For Good Measure: The Role of Valuation Devices in Institutional Change

• In Event: 153 - Regular Session. Organizations: Institutional Change & Entrepreneurship

Abstract

What are the conditions of institutional change given the paradox of embedded agency? Scholars have noted that institutional entrepreneurs must engage in the act of theorization, both specifying a diagnosis of a problem that can be best solved by their institutional innovation and convincing key audiences of the merit of the proposed change. Yet, little attention has been given to how these advocates demonstrate the value of their innovation to external advocates beyond attention to their use of rhetorical framing. In this paper, we argue that institutional entrepreneurs also can establish the value of their institutional innovation through the formation of a valuation device. Using a case study, we analyze how institutional entrepreneurs constructed a valuation device in order to quantitatively measure the value of a new organizational form in order to demonstrate its worth to key stakeholders in the field.

Authors

• Emily A. Barman, Boston University

• Matthew Hall, London School of Economics and Political Science

• Yuval Millo, University of Leicester