Institutional Theory and the Natural Environment

Abstract

This review article summarizes the main tenets of institutional theory as they apply to the topic of the Anthropocene in the domain of organization and the natural environment. But our review is distinctive for two reasons: First, it is focused on providing avenues researching the Anthropocene Era. Second, while based on the trajectory of current, accumulated theory and research, our review is forward-looking in its orientation and thus aimed at guiding future work to explore the emergence of a new social reality in Anthropocene Society. We begin by summarizing the scientific research on the Anthropocene Era, then move to its implications for grand and midrange institutional theory principles, and of institutional principles for the study of it. We end with a call to reenergize and reradicalize the organization and the natural environment field to properly address the magnitude and scope of this shift to the Anthropocene.

The Art of Reconstructing a Shared Responsibility: Institutional Work of a Transnational Commons

“…For instance, ocean pollution becomes a problem only after oceans are collectively constructed as shared assets and responsibilities on which to act. This view is aligned with institutional theory, according to which environmental problems are primarily behavioral and cultural in nature rather than technological or economic (Ansari, Wijen, & Gray, 2013;Hoffman & Jennings, 2015). Transnational commons contain geographic location, material form, as well as meaning and value through which they are constructed and remembered (Gieryn, 2000;Lawrence & Dover, 2015).…”

Socio-Economic Productive Capacities and Energy Efficiency: Global Evidence by Income Level and Resource Dependence

“…It is long argued that well-governed state intervention, strong institutions, and good democracy, which are tightly correlated, are necessary conditions to increase the environmental awareness of societies and the e cacy of environmental policies (Neumayer 2002;Castiglione, Infante, and Smirnova 2015). This mechanism is also true for energy e ciency performance within the institutional theory (Neumayer 2002;Ward 2008; Azam, Liu, and Ahmad 2021), which argues that environmental problems have socio-economic and anthropocentric causes and effects at both the organizational level and country-level (Hoffman and Jennings 2015). Over the period 1996-2010 for 33 high-income countries including advanced, emerging, and former-transition economies, Castiglione, Infante, and Smirnova (2015) con rm a negative link between the enforcement of the rule of low and environmental pollution.…”

Socio-economic productive capacities and energy efficiency: global evidence by income level and resource dependence

“…This mechanism is also true for energy efficiency performance within the institutional theory (Neumayer 2002 ; Ward 2008 ; Azam et al 2021 ). The institutional theory argues that environmental problems have socio-economic and anthropocentric causes and effects at both the organizational and country levels (Hoffman and Jennings 2015 ). Over the period 1996–2010 for 33 high-income countries including advanced, emerging, and former-transition economies, Castiglione et al ( 2015 ) confirm a negative link between the enforcement of the rule of law and environmental pollution.…”