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broader society and to which employees subscribe outside the
firm

● Mimetic: E.g., the drive to higher quality and copying
management fads including the preference of most firms to wait
for new ideas to be proven before adopting them.
This overwhelming impact of context on the strategy of embedded
systems (and beliefs) and can be seen as a cousin of Weber's idea of
the “Iron Cage” that confines the individual in a web of bureaucratic
restrictions.

Legitimacy
By conforming to the social framework, an organization achieves
legitimacy in the community. This legitimacy has real strategic
value (Dacin, 1997; Deephouse, 1996; Suchman, 1995; and see
Nonlinearity); indeed, a lot of the actions of organizations can be
represented as a struggle for greater legitimacy over competitors (Kay,
xxx). An organization that does not conform can not only place itself
at legal risk but has to 'explain' itself to the customer, regulatory, and
competitors communities. Unless this effort provides considerable
strategic value through differentiation, it represents a heavy cost and it
unlikely to be 'worth it'.

The 'way things are done' differs as between local contexts. Thus the
institutionalized ideas in the West differ from those in the Eastern and
African traditions. Behaviors that may be 'acceptable' in one local
context may be subject to severe rebuke in another; example,
censorship, and bribery of officials. Obeying institutional pressures in
one context may open an organization to attack by activists or the law
in another context.

Links to Other Constructs

Emergence: It is the Emergence of new functionality that kicks off
the need to adapt

Diffusion: It is the diffusion of ideas through the construct that
drives the need to adapt at all levels

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