RESEARCH
Professor Rao has published widely in the fields of management and sociology and studies the social and cultural causes of organizational change. In his research, he studies three sub-processes of organizational change: a) creation of new social structures, b) the transformation of existing social structures, and c) the dissolution of existing social structures. His recent work investigates the role of social movements as motors of organizational change in professional and organizational fields.
"Structuring a Theory of Moral Sentiments: Institutional and Organizational Coevolution in the Early Thrift Industry", with Heather Haveman, The American Journal of Sociology (1997).
Abstract
The authors investigate the coevolution of organizations and institutions--they study how institutional definitions, rules, and expectations unfold in tandem with the organizational structures and processes that embody those institutions. The research site is the early thrift industry. Changes in thrifts' technical environment (the rise of a transient and heterogeneous population) and institutional environment (the rise of Progressivism) propelled this coevolutionary process. The coevolution of thrift organizations and institutions proceeded primarily through selection. Adaptation was constrained by both institutional factors (it was difficult to adopt a novel institutional logic) and technical factors (early thrifts were generally small, so entry and exit were easy).
“Caveat Emptor: The Construction of Nonprofit Consumer Watchdog Organizations”, The American Journal of Sociology (1998).
Abstract
This article investigates how new organizational forms are constituted as cultural objects. Since new organizational forms jeopardize existing interests, institutional entrepreneurs recombine prevalent cultural materials to frame the form as necessary, valid, and appropriate. When rival entrepreneurs promote incompatible frames, the frame that enjoys greater political support from the state, professions, and other organizations becomes ascendant. Proponents of losing frames can exit, migrate, or convert to the ascendant frame. A case study of the creation of nonprofit consumer watchdog organizations demonstrates how the boundaries of an organizational form and its cultural contents are shaped by politics.
“Embeddedness, Social Identity and Mobility: Why Firms Leave the NASDAQ and Join the New York Stock Exchange”, with Gerald F. Davis and Andrew Ward, Administrative Science Quarterly, 45(2000).
Abstract
Organizations derive their social identity from membership in formal groups and strive to maintain a positive social identity. When their social identity is threatened and group boundaries are permeable, organizations defect to other groups. This paper suggests that organizations receive identity-discrepant cues when in-group members defect to an out-group, but how organizations respond to such cues hinges on their social affiliations to the in-group, out-group, and defectors. A study of organizations that migrated from the NASDAQ stock market to the New York Stock Exchange reveals that strong ties to in-group members (NASDAQ members) reduced the impact of identity-discrepant cues and diminished defections. Conversely, strong ties to out-group members (NYSE members) enhanced the impact of identity-discrepant cues and increased defection. Proximity to defectors increased cross-overs—organizations followed defectors to whom they had direct ties. Implications for the study of embeddedness are outlined.0
“Fool’s Gold: Social Proof in the Initiation and Abandonment of Coverage by Wall Street Analysts”, with Henrich R. Greve and Gerald F. Davis, Administrative Science Quarterly, 46(2001).
Abstract
This paper examines the dynamics of social influence in the choices of securities analysts to initiate and abandon coverage of firms listed on the NASDAQ national market. We show that social proof—using the actions of others to infer the value of a course of action—creates information cascades in which decision makers initiate coverage of a firm when peers have recently begun coverage. Analysts that initiate coverage of a firm in the wake of a cascade are particularly prone to overestimating the firm’s future profitability, however, and they are subsequently more likely than other analysts to abandon coverage of the firm. We thus find evidence for a cycle of imitation-driven choice followed by disappointment and abandonment. Our account suggests that institutionalization rooted in imitation is likely to be fragile.’
"Institutional Change in Toque Ville: Nouvelle Cuisine as an Identity Movement in French Gastronomy", with Phillpe Monin and Rodolphe Durand, The American Journal of Sociology, Volume 108 Number 4 (January 2003).
Abstract
A challenge facing cultural-frame institutionalism is to explain how existing institutional logics and role identities are replaced by new logics and role identities. This article depicts identity movements that strive to expand individual autonomy as motors of institutional change. It proposes that the sociopolitical legitimacy of activists, extent of theorization of new roles, prior defections by peers to the new logic, and gains to prior defectors act as identity-discrepant cues that induce actors to abandon traditional logics and role identities for new logics and role identities. A study of how the nouvelle cuisine movement in France led elite chefs to abandon classical cuisine during the period starting from 1970 and ending in 1997 provides wide-ranging support for these arguments. Implications for research on institutional change, social movements, and social identity are outlined.
"Store Wars: The Enactment and Repeal of Anti-Chain-Store Legislation in America", with Paul Ingram, The American Journal of Sociology, Volume 110 Number 2 (September 2004).
Abstract
Competition between organizational forms manifests itself in political contention over the law. The authors analyze the political strength and organization of the groups that supported and opposed state anti-chain-store laws. The enactment of these laws depended on intrastate political activity and the interstate diffusion of antichain-store legislation. The repeal process relied on suprastate activity, as nationally organized pro-chain-store forces shifted the arena of contention to the Supreme Court and forged national alliances with labor unions and agricultural cooperatives. In both enactment and repeal, the political resources and strategies of organizational forms interacted with existing institutions to determine the trajectory of institutional change.
"Border Crossing: Bricolage and the Erosion of Categorical Boundaries in French Gastronomy", with Phillpe Monin and Rodolphe Durand,
forthcoming in The American Sociological Review, 70: 9, 868-991. 2005.
Abstract
Sociological researchers have studied the consequences of strong categorical boundaries but have devoted little attention to the causes and consequences of boundary erosion. We analyze the erosion of categorical boundaries in the case of opposing category-pairs. We propose that categorical boundaries weaken when borrowing of elements from a rival category by high-status actors triggers emulation such that the mean number of elements borrowed by others increases, and variance in the number of elements borrowed declines. We suggest that penalties to borrowing in the form of downgraded evaluations by critics exist, but decline as the number of peers who borrow increases. Our research setting is French gastronomy during the period starting from 1970 and ending in 1997 when classical and nouvelle cuisines were rival categories competing for the allegiance of chefs. Our results broadly support our hypotheses, and indicate that chefs redrew the boundaries of culinary categories that critics eventually recognized. Implications for research on blending and segregating processes are outlined.
Abstract
Research on social movements has emphasized the origins of cultural movements, but has said little about how they impact popular culture through the creation of new organizations. The production of culture perspective asserts that market concentration in cultural industries inhibits diversity, but is silent about how social movements challenging corporate capitalism spur organizational birth. Organizational ecology describes how market concentration triggers anti–mass production movements, but has not examined whether the diversity of new organizations alters consumer behavior. The authors integrate these literatures to analyze how low-power FM (LPFM) radio stations arose in response to the domination of radio by corporate chains and investigate the impact of LPFM stations on radio listening. Implications for the study of social movements, organizational ecology, and the production of culture are outlined.
We study how the values espoused by social movements become entrenched in political culture and spawn many new kinds of institutions, which in turn shape organizations far from movements’ original targets. Thus, we demonstrate the diffuse and indirect effects of social movements. We also demonstrate that the diffusion of social-movement values is often selective – some are retained, while others are discarded. Our empirical site is the Progressive movement and the early thrift industry in California. We draw on social-movement research and organizational theory to argue that a new ideal of thrift, bureaucratized co-operation among strangers, replaced the original idea of thrift, friendly co-operation among neighbors. This shift was possible only after the modernizing temper of Progressivism gave rise to two institutions, news media and role-model organizations, that made bureaucracy culturally appropriate. The bureaucratization of thrift occurred even though it resulted in the centralization of power, which clashed with the Progressive ideal of equitably distributing power. Our study provides a compelling example of the fundamental revolution in American social organization in the twentieth century: the replacement of community-based groups by bureaucracies.