Toward a Discursive Approach to the Hybridization of Practice: Insights from the Case of Servitization in France

Olivier  Cristofini

doi:10.37725/mgmt.v24i2.7796

Olivier Cristofini Sorbonne Business School, Université Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne, Paris, France

DOI: https://doi.org/10.37725/mgmt.v24i2.7796

Keywords: Discourse, Descending hierarchical classification, Theorization, Hybrid organizing, Hybrid organizations

Abstract

Hybrid practices incorporate conflicting institutional logics and are recognized for their capacity to cope with societal problems. Previous literature has concentrated on the hybridization mechanisms inherent in organizations. This focus on an entity has diverted attention away from equivalent mechanisms that operate in wider social systems – specifically, in organizational fields. In this article, I show how discourses can enable such mechanisms. To that end, descending hierarchical classifications were performed on media outlets to study the discourse on the emergence of servitization in France. The results reveal two original mechanisms enabled by discourses and supporting the hybridization of the practice under study: (1) practice renaming and (2) the pivotal role played by the institutional logic of environmental protection. Based on these results, I propose a model detailing how institutional logics and discourses interact to bring about a hybrid practice. This model offers original insights to develop knowledge on hybrid organizing and promote practices that realign business goals with those associated with social welfare and preservation of the natural environment.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

References

Abbott, A. (1988). The system of professions: An essay on the division of labor. The University of Chicago Press Books.

Abrahamson, E. & Fairchild, G. (1999). Management fashion: Lifecycles, triggers, and collective learning processes. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44, 708–740. doi: 10.2307/2667053

Aghion, P. & Bolton, P. (1987). Contracts as a barrier to entry. The American Economic Review, 77(3), 388–401.

Ansari, S. (Shaz), Wijen, F. & Gray, B. (2013). Constructing a climate change logic: An institutional perspective on the ‘tragedy of the commons.’ Organization Science, 24, 1014–1040. doi: 10.1287/orsc.1120.0799

Avadikyan, A., Lhuillery, S. & Negassi, S. (2016). Technological innovation, organizational change, and product-related services. M@n@gement, 19(4), 277–304. doi: 10.3917/mana.194.0277

Baines, T. S., Lightfoot, H. W., Shehab, E., Roy, R. et al. (2009). The servitization of manufacturing: A review of literature and reflection on future challenges. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, 20, 547–567.

Bansal, P. & Clelland, I. (2004). Talking trash: Legitimacy, impression management, and unsystematic risk in the context of the natural environment. Academy of Management Journal, 47, 93–103. doi: 10.2307/20159562

Barley, S. R. (1990). Images of imaging: Notes on doing longitudinal field work. Organization Science, 1, 220–247.

Barley, S. R. & Tolbert, P. S. (1997). Institutionalization and structuration: Studying the links between action and institution. Organization Studies, 18, 93–117.

Battilana, J. (2018). Cracking the organizational challenge of pursuing joint social and financial goals: Social enterprise as a laboratory to understand hybrid organizing. M@n@gement, 21(4), 1278–1305. doi: 10.3917/mana.214.1278

Battilana, J., Besharov, M. & Mitzinneck, B. (2017). On hybrids and hybrid organizing: A review and roadmap for future research. In R. Greenwood, C. Oliver, T. B. Lawrence & R. E. Meyer (Eds.), The Sage handbook of organizational institutionalism (pp. 133–169). Sage.

Battilana, J. & Dorado, S. (2010). Building sustainable hybrid organizations: The case of commercial microfinance organizations. Academy of Management Journal, 53, 1419–1440.

Battilana, J. & Lee, M. (2014). Advancing research on hybrid organizing – Insights from the study of social enterprises. The Academy of Management Annals, 8, 397–441. doi: 10.5465/19416520.2014.893615

Battilana, J., Lee, M., Walker, J. & Dorsey, C. (2012). In search of the hybrid ideal. Stanford Social Innovation Review, 10, 50–55.

Blanc, A. & Huault, I. (2018). The maintenance of macro-vocabularies in an industry: The case of France’s recorded music industry. Industrial Marketing Management, 80, 280–295. doi: 10.1016/j.indmarman.2018.06.004

Boehm, M. & Thomas, O. (2013). Looking beyond the rim of one’s teacup: A multidisciplinary literature review of product-service systems in information systems, business management, and engineering end design. Journal of Cleaner Production, 51, 245–260.

Boulding, K. E. & Jarrett, H. (1966). The economics of the coming spaceship earth: Environmental quality in a growing economy (pp. 3–14). Essays from the Sixth Resources for the Future Forum on Environmental Quality in a Growing Economy. Johns Hopkins University Press.

Bourg, D. & Buclet, N. (2005). Changer la consommation dans le sens du développement durable: la voix de l’économie de fonctionnalité. Futuribles, 313, 27–37. doi: 10.1051/futur:200531327

Boyd, B., Henning, N., Reyna, E., Wang, D. et al. (2017). Hybrid organizations: New business models for environmental leadership. Routledge.

Burke, K. (1935). Permanence and change: An anatomy of purpose. New York Republic.

Bustinza, O. F., Bigdeli, A. Z., Baines, T. & Elliot, C. (2015). Servitization and competitive advantage: The importance of organizational structure and value chain position. Research-Technology Management, 58, 53–60.

Clemente, M. & Roulet, T. J. (2015). Public opinion as a source of deinstitutionalization: A ‘spiral of silence’ approach. Academy of Management Review, 40, 96–114. doi: 10.5465/amr.2013.0279

Crozet, M. & Milet, E. (2014). The servitization of French manufacturing firms. Retrieved from https://ideas.repec.org/p/cii/cepidt/2014-10.html

Dalpiaz, E., Rindova, V. & Ravasi, D. (2016). Combining logics to transform organizational agency: Blending industry and art at Alessi. Administrative Science Quarterly, 61, 347–392.

Daudigeos, T., Boutinot, A. & Jaumier, S. (2013). Taking stock of institutional complexity: Anchoring a pool of institutional logics into the interinstitutional system with a descending hierarchical analysis. In M. Lounsbury & E. Boxenbaum (Eds.), Research in the sociology of organizations: Vol. Volume 39B. Institutional logics in action, part B (pp. 319–350). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Daudigeos, T., Boutinot, A. & Jaumier, S. (2015). The historical study of institutional change over long periods: Pitfalls and perspectives. A commentary on the article by Hélène Peton and Stéphan Pezé. M@n@gement, 18, 254–260. doi: 10.3917/mana.183.0254

D’Aunno, T., Succi, M. & Alexander, J. A. (2000). The role of institutional and market forces in divergent organizational change. Administrative Science Quarterly, 45, 679–703.

Deephouse, D. L. (1996). Does isomorphism legitimate? Academy of Management Journal, 39, 1024–1039.

DiMaggio, P. & Mullen, A. L. (2000). Enacting community in progressive America: Civic rituals in national music week, 1924. Poetics, 27, 135–162. doi: 10.1016/S0304-422X(99)00023-6

DiMaggio, P. & Powell, W. (1983). The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American Sociological Review, 48, 147–160.

Dobbin, F. & Dowd, T. J. (1997). How policy shapes competition: Early railroad foundings in Massachusetts. Administrative Science Quarterly, 42(3), 501–529.

Dowling, J. & Pfeffer, J. (1975). Organizational legitimacy: Social values and organizational behavior. Pacific Sociological Review, 18, 122–136.

Dunn, M. B. & Jones, C. (2010). Institutional logics and institutional pluralism: The contestation of care and science logics in medical education, 1967–2005. Administrative Science Quarterly, 55, 114–149. doi: 10.2189/asqu.2010.55.1.114

du Tertre, C. (2008). Modèles économiques d’entreprise, dynamique macroéconomique. développement durable. In G. Gaglio, J. Lauriol & C. du Tertre (Eds.), L’économie de la fonctionnalité: une voie nouvelle vers un développement durable (pp. 21–43). Octarès Edition. ISBN: 9782915346930.

Erkman, S. (1997). Industrial ecology: An historical view. Journal of Cleaner Production, 5, 1–10.

Fiss, P. C. & Hirsch, P. M. (2005). The discourse of globalization: Framing and sensemaking of an emerging concept. American Sociological Review, 70, 29–52. doi: 10.1177/000312240507000103

Fligstein, N. (1996). Markets as politics: A political-cultural approach to market institutions. American Sociological Review, 61(4), 656–673.

Folz, J.-M., Nicklaus, D. & Cros, C. (2008). Le Grenelle Environnement – Chantier N°31 Groupe d’étude ‘Economie de Fonctionnalité’ – Rapport final au Ministre d’Etat, Ministre de l’Energie, du Développement Durable, et de l’Aménagement du Territoire. French Ministry of Ecology.

Foucault, M. (1979). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison. Penguin UK.

Frederick, W. C. (1995). Values, nature, and culture in the American corporation. Oxford University Press.

Friedland, R. (2017). The value of institutional logics. In G. Krücken, C. Mazza, R. Meyer & P. Walgenbach (Eds.), New themes in institutional analysis (pp. 12–50). Edward Elgar Publishing.

Friedland, R. & Alford, R. R. (1991). Bringing society back in: Symbols, practices and institutional contradictions. The University of Chicago Press.

Fuchs, V. (1968). The service economy. Columbia University Press.

Gaglio, G., Lauriol, J. & du Tertre, C. (2011). L’économie de la fonctionnalité: une voie nouvelle vers un développement durable? Octarès Editions.

Ghisellini, P., Cialani, C. & Ulgiati, S. (2016). A review on circular economy: The expected transition to a balanced interplay of environmental and economic systems. Journal of Cleaner Production, 114, 11–32. doi: 10.1016/j.jclepro.2015.09.007

Goodrick, E. & Reay, T. (2011). Constellations of institutional logics: Changes in the professional work of pharmacists. Work & Occupations, 38, 372–416.

Green, Jr., S. E. & Li, Y. (2011). Rhetorical institutionalism: Language, agency, and structure in institutional theory since Alvesson 1993. Journal of Management Studies, 48, 1662–1697.

Greenwood, R., Díaz, A. M., Li, S. X. & Lorente, J. C. (2010). The multiplicity of institutional logics and the heterogeneity of organizational responses. Organization Science, 21, 521–539. doi: 10.1287/orsc.1090.0453

Greenwood, R., Raynard, M., Kodeih, F., Micelotta, E. R. et al. (2011). Institutional complexity and organizational responses. Academy of Management Annals, 5, 317–371.

Greenwood, R., Suddaby, R. & Hinings, C. R. (2002). Theorizing change: The role of professional associations in the transformation of institutionalized fields. Academy of Management Journal, 45, 58–80. doi: 10.2307/3069285

Haigh, N. & Hoffman, A. J. (2014). The new heretics: Hybrid organizations and the challenges they present to corporate sustainability. Organization & Environment, 27, 223–241.

Hardy, C. & Maguire, S. (2010). Discourse, field-configuring events, and change in organizations and institutional fields: Narratives of DDT and the Stockholm convention. Academy of Management Journal, 53, 1365–1392.

Hoffman, A. J. (1999). Institutional evolution and change: Environmentalism and the US chemical industry. Academy of Management Journal, 42, 351–371. doi: 10.5465/257008

Huxham, C. & Vangen, S. (1996). Working together: Key themes in the management of relationships between public and non-profit organizations. International Journal of Public Sector Management, 9, 5–17.

Hybels, R., Ryan, A. & Barley, S. (1994). Alliances, legitimation and the founding rates in the US biotechnology field, 1971–1989. Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management.

Jay, J. (2013). Navigating paradox as a mechanism of change and innovation in hybrid organizations. Academy of Management Journal, 56, 137–159. doi: 10.5465/amj.2010.0772

Jones, C. & Livne-Tarandach, R. (2008). Designing a frame: Rhetorical strategies of architects. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 29(8), 1075–1099.

Jones, C., Maoret, M., Massa, F. G. & Svejenova, S. (2012). Rebels with a cause: Formation, contestation, and expansion of the de novo category ‘modern architecture,’ 1870–1975. Organization Science, 23, 1523–1545. doi: 10.1287/orsc.1110.0701

Kraatz, M. S. & Block, E. S. (2008). Organizational implications of institutional pluralism. In R. Greenwood, C. Oliver, R. Suddaby & K. Sahlin-Andersson (Eds.), The Sage handbook of organizational institutionalism (840, pp. 243–275). Editions?

Krieg-Planque, A. (2012). Analyser les discours institutionnels. Armand Colin.

Krippendorff, K. (2004). Content analysis: An introduction to its methodology. Sage.

Lallemand-Stempak, N. (2017). Rethinking hybrids’ challenges: The case of French mutual insurance companies. M@n@gement, 20, 336–367. doi: 10.3917/mana.204.0336

Langley, A. (1999). Strategies for theorizing from process data. Academy of Management Review, 24, 691–710.

Lauriol J., 2008, Développement durable et économie de la fonctionnalité: une stratégie renouvelée pour de nouveaux enjeux. In L’économie de la fonctionnalité, une voie pour articuler dynamique économique et Développement durable. Enjeux et débats. Publication du Club « Économie de la fonctionnalité et développement durable », Novembre, p. 11–28.

Lawrence, T. B. & Phillips, N. (2004). From Moby Dick to Free Willy: Macro-cultural discourse and institutional entrepreneurship in emerging institutional fields. Organization, 11, 689–711. doi: 10.1177/1350508404046457

Lawrence, T. B., Suddaby, R. & Leca, B. (2009). Institutional work: Actors and agency in institutional studies of organizations. Cambridge University Press.

Lee, M.-D. P. & Lounsbury, M. (2015). Filtering institutional logics: Community logic variation and differential responses to the institutional complexity of toxic waste. Organization Science, 26, 847–866.

Leigh Star, S. (2010). This is not a boundary object: Reflections on the origin of a concept. Science, Technology, & Human Values, 35, 601–617. doi: 10.1177/0162243910377624

Lightfoot, H., Baines, T. & Smart, P. (2013). The servitization of manufacturing: A systematic literature review of interdependent trends. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 33, 1408–1434.

Loewenstein, J. & Ocasio, W. C. (2005). Vocabularies of organizing: How language links culture, cognition, and action in organizations. McCombs Working Paper No. OSSM-03-05, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=813344 or doi: 10.2139/ssrn.813344

Loewenstein, J., Ocasio, W. & Jones, C. (2012). Vocabularies and vocabulary structure: A new approach linking categories, practices, and institutions. The Academy of Management Annals, 6, 41–86. doi: 10.5465/19416520.2012.660763

Lok, J. (2010). Institutional logics as identity projects. Academy of Management Journal, 53, 1305–1335. doi: 10.5465/amj.2010.57317866

Lounsbury, M. (2002). Institutional transformation and status mobility: The professionalization of the field of finance. Academy of Management Journal, 45, 255–266.

Lovelock, C. & Gummesson, E. (2004). Whither services marketing? In search of a new paradigm and fresh perspectives. Journal of Service Research, 7, 20–41.

Maguire, S. & Hardy, C. (2006). The emergence of new global institutions: A discursive perspective. Organization Studies, 27, 7–29. doi: 10.1177/0170840606061807

Maguire, S., Hardy, C. & Lawrence, T. B. (2004). Institutional entrepreneurship in emerging fields: HIV/AIDS treatment advocacy in Canada. Academy of Management Journal, 47, 657–679.

Marquis, C. & Lounsbury, M. (2007). Vive la résistance: Competing logics and the consolidation of U.S. community banking. Academy of Management Journal, 50, 799–820.

Mars, M. M. & Lounsbury, M. (2009). Raging against or with the private marketplace? Logic hybridity and eco-entrepreneurship. Journal of Management Inquiry, 18, 4–13. doi: 10.1177/1056492608328234

McCombs, M. E. & Shaw, D. L. (1972). The agenda-setting function of mass media. Public Opinion Quarterly, 36, 176–187.

McConnell-Ginet, S. (2008). Words in the world: How and why meanings can matter. Language, 84(3), 497–527. doi: 10.1353/lan.0.0040

Meyer, J. W. & Rowan, B. (1977). Institutionalized organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony. American Journal of Sociology, 83, 340–363.

Mills, C. W. (1939). Language, logic, and culture. American Sociological Review, 4, 670–680.

Mills, C. W. (1940). Situated actions and vocabularies of motive. American Sociological Review, 5, 904–913.

Mohr, J. W. (1998). Measuring meaning structures. Annual Review of Sociology, 24, 345–370. doi: 10.1146/annurev.soc.24.1.345

Mont, O. K. (2002). Clarifying the concept of product–service system. Journal of Cleaner Production, 10, 237–245.

Murray, A., Skene, K. & Haynes, K. (2017). The circular economy: An interdisciplinary exploration of the concept and application in a global Context. Journal of Business Ethics, 140, 369–380. doi: 10.1007/s10551-015-2693-2

Neely, A. (2009). Exploring the financial consequences of the servitization of manufacturing. Operations Management Research, 1, 103–118.

Nigam, A. & Ocasio, W. (2010). Event attention, environmental sensemaking, and change in institutional logics: An inductive analysis of the effects of public attention to Clinton’s health care reform initiative. Organization Science, 21, 823–841. doi: 10.1287/orsc.1090.0490

Ocasio, W., Mauskapf, M. & Steele, C. (2016). History, society, and institutions: The role of collective memory in the emergence and evolution of societal logics. Academy of Management Review, 41, 676–699.

Ocasio, W. & Radoynovska, N. (2016). Strategy and commitments to institutional logics: Organizational heterogeneity in business models and governance. Strategic Organization, 14(4), 287–309. doi: 10.1177/1476127015625040

Oliver, C. (1991). Strategic responses to institutional processes. Academy of Management Review, 16, 145–179. doi: 10.5465/amr.1991.4279002

Pache, A.-C. & Santos, F. (2010). When worlds collide: The internal dynamics of organizational responses to conflicting institutional demands. Academy of Management Review, 35, 455–476.

Pache, A.-C. & Santos, F. (2013). Inside the hybrid organization: Selective coupling as a response to competing institutional logics. Academy of Management Journal, 56, 972–1001. doi: 10.5465/amj.2011.0405

Phillips, N., Lawrence, T. B. & Hardy, C. (2004). Discourse and Institutions. Academy of Management Review, 29, 635–652.

Phillips, N. & Oswick, C. (2012). Organizational discourse: Domains, debates, and directions. Academy of Management Annals, 6, 435–481.

Polsby, N. W. (1980). Community power and political theory: A further look at problems of evidence and inference. Yale University Press.

Rao, H., Monin, P. & Durand, R. (2003). Institutional change in Toque Ville: Nouvelle cuisine as an identity movement in French gastronomy. American Journal of Sociology, 108, 795–843. doi: 10.1086/367917

Ratinaud, P. & Marchand, P. (2012). Application de la méthode ALCESTE à de ‘gros’ corpus et stabilité des ‘mondes lexicaux’: Analyse du ‘CableGate’ avec IRaMuTeQ. Actes Des IIèmes Journées Internationales d’Analyse Statistique des Données Textuelles, 835–844.

Reay, T. & Jones, C. (2016). Qualitatively capturing institutional logics. Strategic Organization, 14, 441–454.

Reinert, M. (1983). Une méthode de classification descendante hiérarchique: application à l’analyse lexicale par contexte. Les Cahiers de l’analyse des Données, 8, 187–198.

Rothenberg, S. (2007). Sustainability through servicizing. MIT Sloan Management Review, 48(2), 83–89.

Roulet, T. (2015). ‘What good is Wall Street?’ Institutional contradiction and the diffusion of the stigma over the finance industry. Journal of Business Ethics, 130, 389–402. doi: 10.1007/s10551-014-2237-1

Roulet, T. J. & Clemente, M. (2018). Let’s open the media’s black box: The media as a set of heterogeneous actors and not only as a homogenous ensemble. Academy of Management Review, 43, 327–329.

Sewell, W. H. (1996). Historical events as transformations of structures: Inventing revolution at the Bastille. Theory and Society, 25, 841–881. doi: 10.1007/BF00159818

Smets, M., Morris, T. & Greenwood, R. (2012). From practice to field: A multilevel model of practice-driven institutional change. Academy of Management Journal, 55, 877–904. doi: 10.5465/amj.2010.0013

Smith, W. K. & Besharov, M. L. (2019). Bowing before dual gods: How structured flexibility sustains organizational hybridity. Administrative Science Quarterly, 64, 1–44.

Smith, W. K., Gonin, M. & Besharov, M. L. (2013). Managing social-business tensions: A review and research agenda for social enterprise. Business Ethics Quarterly, 23, 407–442. doi: 10.5840/beq201323327

Stahel, W. (2010). The performance economy. Springer.

Stahel, W. R. (2016). The circular economy. Nature News, 531, 435.

Strang, D. & Meyer, J. W. (1993). Institutional conditions for diffusion. Theory and Society, 22, 487–511. doi: 10.1007/BF00993595

Suddaby, R. & Greenwood, R. (2005). Rhetorical strategies of legitimacy. Administrative Science Quarterly, 50, 35–67.

Svenningsen-Berthélem, V., Boxenbaum, E. & Ravasi, D. (2018). Individual responses to multiple logics in hybrid organizing: The role of structural position. M@n@gement, 21(4), 1306–1328. doi: 10.3917/mana.214.1306

Thornton, P. H. (2004). Markets from culture: Institutional logics and organizational decisions in higher education publishing. Stanford University Press.

Thornton, P. H., Jones, C. & Kury, K. (2005). Institutional logics and institutional change in organizations: Transformation in accounting, architecture, and publishing. In C. Jones & P. H. Thornton (Eds.), Transformation in cultural industries (pp. 125–170). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Thornton, P. H. & Ocasio, W. (1999). Institutional logics and the historical contingency of power in organizations: Executive succession in the higher education publishing industry, 1958–1990. American Journal of Sociology, 105, 801–843.

Thornton, P. H., Ocasio, W. & Lounsbury, M. (2012). The institutional logics perspective: A new approach to culture, structure, and process. Oxford University Press.

Tracey, P. & Phillips, N. (2007). The distinctive challenge of educating social entrepreneurs: A postscript and rejoinder to the special issue on entrepreneurship education. Academy of Management Learning & Education, 6, 264–271. doi: 10.5465/amle.2007.25223465

Tracey, P., Phillips, N. & Jarvis, O. (2011). Bridging institutional entrepreneurship and the creation of new organizational forms: A multilevel model. Organization Science, 22, 60–80.

Tukker, A. (2004). Eight types of product–service system: Eight ways to sustainability? Experiences from SusProNet. Business Strategy and the Environment, 13, 246–260. doi: 10.1002/bse.414

Tukker, A. (2015). Product services for a resource-efficient and circular economy – A review. Journal of Cleaner Production, 97, 76–91.

Vandermerwe, S. & Rada, J. (1988). Servitization of business: Adding value by adding services. European Management Journal, 6, 314–324. doi: 10.1016/0263-2373(88)90033-3

Ventresca, M. J. & Mohr, J. (2002). Archival methods in organization analysis. In J. A. C. Baum (Ed.), Companion to organizations (pp. 805–828). Wiley.

Weber, K., Patel, H. & Heinze, K. L. (2013). From cultural repertoires to institutional logics: A content-analytic method. In M. Lounsbury & E. Boxenbaum (Eds.), Institutional logics in action, Part B (pp. 351–382). Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Wise, R. & Baumgartner, P. (1999). Go downstream: The new profit imperative in manufacturing. Harvard Business Review, 77(5), 133–141.

Wooten, M. & Hoffman, A. (2016). Organizational fields past, present and future. And after Ross School of Business Working Paper No. 1311. Ann University of Michigan.

York, J. G., Hargrave, T. J. & Pacheco, D. F. (2016a). Converging winds: Logic hybridization in the Colorado wind energy field. Academy of Management Journal, 59, 579–610. doi: 10.5465/amj.2013.0657

York, J. G., O’Neil, I. & Sarasvathy, S. D. (2016b). Exploring environmental entrepreneurship: Identity coupling, venture goals, and stakeholder incentives: Exploring environmental entrepreneurship. Journal of Management Studies, 53, 695–737. doi: 10.1111/joms.12198