Collective institutional work: the case of Airbnb in Amsterdam,London and New York

ABSTRACT

Given that online platforms disrupt established industries and challenge existing institutions, they can only be successful if their innovation becomes both legal and legitimate. This requires ‘institutional work’ that changes perceptions and regulations within society. Rather than only focussing on the online platform as the sole agent engaging in institutional work, our study analyses institutional work as a collective process. We investigate the case of home-sharing platform Airbnb and the process of institutional change its introduction prompted regarding short-term rental in Amsterdam, London and New York. We find, contrary to the popular view of online platforms as disruptive entrepreneurs, that the platform mainly focusses on creating new institutions rather than disrupting existing ones, and that users and non-users undertake most of the institutional work activities. We also show that different types of actors carry out different types of institutional work suggesting that the process of institutional work is highly distributed.     

基于外部压力的我国上市公司环境信息披露

以我国沪市A股制造业上市公司为研究样本,从外部压力角度,分析合法性压力和投资者关注度对企业环境信息披露行为的影响。研究发现：合法性压力越大,上市公司越有可能进行环境信息披露;投资者关注度对上市公司环境信息披露呈现微弱正相关关系,但在统计上不显著。     

Distributing prejudice unequally: Do Whites direct their prejudice toward strongly identified minorities?

Across 6 studies, Whites expressed more negative attitudes toward strongly identified racial minorities than toward weakly identified minorities. Whites who personally endorsed worldviews that legitimize the status hierarchy were particularly likely to express negative attitudes toward strongly identified minorities relative to weakly identified minorities, whereas Whites who personally rejected status-legitimizing worldviews displayed the opposite pattern. In addition, Whites' biases against strongly identified minorities dissipated when strongly identified minorities expressed strong endorsement of status-legitimizing worldviews. These studies suggest that Whites do not distribute their prejudicial attitudes equally among all members of minority groups and that some subsets of minorities (the strongly identified) might bear the brunt of racial prejudice. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Theorizing the concept and role of assurance in information systems security

Assurance has different meanings, depending on the source, audience, and interpretation. We applied institutional theory and the Capability Maturity Model to conceptualize assurance: its symbolic aspects to gain social acceptance, and its substantive aspects to improve organizational capability and effectiveness in performing IS security risk management (SRM). An empirical study examined assurance-seeking behavior and outcomes for regulatory compliance. Some degree of process maturity in SRM was found necessary for producing convincing verbal accounts and compliance evidence. Findings suggest that unless an organization's assurance claims are based on achieving Level 4 maturity, assurance will be based more on symbolism than effectiveness.     

Constructing qualitative knowledge in psychology: Students and faculty negotiate the social context of inquiry.

On the basis of interviews with 13 graduate students and 21 faculty from diverse areas of Canadian departments of psychology, I report researchers' views on qualitative methods in terms of social historical, systemic influences on constructing psychological knowledge. These ideological and structural systems include the historical place of qualitative research in scientific psychology, education in alternative research methods, the socioeconomic reward system for faculty, and the potential for changes in the discipline that could facilitate the legitimation of qualitative methods. The major finding was the desire for methodological pluralism, even among mainstream faculty. In light of the researchers' textured commentaries, I discuss the fate of attempts by some psychologists to expand traditional investigative boundaries, the potential for a shift in the discipline to methodological pluralism, and the implications for the education of undergraduate and graduate students in psychological research. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Language/Action Meets Organisational Semiotics: Situating Conversations with Norms

Virtual professional communities require a strong co-evolution of their social and information systems. To ensure that the evolutionary process of their socio-technical systems is viable, a legitimate user-driven specification process is required. Such a process helps to ensure the meaningfulness and acceptability of specification changes. A specification method supporting this process should be grounded in the neo-humanist paradigm so that subjectivist and conflict aspects receive proper attention. Two related subfields of information science that have roots in this paradigm are the Language/Action Perspective (LAP) and organisational semiotics (OS). The RENISYS method for specification of the socio-technical systems of virtual professional communities is presented. It combines aspects from both LAP and OS, by building on work done in the DEMO (LAP) and MEASUR (OS) methodologies. It thus provides an operationalization of neo-humanist ideals that can help to extend theoretical and empirical research.     

制度性同形：大学行政化的新制度主义解读

我国大学的行政化乱象主要表现为大学在组织目标设定、权力结构安排、资源利益分配、组织整合机制等方面趋同于行政机构。从新制度主义组织分析的视角来看,这种现象实质上是大学在来自环境的合法性压力下趋同于行政化的制度环境的一种＂制度性同形＂,它反映了特定的制度规则、文化框架与利益博弈对大学的共同制约。政治与行政层面的规制性要素、扭曲了的规范形态和文化—认知性规则以及行政主导的资源与利益配置,分别构成了大学行政化的重要制度归因、深层文化根源与关键利益触媒。     

从政治合法性谈“执政为民”

政权合法性是执政党有效执政的前提。“执政为民”表明了我党执政权力的公众认可,是我党在政治现代化过程中对政治合法性的理论建构。依法行政是“执政为民”在制度上的安排,是“执政为民”最终的落脚点。     

Consulting in the midst of differences and similarities: Related tensions and complexities.

As a context for exploring the evolution of his work in the diversity arena, the author briefly describes community and academic milieus that have shaped his personal development and also his professional approach to diversity. He also shares some of the challenges he has encountered going about his consulting endeavors and managing client-consultant relationships. The author reviews what his responses to these challenges have been, and how the milieus that influenced his development have informed his strategies for managing client-consultant interactions. He concludes by recommending that consultants view relationship challenges with their clients as diversity issues and advocates that consultants practice "what they preach" about diversity to address these challenges--that is, that they should apply their diversity models to these difficulties. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)