Hi Linda. It's such a well-established, but internally divergent and multi-disciplinary, body of literature now that starting with the foundations is probably the best way to go. DiMaggio and Powell's 1983 'The Iron Cage Revisited' is seminal. Suchman's 1995 paper - Suchman, M. (1995) Managing Legitimacy: Strategic and Institutional Approaches, The Academy of Management ReviewVol. 20, No. 3 pp. 571-610 - provides a good overview of the divergences between sociological and strategic conceptions of new institutionalism. Patricia Thornton and colleagues' work on institutional logics is also significant. I haven't read their 2012 book, The Institutional Logics Perspective: A New Approach to Culture, Structure, and Process but I imagine it gives a good overview. Greenwood et al.'s Sage Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism gives a good overview featuring contributions from many of the key writers. Within this, Powell and Colyvas' chapter on the Micro-Foundations of Institutional Theory opens up a relatively new vein of thinking about how institutionalism manifests at the micro-level. Good luck - it's very interesting but wide terrain to navigate!

Jo, Thank you so much. There are many excellent suggestions here - they'll give me an excellent start and good grounding. Much appreciated.

The following readings are more comprehensive and present diverse perspectives:

Richard W. Scott: Multiple Editions (sociologists)

National Innovation System scholars: (Macro policy, economics)

List of scholars: Varieties of Capitalism Literature: Institutions.

March & Olsen: Rediscovering Institutions:

Tariq, Thank - these are excellent suggestions. Much appreciated.

Experts please let me know what these variables might have to do with institutional theory.

Irrespective of discipline, do check out Guy Peters book "Institutional Theory in Political Science", and Hall & Taylor's article (1996) "Political Science and the Three New Institutionalisms". They are great for sorting thoughts.

Dear Linda Baines & Saba Perbaiz,

Let me tell you that you are not alone being last in multiple ideas of institutionalism in social sciences. For the last 25 years, I struggled to put them together. So let me list those references and then offer you an idea how to proceed.

Veblen, 1920, conspicuous consumption

Douglas North (formal and informal institutions) 1990-

Institutions for innovation (Richard Nelson and colleagues)

Varieties of Institutions (Hollingsworth and Boyer).

Varieties of capitalism (Soskice and Hall, 2001)

Lynn Zucker, (1977, 1987-)

------------------------------------Below is general list with full references--------

Institutionalism

Ayres, C. E. 1951. The Co-Ordinates of Institutionalism. The American Economic Review, 41(2): 47-55.

Deeds, D. L., Deephouse, D. L., & Suchman, M. C. 2008. Legitimacy in Organizational Institutionalism In R. Greenwood, C. Oliver, K. Sahlin, & R. R. Suddaby (Eds.), Sage Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism 49-77. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publication

Deephouse, D. L., Deeds, D. L., & Suchman, M. C. 2008. Legitimacy in Organizational Institutionalism In R. Greenwood, C. Oliver, K. Sahlin, & R. R. Suddaby (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism: 49-77. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

DiMaggio, P. 1998. The New Institutionalism: Avenues of Collaboration. Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, 3.

Green, S. E., & Li, Y. 2011. Rhetorical Institutionalism: Language, Agency, and Structure in Institutional Theory since Alvesson 1993. Journal of Management Studies, 48(7): 1662-1697.

Greenwood, R., & Hinings, C. R. 1996. Understanding radical organizational change: Bringing together the old and new institutionalism. Academy of Management Review, 21: 1022-1054.

Greenwood, R., Oliver, C., Suddaby, R., & Sahlin, K. (Eds.). 2008. The SAGE Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism. London: Sage.

Hall, P. A., & Taylor, R. 1996. A Political Science and Three New Institutionalisms. Political Studies, 44: 936-957.

Jepperson, R. L. 1991. Institutions, Institutional Effects, and Institutionalism. In W. Powell, & P. DiMaggio (Eds.), The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Kraatz, M. S., & Zajac, E. J. 1996. Exploring the Limits of the New Institutionalism: The Causes and Consequences of Illegitimate Organizational Change. American Sociological Review, 61(5): 812-836.

McCloskey, D. N. 2015. Max U versus Humanomics: a critique of neo-institutionalism. Journal of Institutional Economics, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1744137415000053.

Pedersen, J. S., & Dobbin, F. 2006. In search of identity and legitimation: Bridging organizational culture and neo-institutionalism. American Behavioral Scientist, 49: 897-907.

Robert, B. 1988. Contra Contractarianism: Some Reflections on the New Institutionalism. Politics and Society, 16: 387-401.

Rutherford, M. 1994. Institutions in economics: The old and the new institutionalism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Rutherford, M. 1995. The Old and the New Institutionalism: Can Bridges Be Built? Journal of Economic Issues, xx/x(2): 433-451.

Schmidt, V. A. 2008. Discursive Institutionalism: The Explanatory Power of Ideas and Discourse. Annual Review of Political Science, 11: 303-326.

Selznick, P. 1996. Institutionalism "old" and "new.". Administrative Science Quarterly, 41: 270-277.

Spiegler, P., & Milberg, W. 2009. The taming of institutions in economics: the rise and methodology of the 'new new institutionalism'. Journal of Institutional Economics, 5(3): 289-313.

Suchman, M. C., & Deephouse, D. L. 2008. Legitiamcy in Organizational Institutionalism. In R. Greenwood, C. Oliver, R. R. Suddaby, & K. Sahlin-Andersson (Eds.), The Sage Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publication.

Suddaby, R., Oliver, C., Lawrence, T. B., & Meyer, R. E. (Eds.). 2017. The SAGE Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism (2nd ed.). London: Sage.

-------------------------------------------------------Institutional theory--------

Bruton, G. D., Ahlstrom, D., & Han-Lin, L. 2010. Institutional Theory and Entrepreneurship: Where Are We Now and Where Do We Need to Move in the Future? Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 34(3): 421-440.

Clegg, S. 2010. The State, Power, and Agency: Missing in Action in Institutional Theory? . Journal of Management Inquiry, 19(1): 4-13.

Cornelissen, J. P., Durand, R., Fiss, C. P., Lammers, J. C., & Vaara, E. 2015. Putting Communication Front and Center in Institutional Theory and Analysis. Academy of Management Review, 40(1): 10-27.

Dacin, M. T., Goodstein, J., & Scott, W. R. 2002. Institutional Theory and Institutional Change: Introduction to the Special Research Forum. Academy of Management Journal, 45(1): 45-57.

DiMaggio, P. 1988. Interest and agency in institutional theory. In L. Zucker (Ed.), Institutional patterns and organizations: 3-32. Cambridge, MA:: Ballinger.

Fligstein, N. 1995. Social Skill and Institutional Theory. Paper presented at the The role of actors in new institutional analyses of organizations: Action in institutions, Vancouver; Canada.

Fligstein, N. 1997. Social Skills and Institutional Theory. American Behavioral Scientist, 40: 397-405.

Green, S. E., & Li, Y. 2011. Rhetorical Institutionalism: Language, Agency, and Structure in Institutional Theory since Alvesson 1993. Journal of Management Studies, 48(7): 1662-1697.

Hambrick, D. C., Finkeistein, S., Cho, T. S., & Jackson, E. M. 2005. Isomorphism in Reverse: Institutional Theory as an Explanation for Recent Increases in Intraindustry Heterogeneity and Managerial Discretion. Research in Organizational Behavior 26: 307-350.

Kostova, T., Roth, K., & Dacin, M. T. 2008. Institutional theory in the study of multinational corporations: A critque and new directions. Academy of Management Review, 24(2): 308-324.

Leaptrott, J. 2005. An Institutional Theory View of the Family Business. Family Business Review, 18(3): 215–228.

Powell, W., & Colyvas, J. 2008. Microfoundations of institutional theory. In R. Greenwood, & C. Oliver (Eds.), The SAGE handbook of organizational institutionalism: 276-297. London: Sage.

Scott, W. R. 1987. The adolescence of institutional theory. Administrative Science Quarterly, 32: 493-511.

Suddaby, R. R. 2010. Challenges for Institutional Theory Journal of Management Inquiry, 19(1): 14-20.

Suddaby, R. R., Seidle, D., & Le, J. K. 2013. Strategy-as-practice meets neo-institutional theory. Strategic Organization, 11(3): 329-344.

Tolbert, P. S., & Zucker, L. 1996. The institutionalization of institutional theory. In S. Clegg, C. Hardy, & W. Nord (Eds.), Handbook of institutional studies: 175-190. London: Sage.

Tool, M. 1991. Contributions to an Institutional Theory of Price Determination. In G. Hodgson, & E. Screpanti (Eds.), Rethinking economics: Markets, technology and economic evolution: 19-39. Aldershot: Edward Elgar.

Zucker, L. (Ed.). 1988. Research on Institutional Theory Cambridge, MA: Ballinger Press.

Zucker, L. G. 1989. Combining institutional theory and population ecology: No Legitimacy, No history. American Sociological Review, 54(4): 542-545.

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Now I tell you some of my own points.

1- Levels: Organisational, sectoral, national

2- Structure (e.g. policy and culture) vs practice

3- Institutions as cause versus as consequences (change)

4- Institutions as conditions or institutions as main factor.

5- Levels of development of institutions

6- convergence (isomorphism) versus divergence (variety).

If you pay attention to these ideas, you may find what it is all about. Then you can formulate your own thinking.

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Best wishes,

Happy New Year

Here is a good application and summary of theory, beyond Dimaggio, with applications to energy and climate: Article Applying institutional theory to the low-carbon energy transition