The Liminality of Trajectory Shifts in Institutional Entrepreneurship

Ola Henfridsson () and Youngjin Yoo ()
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Ola Henfridsson: Warwick Business School, University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL, United Kingdom
Youngjin Yoo: Fox School of Business, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19122

Organization Science, 2014, vol. 25, issue 3, 932-950

Abstract: In this paper, we develop a process model of trajectory shifts in institutional entrepreneurship. We focus on the liminal periods experienced by institutional entrepreneurs when they, unlike the rest of the organization, recognize limits in the present and seek to shift a familiar past into an unfamiliar and uncertain future. Such periods involve a situation where the new possible future, not yet fully formed, exists side-by-side with established innovation trajectories. Trajectory shifts are moments of truth for institutional entrepreneurs, but little is known about the underlying mechanisms of how entrepreneurs reflectively deal with liminality to conceive and bring forth new innovation trajectories. Our in-depth case study research at CarCorp traces three such mechanisms (reflective dissension, imaginative projection, and eliminatory exploration) and builds the basis for understanding the liminality of trajectory shifts. The paper offers theoretical implications for the institutional entrepreneurship literature.

Keywords: institutional entrepreneurship; innovation trajectory; liminality; path creation; trajectory shifts; digital technology; process model; mechanisms; reflective dissension; imaginative projection; eliminatory exploration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (22)

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