt davon zu überzeugen versuchen, dass sie rational und strategisch auf Herausforderungen des Wettbewerbs reagieren (können). Zur Illustration der Fruchtbarkeit hierauf bezogener Forschungspektiven gehen wir auf Universitäten ein, die in den meisten Organisationsstudien als Einheiten gesehen werden, deren Wettbewerbsorientierung im Vergleich zu Wirtschaftsunternehmen schwach ausgeprägt gewesen ist. Der Beitrag endet mit einer Diskusion weiterer Implikationen für die neo-institutionalistischeForschung und Theorieentwicklung.
The focus of this contribution is on developing a neo-institutional understanding of the social construction of competition and on impacts of competition on organizations. Starting point is the downplaying of the issue of competition in neoinstitutionalism. Against this background we present some ideas on how to conceptualize competition from the macro-sociological and constructivist strand of neo-institutionalism. According to this perspective, competitive actors are results of ongoing construction processes. The notion of “others” – to borrow a concept from George Herbert Mead that plays a strong role in neo-institutional thinking – is of pivotal importance here. These “others” can instill a sense of competition in areas that hitherto had not been shaped by competition. It will be argued that competitive settings allow for a common horizon, and that they result in mutual observation processes and in the identification of trends and trendsetters. Furthermore, competition requires internal management capacities, with which organizations try to convince themselves and their environments that they (can) respond rationally and strategically to competitive challenges. In order to illustrate the fruitfulness of related research-perspectives we focus on universities, which in most contributions to organization research are seen as entities whose competitiveness as organizational actors has been rather low relative to that of business organizations. Finally, further implications for neo-institutional research and theory development are discussed.