TY - JOUR
T1 - The assembly of a field ideology
T2 - An idea-centric perspective on systemic power in impact investing
AU - Hehenberger, L.
AU - Mair, Johanna
AU - Metz, Ashley
N1 - Funding Information:
All authors contributed equally and names are listed in alphabetical order. We thank Marc Gruber and the three reviewers for their continuous support. We received valuable feedback in the 2017 EGOS subtheme “Social-Symbolic Work: Aspirations, Efforts and Struggles” and seminars at Stanford Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society, the Wharton School, Cass Business School, the University of Alberta, and the SCANCOR speaker series. We received generative comments from Paul Brest, Royston Greenwood, Linda Jakob Sadeh, M.E. Laimer, Mike Lounsbury, Woody Powell, Nikolas Rathert, Rob Reich, Georg Reischauer, and Dick Scott. We are grateful to the organizations and people featured in our study, especially EVPA, GSG, and GECES. Ashley Metz acknowledges support from the Hertie School, the Stiftung Ökonomischer Fortschritt, and Stanford Global Innovation for Impact Lab (GIIL). Finally, we thank Debra Meyerson. This project would not have been possible without her inspiration.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 Academy of Management Journal.
PY - 2019/12/1
Y1 - 2019/12/1
N2 - We advance a novel idea-centric perspective to study power-laden aspects of institutional life in fields. Our study includes data from the field of impact investing in Europe from 2006-2018, collected from the inside and analyzed collaboratively by inside and outside researchers. We develop an analytical tool based on dichotomies to detect latent forms of conflict that easily remain unnoticed and to see how some ideas become dominant while others are abandoned or sidelined. We display the assembly of a field ideology-a coherent system of ideas that shapes thinking, reasoning and acting in a field. Furthermore, we specify suppression as a mechanism that gives rise to and perpetuates systemic power in fields, restricting options and shaping what is valued. Our study provides insights into the dynamic nature of institutional life in fields, including alternative paths not taken and possible futures.
AB - We advance a novel idea-centric perspective to study power-laden aspects of institutional life in fields. Our study includes data from the field of impact investing in Europe from 2006-2018, collected from the inside and analyzed collaboratively by inside and outside researchers. We develop an analytical tool based on dichotomies to detect latent forms of conflict that easily remain unnoticed and to see how some ideas become dominant while others are abandoned or sidelined. We display the assembly of a field ideology-a coherent system of ideas that shapes thinking, reasoning and acting in a field. Furthermore, we specify suppression as a mechanism that gives rise to and perpetuates systemic power in fields, restricting options and shaping what is valued. Our study provides insights into the dynamic nature of institutional life in fields, including alternative paths not taken and possible futures.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85077231390&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.5465/amj.2017.1402
DO - 10.5465/amj.2017.1402
M3 - Review
AN - SCOPUS:85077231390
SN - 0001-4273
VL - 62
SP - 1672
EP - 1704
JO - Academy of Management Journal
JF - Academy of Management Journal
IS - 6
ER -