IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/zbw/mpifgd/953.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

The dynamics of inertia: Institutional persistence and institutional change in telecommunications and health care

Author

Listed:
  • Genschel, Philipp

Abstract

There is a tendency in the new institutionalist literature to equate institutional inertia with stasis and 'no-change'. Using case studies from the international telecommunications regime and the German health care system, the paper tries to show that this equation is wrong. Inertia does not necessarily prevent institutional change. It can interfere with the replacement of old institutions, but it is compatible with other forms of institutional transformation. Inert structures can be patched up with new structures or transposed to new functions. The paper analyzes patching up and transposition as distinct modes of institutional change and assesses their potential for adapting institutional arrangements to new environmental conditions. It concludes that inertia should not be contrasted with institutional change per se because inertia allows for and may even be a prerequisite of change.

Suggested Citation

  • Genschel, Philipp, 1995. "The dynamics of inertia: Institutional persistence and institutional change in telecommunications and health care," MPIfG Discussion Paper 95/3, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    • Handle: RePEc:zbw:mpifgd:953
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.econstor.eu/bitstream/10419/43745/1/189103035.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alber, Jens & Bernardi-Schenkluhn, Brigitte, 1992. "Westeuropäische Gesundheitssysteme im Vergleich: Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Schweiz, Frankreich, Italien, Großbritannien," Schriften aus dem Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung Köln, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, volume 8, number 8.
    2. James G. March, 1991. "Exploration and Exploitation in Organizational Learning," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 2(1), pages 71-87, February.
    3. David, Paul A, 1985. "Clio and the Economics of QWERTY," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(2), pages 332-337, May.
    4. Daniel A. Levinthal & James G. March, 1993. "The myopia of learning," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 14(S2), pages 95-112, December.
    5. Heiner, Ronald A, 1983. "The Origin of Predictable Behavior," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 73(4), pages 560-595, September.
    6. Genschel, Philipp, 1995. "Standards in der Informationstechnik: Institutioneller Wandel in der internationalen Standardisierung," Schriften aus dem Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung Köln, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, volume 22, number 22.
    7. Rosewitz, Bernd & Webber, Douglas, 1990. "Reformversuche und Reformblockaden im deutschen Gesundheitswesen," Schriften aus dem Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung Köln, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, volume 5, number 5.
    8. Cowhey, Peter F., 1990. "The international telecommunications regime: the political roots of regimes for high technology," International Organization, Cambridge University Press, vol. 44(2), pages 169-199, April.
    9. Majone, Giandomenico, 1991. "Cross-National Sources of Regulatory Policymaking in Europe and the United States," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 11(1), pages 79-106, January.
    10. Moe, Terry M, 1990. "Political Institutions: The Neglected Side of the Story," The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Oxford University Press, vol. 6(0), pages 213-253.
    11. Döhler, Marian & Manow, Philip, 1992. "Gesundheitspolitische Steuerung zwischen Hierarchie und Verhandlung," MPIfG Discussion Paper 92/7, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    12. Genschel, Philipp & Werle, Raymund, 1993. "From National Hierarchies to International Standardization: Modal Changes in the Governance of Telecommunications," Journal of Public Policy, Cambridge University Press, vol. 13(3), pages 203-225, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Grushevska, Kateryna & Notteboom, Theo & Shkliar, Andrii, 2016. "Institutional rail reform: The case of Ukrainian Railways," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 7-19.
    2. Streeck, Wolfgang & Rehder, Britta, 2003. "Der Flächentarifvertrag: Krise, Stabilität und Wandel," MPIfG Working Paper 03/6, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Genschel, Philipp, 1995. "Standards in der Informationstechnik: Institutioneller Wandel in der internationalen Standardisierung," Schriften aus dem Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung Köln, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, volume 22, number 22.
    2. Werle, Raymund, 2001. "Standards in the International Telecommunications Regime," Discussion Paper Series 26265, Hamburg Institute of International Economics.
    3. M. Laura Frigotto & Marco Zamarian, 2013. "Resilience and specialization in volatile environments:evidence from the Italian Air Force Tornado crews learning practices," DEM Discussion Papers 2013/17, Department of Economics and Management.
    4. Werle, Raymund, 2001. "Standards in the international telecommunications regime," HWWA Discussion Papers 157, Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWA).
    5. Hoppmann, Joern & Peters, Michael & Schneider, Malte & Hoffmann, Volker H., 2013. "The two faces of market support—How deployment policies affect technological exploration and exploitation in the solar photovoltaic industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 989-1003.
    6. Jiang, Zihao & Liu, Zhiying, 2022. "Policies and exploitative and exploratory innovations of the wind power industry in China: The role of technological path dependence," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 177(C).
    7. Jerker Denrell & James G. March, 2001. "Adaptation as Information Restriction: The Hot Stove Effect," Organization Science, INFORMS, vol. 12(5), pages 523-538, October.
    8. Giuliani, Elisa & Martinelli, Arianna & Rabellotti, Roberta, 2016. "Is Co-Invention Expediting Technological Catch Up? A Study of Collaboration between Emerging Country Firms and EU Inventors," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 192-205.
    9. Carolina Rojas-Córdova & Amanda J. Williamson & Julio A. Pertuze & Gustavo Calvo, 2023. "Why one strategy does not fit all: a systematic review on exploration–exploitation in different organizational archetypes," Review of Managerial Science, Springer, vol. 17(7), pages 2251-2295, October.
    10. Li, Mingxiang, 2021. "Exploring novel technologies through board interlocks: Spillover vs. broad exploration," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 50(9).
    11. D'Este, Pablo, 2005. "How do firms' knowledge bases affect intra-industry heterogeneity?: An analysis of the Spanish pharmaceutical industry," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 34(1), pages 33-45, February.
    12. Randall Morck & Lloyd Steier, 2005. "The Global History of Corporate Governance: An Introduction," NBER Chapters, in: A History of Corporate Governance around the World: Family Business Groups to Professional Managers, pages 1-64, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    13. Sirén, Charlotta & Kohtamäki, Marko, 2016. "Stretching strategic learning to the limit: The interaction between strategic planning and learning," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 653-663.
    14. Schilling, Melissa A. & Green, Elad, 2011. "Recombinant search and breakthrough idea generation: An analysis of high impact papers in the social sciences," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 40(10), pages 1321-1331.
    15. Chen, Jian-xun & Zhang, Bo & Zhan, Wu & Sharma, Piyush & Budhwar, Pawan & Tan, Hui, 2022. "Demystifying the non-linear effect of high commitment work systems (HCWS) on firms’ strategic intention of exploratory innovation: An extended resource-based view," Technovation, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    16. Justin J. P. Jansen & Gerard George & Frans A. J. Van den Bosch & Henk W. Volberda, 2008. "Senior Team Attributes and Organizational Ambidexterity: The Moderating Role of Transformational Leadership," Journal of Management Studies, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 45(5), pages 982-1007, July.
    17. Orsatti, Gianluca & Pezzoni, Michele & Quatraro, Francesco, 2017. "Where Do Green Technologies Come From? Inventor Teams’ Recombinant Capabilities and the Creation of New Knowledge," Department of Economics and Statistics Cognetti de Martiis. Working Papers 201711, University of Turin.
    18. Daniela P. Blettner & Zi-Lin He & Songcui Hu & Richard A. Bettis, 2015. "Adaptive aspirations and performance heterogeneity: Attention allocation among multiple reference points," Strategic Management Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 36(7), pages 987-1005, July.
    19. Pino G. Audia & Jack A. Goncalo, 2007. "Past Success and Creativity over Time: A Study of Inventors in the Hard Disk Drive Industry," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 53(1), pages 1-15, January.
    20. Vanhaverbeke, Wim & Li, Ying & Van de Vrande, Vareska, 2009. "The dual role of external corporate venturing in technological exploration," MPRA Paper 26488, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2010.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:zbw:mpifgd:953. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/mpigfde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.