The Interrelationship between Micro-Level Mechanisms in the Emergence of Hybrid Institutional Logics: A Comparative Analysis of Art Museums in the United Kingdom and France

This thesis examines the process of institutional change in the field of art museums in two countries, the United Kingdom and France, using an institutional logics perspective. Art museums have gone through significant changes due to cultural policies, pressures from the institutional environment and demands by stakeholders. This study seeks to reveal the role and interrelationship between cognitive micro-level mechanisms in the emergence of macro-level practices. Through a comparative case study analysis, the findings show that three cognitive micro-level mechanisms are operational in institutional logics emergence that influenced institutional change outcomes, which are sensemaking, collective mobilisation and decision-making. The process of change is non-linear with mutual interrelationships between cognitive mechanisms in a continuous process until major and influential stakeholders are satisfied. The process starts by decision-making from external stakeholders who put pressures on organisations in a field to change. Through sensemaking, organisational actors identify circumstances, interpret them to generate possible options and take action. Taking action is in the form of decision-making whereby actors enact new practices that either satisfy major stakeholders to end change or trigger collective mobilisation by dissatisfied stakeholders to oppose change. Organisational actors respond through sensemaking and decision-making to enact different practices that satisfy the opposition. The study focuses on the outcome of hybridity to illustrate that a hybrid logic may emerge unintentionally. As organisational actors attempt to accommodate conflicting demands, organisations innovate practices that combine competing logics in novel ways. The emerged hybridity is not a goal, but a resort by which it is intended to cope with institutional pressures, but is not optimal for competitiveness and sustainability. An emergent insight from the study is utilising digitisation by organisations to hybridise by first using digital to pursue the old logic and meet its demands, and then figure creative ways to combine the new logic that create a synergy between conflicting activities. This research makes several contributions to institutional logics, institutional change, and hybrid organisations literatures. First, it demonstrates the process of institutional change in the context of art museums, including causes, outcomes and effects. Second, it shows the role and interrelationship between cognitive micro-level mechanisms in the emergence of institutional logics at the organisational level. Third, it highlights that low power stakeholders can influence institutional change by mobilising collectively and using digital tools to disrupt organisations and diminish legitimacy. Fourth, it identifies factors that influence change and the unintentional rise of hybridity. Conflicting demands from the institutional environment combined with creative utilisation of digitisation enabled the emergence of a hybrid logic.