Reconfiguring Processes of Field Emergence: From Imprinted Practices to Grand Challenges

The concept of organizational fields occupies a central position in organizational studies and strategy research. A rich array of scholars has studied the emergence of fields bottom-up, through the actions of grassroots activists. Others have called attention to the importance of top-down intervention to preclude framing contests and hasten field emergence, especially in the case of urgent and pressing grand challenges. Still others have focused on dynamics that operate in the wider ecosystem and on how these influence the emergence of fields. This symposium brings together scholarly contributions from all these different points of view to answer the question, How do such dynamics that occur at different levels (micro, macro, ecosystem) interact to influence the emergence and reconfiguration of fields from their origins to their maturation? In particular, what are the limits of bottom-up field emergence and when might top-down intervention be warranted? What are the advantages and disadvantages associated with top-down field emergence especially in the case of grand challenges, and when might such top-down initiatives be challenged or fall apart? Finally, how do dynamics in the wider ecosystem (e.g., norms, biases, developments in adjacent or distant fields) influence a focal field’s emergence and, at times, require its radical reconfiguration? Top-Down versus Bottom-Up Processes of Field (non)-Emergence: The Case of the Biofuels Field Presenter: Marco Clemente; IESEG School of Management (LEM-CNRS 9221) Presenter: Aleksios Gotsopoulos; SKK Graduate School of Business Presenter: Robin Gustafsson; Aalto U. Seeding Upheaval: Explaining Proximate Field Influence in the Ontario Wine Region, 1811-2013 Presenter: Felipe Gorenstein Massa; Loyola U. New Orleans Presenter: Maxim Voronov; Schulich School of Business Presenter: Dirk De Clercq; Brock U. Presenter: C. R. Hinings; U. of Calgary Junkies, Queers and Babies: Achieving Category Coherence During the Evolution of the Category AIDS Presenter: Miyoung Chang; Boston U. Questrom School of Business Presenter: Stine Grodal; Northeastern U. Me, Myself, & I:The Maintenance of Petty Institutionalized Corruption in an Era of Collective Crises Presenter: Patricia Helena Hein; EBS U. für Wirtschaft und Recht Presenter: Shahzad Ansari; Cambridge U.