Diffusion of student business incubators: an institutional theory perspective on the emergence of a hybrid organizational form

TY - CONF

T1 - Diffusion of student business incubators

T2 - DRUID15 Conference

AU - Hjortsø, Carsten Nico Portefée

AU - Honig, Benson

AU - Riis, Nina Louise Fynbo

N1 - Conference code: 2015

PY - 2015

Y1 - 2015

N2 - This paper undertakes a longitudinal examination of the diffusion of a relatively new organizational activity - university student business incubators - by studying the processes through which actors grounded in three different institutional logics interact in the organizational field of higher education. Applying neo-institutional theory, we examine the development of student incubation activities in the field of general state-funded Danish universities. We review institutional pressures from the political sphere that led to the diffusion of student incubation, introducing a three-phase process involving experimentation, demonstration, and integration. Our study shows that universities’ responses changed over the period from initial coercive isomorphism and structural and functional decoupling of incubation from core activities towards a higher degree of integration, although still loosely coupled. The process was facilitated by the institutional logic of entrepreneurial culture that integrated elements of the commercial and classic university logics. We find that the diffusion and adaptation process were mainly influenced by resources available, organizational constituencies mobilized, discretional power, and congruity between competing logics. Our findings have theoretical and empirical implications for the development of entrepreneurial promotion activities associated with pre-existing institutional structures as well as the political/institutional dimensions of entrepreneurship relative to the role of the contemporary university.

AB - This paper undertakes a longitudinal examination of the diffusion of a relatively new organizational activity - university student business incubators - by studying the processes through which actors grounded in three different institutional logics interact in the organizational field of higher education. Applying neo-institutional theory, we examine the development of student incubation activities in the field of general state-funded Danish universities. We review institutional pressures from the political sphere that led to the diffusion of student incubation, introducing a three-phase process involving experimentation, demonstration, and integration. Our study shows that universities’ responses changed over the period from initial coercive isomorphism and structural and functional decoupling of incubation from core activities towards a higher degree of integration, although still loosely coupled. The process was facilitated by the institutional logic of entrepreneurial culture that integrated elements of the commercial and classic university logics. We find that the diffusion and adaptation process were mainly influenced by resources available, organizational constituencies mobilized, discretional power, and congruity between competing logics. Our findings have theoretical and empirical implications for the development of entrepreneurial promotion activities associated with pre-existing institutional structures as well as the political/institutional dimensions of entrepreneurship relative to the role of the contemporary university.

M3 - Paper

Y2 - 15 June 2015 through 17 September 2015

ER -