Business Management Blog

Christopher Marquis and Julie Battilana develop an institutional theory of how local communities continue to matter for organizations, and why community factors are particularly important in a global age. Since globalization has taken center stage in both practitioner and academic circles, research has shifted away from understanding effects of local factors.

In their paper, entitled Acting Globally but Thinking Locally? The Influence of Local Communities on Organizations, they try to redirect theoretical and empirical attention back to understanding the determinants and importance of local influences. They review classical and contemporary research from organizational theory, sociology and economics that have focused on geographic influences on organizations–adapting Scott’s influential three pillars model, including regulative, social-normative and cultural-cognitive features to conceptualize an overarching model of how communities influence organizations.

Their approach thus runs counter to the idea that globalization is a homogeneity-producing process and the view that society is moving from particularism to universalism. With globalization, not only has the local remained important, but in many ways local particularities have become more visible and salient, and so understanding these dynamics will be helpful for researchers addressing institutional isomorphism and change.

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