Giuseppe Delmestri
Vienna University of Economics and Business, Management, Faculty Member
Vegaphobie: Ein Hindernis auf dem Weg zur Nachhaltigkeit, der Beitrag von Regine Bendl, Giuseppe Delmestri und Petr Kudelka, thematisiert die gesellschaftliche Diskriminierung von Veganismus als ein wichtiges und unterschätztes... more
Vegaphobie: Ein Hindernis auf dem Weg zur Nachhaltigkeit, der Beitrag von Regine Bendl, Giuseppe Delmestri und Petr Kudelka, thematisiert die gesellschaftliche Diskriminierung von Veganismus als ein wichtiges und unterschätztes Transformations- hindernis. Die Autorin und die Autoren betonen den Status des Veganismus als weltan- schauliche Lebensphilosophie, deren Relevanz weit über die eines gesellschaftlichen „Modethemas“ hinausgeht. Diese Philosophie, so argumentieren sie, ist massiver Stig- matisierung und Diskriminierung ausgesetzt. Hierzu werden internationale Studien vorgestellt, aber auch Alltagserfahrungen aus Österreich präsentiert. Gründe für die Diskriminierung von Veganismus werden ebenso dargestellt wie praktische Konsequen- zen. Dabei geht es um die rechtliche Anerkennung von Veganismus als Weltanschauung, die Beziehung der Thematik zum Diversity Management sowie um die potenzielle Vorreiterrolle von Universitäten, denen die Autorin und die Autoren eine wichtige Signalfunktion zusprechen. Es wird deutlich, dass schon aus ökologischen Gründen der Veganismus ein wichtiger Beitrag zur Nachhaltigkeitstransformation sein kann, der nicht behindert, sondern gefördert werden sollte. (von Fred Luks)
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Kostova, Roth and Dacin called in 2008 for the advancement of a theoretical conception of the multinational corporation (MNC) that takes into account both power relationships among actors and the structure of its internal institutional... more
Kostova, Roth and Dacin called in 2008 for the advancement of a theoretical conception of the multinational corporation (MNC) that takes into account both power relationships among actors and the structure of its internal institutional field. While micro-political scholars of MNCs have started to answer the former part of the call regarding power, the second part has not been thoroughly addressed yet. Furthermore, the agentic aspects typical of power games and the structural aspects characterizing institutional fields have not been fully combined in a multilevel perspective of MNCs so far. Leaning on Bourdieu, we suggest an answer to the pending call. We theorize the MNC as a playing field of power emerging around the issue of finding a meta-rate of conversion of the actors' capitals constituted in national fields. We conceive such issue field in a dynamic state due to the constant entry and exit of new players (e.g. through mergers, acquisitions or divestitures) and, hence, there is a need to continuously test the validity of exchange rates. The role of the metainstitutional field level of the MNC as a global category is also discussed.
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While there has been increased attention to emotions and institutions, the role of denial and repression of emotions has been overlooked. We argue that not only the expression and the feeling of emotions, but also their control through... more
While there has been increased attention to emotions and institutions, the role of denial and repression of emotions has been overlooked. We argue that not only the expression and the feeling of emotions, but also their control through denial contribute to stabilize institutional orders. The role denial plays is that of avoiding the emergence of disruptive emotions that might motivate a challenge to the status quo. Reflecting on the example of the livestock industry, we propose a theoretical model that identifies seeds for change in denied emotional contradictions in an integration of the cultural-relational and issue-based conceptions of organizational fields.
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Using a case study of the Italian spirit grappa, we examine status recategorization—the vertical extension and reclassification of an entire market category. Grappa was historically a low-status product, but in the 1970s one regional... more
Using a case study of the Italian spirit grappa, we examine status recategorization—the vertical extension and reclassification of an entire market category. Grappa was historically a low-status product, but in the 1970s one regional distiller took steps that led to a radical break from its traditional image, so that in just over a decade high-quality grappa became an exemplar of cultured Italian lifestyle and held a market position in the same class as cognac and whisky. We use this context to articulate ''theorization by allusion,'' which occurs through three mechanisms: category detachment—distancing a social object from its existing category; category emulation—presenting that object so that it hints at the practices of a high-status category; and category sublimation—shifting from local, field-specific references to broader, societal-level frames. This novel theorization is particularly appropriate for explaining change from low to high status because it avoids resistance to and contesta-tion of such change (by customers, media, and other sources) as a result of status imperatives, which may be especially strong in mature fields. Unlike prior studies that have examined the status of organizations within a category, ours foregrounds shifts in the status and social meaning of a market category itself.
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Through a comparative historical study of community pharmacy in the UK, Italy, Sweden and the USA, the authors examine what happens to institutional arrangements designed to resolve ongoing conflicts between institutional logics over... more
Through a comparative historical study of community pharmacy in the UK, Italy, Sweden and the USA, the authors examine what happens to institutional arrangements designed to resolve ongoing conflicts between institutional logics over extended periods of time. It is found that institutional arrangements can reflect the heterogeneity of multiple logics without resulting in hybridization or dominance. Because logics remain active, similar conflicts can reappear multiple times. It is found that the durability of the configurations of competing logics reflects the characteristics of the polities in which fields are embed- ded. The dominance of any societal institutional order leads to more stable field-level arrangements. The authors suggest that the metaphor of institutional knots and the re- lated image of institutional knotting are useful to capture aspects of this dynamic and to foreground the discursive and material work that allows multiple logics to coexist in local arrangements with variable durability.
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Status orders are critically important – yet shifts in the status and social meaning of a market category and of the organizations associated with it have been little investigated. In particular, there is limited understanding of how a... more
Status orders are critically important – yet shifts in the status and social meaning of a market category and of the organizations associated with it have been little investigated. In particular, there is limited understanding of how a deeply institutionalized low status category might extend its reach to high status positions. Instead, most studies have examined the status of organizations within a category. Status recategorization - i.e. the vertical extension and reclassification of an entire category, involving the displacement of deeply institutionalized cognitive understandings and their associated socio-cultural practices, has been neglected. Applying qualitative methods to a case study of grappa in Italy, we theorize how status recategorization might occur in mature contexts where the exigencies of status imperatives are pressingly felt. Our primary contribution is identification of a form of theorization – theorization by allusion – that involves the mechanisms of category detachment, emulation, and sublimation, and which is particularly appropriate for change involving status because of its singular avoidance of contestation and resistance.
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The coming of ‘‘brand society’’ and the onset of mediatization spur universitiesto strategize their visual identity and pay particular attention to their icon. Resulting frombranding initiatives, university icons are visual... more
The coming of ‘‘brand society’’ and the onset of mediatization spur universitiesto strategize their visual identity and pay particular attention to their icon. Resulting frombranding initiatives, university icons are visual self-representations and material-cum-symbolic forms of organizational identity. In this work we ask: What identity narratives areconveyed through the organizational iconography of universities? How do narrativescombine in this iconography? Drawing upon content analysis of Internet front-page iconsof 826 universities from 22 countries, we identify four identity narratives: guild-like classicnarrative, professional scientific narrative, localized narrative, and organizational narrative. Second, we show that such visual self-representations of university identity appear as products of broad historical themes. Last, we consider the relations between the four visualized identity narratives, showing evidence for iconographic sedimentation between the compatible guild-like classical, professional, and local-national narratives, along with iconographic abrasion of the logic of managed organization on the former. We discuss such findings in relation to the historical studies of the institution of the university
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his study investigates how universities brand themselves and in what ways visual self-representation varies cross-nationally. We trace differ-ences in the icons (emblems and logos) used in the Internet self-representationof 821... more
his study investigates how universities brand themselves and in what ways visual self-representation varies cross-nationally. We trace differ-ences in the icons (emblems and logos) used in the Internet self-representationof 821 universities and higher education institutions in 20 countries in 5continents. Emerging from content analyses of the icons were three main visual types (guilded, national, and organizational), arranged in five subtypes (classic, science, technology, local,abstract,and just-text). Generally, the visual expression of abstract or text-based organizational type is the least visually loaded, such lightness matching modern principles of corporate branding; the other types are rich in references to the national or guilded professional field of universities.We find that while the abstract organizational type of visual expression hasbecome dominant in Western countries, including France, Germany, and theUnited States, heterogeneity prevails in other nations such as Australia, Italy, orSouth Africa. We develop possible explanations of the observed distributionof types across countries and discuss the implication of our findings for world society institutionalism and the institutional logics approach
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Institutional theory, a building block of today’s organization studies, drawing from sociology, social psychology, political science, and economics, offers explanations for social order, social action and cultural persistence. It does it... more
Institutional theory, a building block of today’s organization studies, drawing from sociology, social psychology, political science, and economics, offers explanations for social order, social action and cultural persistence. It does it with regard both to the stability of social systems at various levels (i.e. organization, field, society, world), and to the effects of institutional processes in situations of change or of conflicting legal, cultural or normative jurisdictions. Institutional theory highlights the role of rules, norms, and typifications (cultural beliefs and scripts) in constraining and empowering social action and giving meaning to social life. Earlier contributions emphasized the stabilizing role of institutions through the constitution of structures, organizational forms, fields and social actors’ identities. More recent contributions draw attention to the concurrent role of institutions in situations of change, where interests, agency and power play their own role in reaching stability or domination.
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ABSTRACT Mannheim, Universität, Thesis (doctoral), 2001.
Giuseppe Delmestri is a researcher at the Istituto di Economia Aziendale Università Bocconi, Viale Isonzo 23, 20135 Milano, Italy. This study is based on his doctoral research project at the Universität Mannheim, Lehrstuhl für ABWL und... more
Giuseppe Delmestri is a researcher at the Istituto di Economia Aziendale Università Bocconi, Viale Isonzo 23, 20135 Milano, Italy. This study is based on his doctoral research project at the Universität Mannheim, Lehrstuhl für ABWL und Organization. The author wishes to thank ...
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In seinem Überblickswerk zur neo-institutionalistischen Organisationstheorie verweist (2001) darauf, dass Institutionalisten in ihren Arbeiten dazu tendieren, den Organisationen umgebenden institutionellen Rahmen als „monolithic and... more
In seinem Überblickswerk zur neo-institutionalistischen Organisationstheorie verweist (2001) darauf, dass Institutionalisten in ihren Arbeiten dazu tendieren, den Organisationen umgebenden institutionellen Rahmen als „monolithic and unified“ zu betrachten und die deterministischen Effekte von Institutionen zu stark zu betonen. Erst in jüngerer Zeit zeigt sich in der neo-institutionalistischen Organisationsforschung ein Trend, die nicht-deterministischen Aspekte und die interaktiven Momente institutioneller Prozesse stärker zu gewichten (s. a. Walgenbach und Meyer 2008). Um ein besseres Verständnis der Strukturen und Praktiken von multinationalen Unternehmungen zu erreichen, wird zunehmend gefordert, mehrere unterschiedliche theoretische Perspektiven in empirischen Analysen zu nutzen. (2006) etwa betonen, dass technisch-ökonomische und institutionelle Perspektiven in der Analyse multinationaler Unternehmen in Anschlag gebracht werden müssen. (2007) sehen insbesondere in der Kombination von Business-Systems-Ansatz und neo-institutionalistischer Organisationstheorie einen vielversprechenden Weg, um konfligierende institutionelle Anforderungen und deren Auswirkungen auf die Gestaltung und die Praktiken von Unternehmen zu untersuchen.
abstract We investigate what factors are required in order to succeed in project-based cultural industries. In particular, we focus on the effects of relational stability and reputation on two key dimensions of movies’ success: commercial... more
abstract We investigate what factors are required in order to succeed in project-based cultural industries. In particular, we focus on the effects of relational stability and reputation on two key dimensions of movies’ success: commercial success and artistic merit. We combine the two dimensions of films’ performance for a more accurate understanding of how authenticity and artistic merit are manufactured in the movie industry. We examine this question by analysing a sample of Italian films and focusing on the role of the film director. We argue that commercial success is favoured by a director's strong vertical ties (with producers and distributors) and economic reputation, while artistic merit is positively affected by a director's weak horizontal ties (with other creative partners) and artistic reputation. We propose an explanation in terms of varying degrees of task routineness and we use it to account for the divergence between our results and others in the cultural and organizational literature.