SummaryThis paper deals with the problem of resource contamination in alliances, where incompatible resources may be transferred into or accessed by partner firms, thereby devaluing their own resources. Theory explains how collaborations between organizations can allow mutually beneficial resource combinations through the transfer of, or access to, the assets and/or capabilities of each partner. Research has focused on how to facilitate intended resource transfer while limiting unplanned appropriation of other resources. Here, we address how organizations can protect themselves from contamination by their partners. Resource inimicality arises from idiosyncratic path-dependent processes that create organizations with very different skills, assets and institutions. Thus, a paradox emerges where resources that are complementary may nonetheless be hostile if brought together in one firm: the exposure of one partner to another may erode the distinctive properties that make the partnership valuable. This paper explores this resource contamination perspective using interview data from managers of one Major music company and several smaller Independent partners. In this industry it is common for collaborations to occur between organizations whose resources are focused on the identification and creation of new artistic products, and partners whose resources exploit such products. These resources are complementary but also potentially hostile. We discuss the role of institutional structures and boundary spanners, individuals who mediate resource transfer across the organizations' boundaries, in resolving this paradox and inhibiting contamination.
Purpose -The purpose of this paper is to identify and discuss the idiosyncratic features of the adoption and institutionalization of corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices. Design/methodology/approach -This is a conceptual paper in which current theory on the institutionalization of practices within organizational fields is extended. This is achieved through considering how well established models of the institutionalization process accommodate the idiosyncrasies of CSR practices. Findings -Established models of the institutionalization process do not properly account for the patterns of CSR adoption that are identified. This is because CSR has some features that differentiates it from other organizational initiatives, including idealism, delayed discovery of instrumental benefits, public attention, and the tension between public and private logics. Research limitations/implications -This is a conceptual paper which now needs to be explored empirically, either at the level of the CSR practice or at the organizational field. It is believed that a detailed examination is warranted of the effects of the truncated adoption process (a coercive bandwagon) on organizations' adoption of CSR practices. Neither has it been considered whether all categories of CSR practices are subject to the same dynamics or development path. Practical implications -It is argued that prizes and regulations that are introduced before the organizational case has been worked through properly can have a negative effect on the adoption of beneficial practices throughout the wider field. Similarly, accusations of greenwashing of firms who implement CSR prematurely, and the negative publicity that results, can result in the valuable ideals of CSR being operationalised in a sub-optimal form. Originality/value -The paper offers a new conceptualisation of the path of the institutionalization of CSR practices.
This paper analyses the worldwide popular recorded music industry and examines how product, firm and industry features result in key resources coagulating around the two firm types; the major and independent. We argue that these firm specific resources are complementary and participating firms would benefit from their union. However though complementary, they are inimical and close association risks damaging their value. Collaboration between the two firm types that hold these resources therefore needs to be designed not along traditional concerns of protection from opportunism, or the requirement to control key resources. Instead competitive advantage may be gained by designing and managing structural relationships that protect each partner's resource set from the hostile elements of the others; a contamination rather than an appropriation focus.
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