Institutional Embeddedness of Economic Organizations

Fields of Research

Another prominent subject at the School is the institutional embeddedness of economic organizations, their relationship to political regulation, and their role in the constitution and reproduction of markets. Over the last twenty years, organization studies has moved much closer to institutional analysis in sociology and political science, focusing particularly on the institutional context of business firms. Changes caused in the organizational structures and strategies of firms by processes of liberalization have become a major research theme in political economy. Institutional constructions of "rationality" in business strategies and structures have been investigated by organization theorists operating in an institutionalist tradition. Research on regional economies shows the importance of the embeddedness of firms in social relations of trust that are in turn partly dependent on political conditions. The institutional embeddedness approach also contributes to a better understanding of the organizational structure and strategies of economic organizations other than the business firm, such as unions, employers associations, and international organizations.