Preface - W. Richard Scott and Soren Christensen Introduction: Institutional theory and organizations - W. Richard Scott Part I: Accounting for institutions The new institutionalism and rational choice theory - Peter Abell Cognitive sources of socially constructed competitive groups: examples from the Manhattan hotel industry - Theresa K. Lant and Joel A. C. Baum Localism and globalism in institutional analysis: the emergence of contractual norms in venture finance - Mark C. Suchman Part II: Organizational adaptation to conflicting and shifting institutional and technical environments Origin and transformation of organizations: institutional analysis of the danish red cross - Soren Christensen and Jan Molin Civilization, art, and accounting: the royal danish theater-an enterprise straddling two institutions - Jan Mouritsen and Peter Skoerboek The incorporation of multiple institutional models: organizational field multiplicity and the role of actors - Finn Borum and Ann Westenholz Part III: Institutional effects on firms and fields The competence view of the firm: what can modern economists learn from Philip Selznick's sociological theory of leadership? - Christian Knudsen Using institutional theory to understand for-profit sectors: the case of financial reporting standards - Stephen J. Mezias Part IV: Institutional effects on industries Accounting for acquisition waves: evidence from the U. S. college publishing industry - Patricia H. Thornton Coupling the technical and institutional faces of janus in network industries - Raghu Garud and Arun Kumaraswamy Institutional interpretations and explanations of differences in american and danish approaches to innovation - Peter Karnoe The origins of economic principles "railway entrepreneurs and public policy in 19th-century America - Frank Dobbin Conclusion: crafting a wider lens - W. Richard Scott and Soren Christensen