•We develop four mechanisms that can lead to under- and/or over-statement of diffusion.•We compare three diffusion measures for “green chemistry”: keywords, index terms, and expert assessment.•These ...measures reveal dramatic differences in diffusion magnitude, timing, demography, and collaborations.•We point to challenges with existing work and make suggestions for future research.
Although innovation diffusion is a central topic in policy and strategy, its measurement remains difficult – particularly in cases where the innovation is a complex and possibly ambiguous practice. In this paper, we develop four theoretical mechanisms that may bias diffusion markers by leading to the understatement and/or overstatement of diffusion at different points in time. Employing the case of “green chemistry,” we then compare three different diffusion markers – keywords, database index terms, and domain expert assessments – and we demonstrate how they lead to differing conclusions about the magnitude and timing of diffusion, organizational demography, publication outlets, and collaboration. We also provide suggestive evidence of extensive “greenwashing” by particular organization types and in particular countries. Building on these findings, we point to potential challenges with existing diffusion studies, and we make a case for the incorporation of practitioners in construct measurement and for the integration of comparative metrics in diffusion studies.
We investigate the emergence and growth of "green chemistry"—an effort by chemists to encourage other chemists to reduce the health, safety, and environmental impacts of chemical products and ...processes—to explore how occupational members, absent external triggers for change, influence how their peers do their work. Using extensive interviews, archival data, and observations, we find that advocates simultaneously advanced different frames that specified the utility of making the change: (1) a normalizing frame, positioning green chemistry as consistent with mainstream chemistry innovation; (2) a moralizing frame, positioning it as an ethical imperative; and (3) a pragmatizing frame, positioning it as a tool that could help chemists tackle problems they encountered in their day-today work. Each frame resonated differently with chemists in their various occupational roles. Though this pluralistic approach generated broad acceptance of the change effort, it also exposed tensions, which threatened the coherence of the change. Advocates' diverse responses to these tensions contribute to a persistent state of pluralism and dynamism in the change effort. We uncover a process through which occupational members generate and sustain change, show how occupational heterogeneity can enable and delimit change, and show how wellmeaning efforts to "moralize" occupational work can heighten resistance, inhibiting the very changes that enable experts to address urgent societal problems.
In mid-2020, leaders in the field of organizations and the natural environment convened for a conference call to assess the field as it stands and consider reorientations that might elevate its ...scholarship and amplify its impact. On the call were:Tobias Hahn (ESADE), President of GRONEN, the Group for Research on Organizations and the Natural Environment Jennifer Howard-Grenville (Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge), Deputy Editor of Academy of Management Journal.Tom Lyon (University of Michigan), President of ARCS, the Alliance for Research on Corporate SustainabilityMike Russo (University of Oregon), Editor-in-Chief of Organization & EnvironmentJudith L. Walls (Institute for Economy and the Environment, University of St.Gallen), Chair of the Organizations and the Natural Environment Division of the Academy of ManagementWhat follows is a lightly edited transcript of our free-flowing conversation, with references that came up in the discussion added.
In this essay, we reflect on the contributions to this dialogue. We focus on highlighting opportunities for deepening our understanding of cultural phenomena and institutions through work on the ...border between the two theories. Two avenues are promising: deepening our understandings of process in order to better explain cultural and institutional dynamics and attending to (surprising) levels of analysis such as local institutions and global cultures. The contributors to this dialogue have provided examples of the potential benefits gained through work at the borders of organizational culture and institutional theory, and in so doing have begun to answer some of the questions that instigated this exchange, suggesting paths forward, and we hope, instigating exchange.
FROM THE EDITORS: CLIMATE CHANGE AND MANAGEMENT Howard-Grenville, Jennifer; Buckle, Simon J.; Hoskins, Brian J. ...
Academy of Management journal,
06/2014, Volume:
57, Issue:
3
Journal Article
Abstract
We explore the lived experience of organizational scholars who have conducted fieldwork in unsettling contexts. Through analyzing our interviews with these scholars, we find themes around ...the causes and consequences of unsettling fieldwork, and the coping strategies employed. We reflect on the often overlooked emotional and relational aspects of conducting and coping with unsettling fieldwork, and offer some suggestions for how scholars might support each other, especially given the increasing prevalence of organizational scholarship that pushes boundaries by engaging unconventional topics and settings.
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