Paul Hirsch

Patriotta, Gerardo and Paul Hirsch. 2016. Mainstreaming innovation in art worlds: Cooperative links, conventions and amphibious artists. Organization Studies. 37(4): 867-887.

We extend Becker’s conception of art worlds to articulate the boundaries which enable and constrain innovation in art. Synthesizing network and institutional approaches to art innovation, we argue that new conventions develop through a cooperative process involving mainstreamers, mavericks, outsiders, and novices – whose interactions produce novel ways of linking artists to those who consume their products. We emphasize the role of amphibious artists in bridging mainstream and maverick social types, thereby reducing the distance between “outside” and “inside,” and crossing the more permeable boundaries separating them. We illustrate the framework with a case of innovation in the film art world: the mainstreaming of American independent cinema.

Lounsbury, Michael, Marc J. Ventresca and Paul Hirsch. 2003. Social Movements, Field Frames and Industry Emergence: A Cultural-Political Perspective on US, Recycling. Socio-Economic Review. 1(1): 71-104.

This article examines how social movements contribute to institutional change and the creation of new industries. We build on current efforts to bridge institutional and social movement perspectives in sociology and develop the concept of field frame to study how industries are shaped by social structures of meanings and resources that underpin and stabilize practices and social organization. Drawing on the case of how non-profit recyclers and the recycling social movement enabled the rise of a for-profit recycling industry, we show that movements can help to transform extant socio-economic practices and enable new kinds of industry development by engaging in efforts that lead to the de-institutionalization of field frames.

Hirsch, Paul. 1990. Ownership Changes, Accounting Practice, and the Redefinition of the Corporation. Accounting, Organizations and Society. 15(1): 77-96.

This paper examines the role of accounting in facilitating and legitimating the conglomerate movement in American business during the 1960s. We argue that the profileration of conglomerate mergers contributed to a reconceptualization of the corporation that emphasized its financial rather than its productive capacities. This conception of the firm has now been institutionalized; its logic motivates the takeovers and restructuring that characterize contemporary business. Our case illustrates the rhetorical power of accounting as a symbolic system for legitimating new corporate forms and practices.

Hirsch, Paul. 1986. From Ambushes to Golden Parachutes: Corporate Takeovers as an Instance of Cultural Framing and Institutional Integration. American Journal of Sociology. 91(4): 800-837.

Ownership contests for control of large American corporations have become increasingly problematic and public with the advent of the "hostile takeover." This article examines the diffusion of this once "deviant" innovation. Its focus is on the relationship between changing business practices and American business culture; more specifically, on how the processes of the normative framing of hostile takeovers facilitated their diffusion and legitimation, helping to recreate or sustain order despite the disruptions engendered by takeovers. Three eras in the diffusion of this deviant innovation are delineated. Each is characterized by a language and argot that serve to cushion the hard fact of status loss by acquired executives. Neither culture nor social structure is seen here to dominate this interactive process. The provision of incentives to remain within the institution while career goals and pathways are redefined constitutes a case study of institutional reintegration, within a subsystem of society seldom examined from this perspective of changing values and ideologies.

Hirsch, Paul and Jo-Ellen Pozner. 2016. "Shattering Glass-Steagall: The Power of Financial Industries to Overcome Restraints." In Routledge Companion to Banking Regulation and Reform, edited by Erturk, I and D. Gabor, Univ.of Manchester, UK, 423-437. London: Routledge.

In this chapter, we present a case that demonstrates how a new legal and regulatory framework, passed with strong public support, may provide coercive and mimetic legitimacy and yet – despite apparently achieving “taken-for-granted” status – remain vulnerable to contestation, continued resistance, and eventual defeat. We find the settlement of a conflict in the public arena to be like a truce, rather than a permanent reframing that alters the cognitive mapping of those adversely affected by the outcome. That is, apparent settlement through regulation does not necessarily forestall the possibility that the parties that lost out in the conflict might mobilize their structural and symbolic resources to resist and reverse the new status quo.

Hirsch, Paul and Hayagreeva Rao. 2004. "The Schweick Syndrome: The Narrative Power of Resistance by Agreement." In Narratives We Organize By: Narrative Approaches in Organization Studies, edited by B. Czarniawska and P. Gagliardi, 137-148. London, UK: John Benjamins.

In this chapter, we report a case study of an innovation's diffusion, and the decoupling, myth and ceremony which have surrounded it. Although this example is very macro, the same strategic actions and processes may be found inside any organization declaring its intent to adopt a new change program or managerial innovation. The case discussed here is the Czech Republic's reforms of its economic institutions, since 1989, when the Russians left eastern Europe. The Czechs quickly privatized State enterprises, provided an innovative opportunity for all citizens to purchase shares, and established a new stock exchange. But despite all this ceremony and public acclaim, these economic programs were not implemented. The celebratory narratives for change were weakened by the same Czech officials' failure to adequately implement their widely praised reforms. The concepts of organizational learning and cultural path dependence are very useful in helping to interpret this example of effective resistance by agreement. After reviewing these, and inviting other explanations, I will conclude with my sense of how Meyer and Rowan's focus on decoupling contributes to (1) explaining this outcome, and (2) inviting expanded studies into the areas of resistance to change, the diffusion of innovation, and cross-cultural studies.