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Holzmann, Gregori, Bohn, Reischauer, Friederici & Lehdonvirta (2025): Institutional logics and business models of digital niche marketplaces

While research on the business models of dominant digital marketplaces such as Amazon, TaskRabbit, and Uber has progressed in recent years, little is known about the business models of niche marketplaces despite their economic and social importance. Taking an institutional logic perspective, we examine how multiple logics shape the business models of digital niche marketplaces. Based on the comparative study of ten European digital niche marketplaces, we identify two business model archetypes that vary concerning problem complexity and the influence of institutional logics. The “concierge business model” is designed to efficiently solve simple location-bound problems through local networks. This model is dominantly shaped by the market logic and complemented by the corporate logic. By contrast, the “wizard business model” seeks innovative solutions to more complex problems by utilizing global networks. It is dominantly shaped by the professional logic and supplemented by the corporate and the market logic. Based on these insights, we develop a framework for the relationship between institutional logics and business models of digital niche marketplaces. Our study adds to research on the mechanisms and manifestations of institutional logics in business models and highlights the role of problem complexity, as well as contributing to better understand the distinctiveness of digital niche marketplaces.

Stephan Bohn & Ali Aslan Gümüsay (2024): Growing Institutional Complexity and Field Transition: Towards Constellation Complexity in the German Energy Field

By applying a dynamic approach to field-level institutional complexity, we explore how growing institutional complexity affects fields over time. We examine field transition processes, which are shaped by the number of logics, the nature of their relationships and the shifts in dominance. Focusing on Germany's energy field, our analysis identifies a variety of conflicts that arose among up to seven institutional logics in the context of the German energy transition, i.e., the transition towards a low carbon energy market. The paper makes two theoretical contributions to the institutional complexity and field literature. First, we develop a process model explaining the field-level consequences of two different types of growing complexity, namely increasing and accelerating complexity. Second, we identify conflicting logic constellations as a distinct form of complexity that we term constellation complexity. We discuss our contributions in light of the literature on institutional logics and fields and show how applying a dynamic perspective to institutional complexity supports scholars in conceptualizing field transition processes.

Sminia, H., Bohn, S. Sydow, J. (2024): Path Release among Practices in the Process of Path Constitution. How the MP3-Path Appeared in the Field of Recorded Music

Adopting a practice-based approach informed by structuration theory, we report on the establishment of the MP3-path from 1997 to 2004 as a process of path constitution that introduced a new path-dependent patterning among the practices in the field of recorded music. This case helps us elaborate a practice-based and more integrated theory of path constitution that incorporates both the production of path dependence and the release from the limitations that path dependence imposes on choice. The empirical investigation rests on a mixed-methods approach combining topic modeling with longitudinal historical research. By distinguishing between practices and entrepreneurial initiatives, we explain how a critical path-release juncture emancipated practices from existing path dependence (the CD-path), which was followed by a path-creation juncture that triggered the production of a new MP3-path. We synthesize the concepts and findings to develop an integrated model of path constitution and thereby contribute to the literature on path dependence.

Rashid, L., Möckel, C., Bohn, S. (2024): The Blessing and Curse of “No Strings Attached”: Literature Analysis of Psychological Health and Non-Attachmental Work in the Digitalization Era

Amidst tremendous changes in the worlds of work in light of digitalization, non-attachmental work designs, where individuals gain income without being bound by a fixed administrative attachment to an employer, hold promises of self-actualization along with threats of insecurity. Today’s technology boom and the consequent flexibility and uncertainty it brings into workers’ lives may translate into inspiring growth opportunities or overloading pressure, contingent upon mental health and wellbeing impacts. This paper first provides a conceptualization of the non-attachmental work designs of the 21st century, before proceeding to an extensive mapping of literature at their intersection with psychological health. This involves a machine-learning-driven review of 1094 scientific articles using topic modeling, combined with in-depth manual content analyses and inductive-deductive cycles of pattern discovery and category building. The resulting scholarly blueprint reveals several tendencies, including a prevalence of positive psychology concepts in research on work designs with high levels of autonomy and control, contrasted with narratives of disempowerment in service- and task-based work. We note that some psychological health issues are researched with respect to specific work designs but not others, for instance neurodiversity and the role of gender in ownership-based work, self-image and digital addiction in content-based work, and ratings-induced anxiety in platform-mediated task-based work. We also find a heavy representation of ‘heroic’ entrepreneurs, quantitative methods, and western contexts in addition to a surprising dearth of analyses on the roles of policy and technological interventions. The results are positioned to guide academics, decision-makers, technologists, and workers in the pursuit of healthier work designs for a more sustainable future.

Fecher, Gümüşay, Bohn & Jobin (2023): Resilience without Accountability holds back Transformative Change

The prominence of the term resilience reflects the zeitgeist of a time that is uncertain and crisis-ridden. Only if we are resilient, can we withstand a crisis, endure and recover from it. However, a weakness of this perspective on resilience is that any disruption can appear like a force of nature to which we are exposed and to which we can only react and adapt. How then can we understand resilience in the context of the climate crisis and digitization? Can we have a proactive approach to resilience, whilst taking into account the enabling and disabling forces at play in digital society?

Risi, Vigneau, Bohn & Wickert (2023): Institutional Theory-based Research on Corporate Social Responsibility: Bringing Values Back in.

Research applying institutional theory to corporate social responsibility (CSR) has experienced remarkable momentum. Institutional theory-based CSR research illustrates the role of values in guiding both agentic choices for CSR and the influence of institutional structures on CSR agency. Although values have been explored in this literature, systematic studies of values that seek to gain insights into the mutual relationship between agentic choices and structures are lacking. Such insights are crucial for exploring whether and how CSR is enabled or constrained. We thus ask two interrelated questions: (1) What is the role of values in institutional theory-based CSR research? (2) How and along which avenues should future institutional theory-based CSR research that focuses on values be mobilised? Based on our analysis of this line of literature from 1989 until 2021, first, we take stock of established institutional theory perspectives on CSR and disentangle what role values have played in this literature. Second, we outline how to mobilise values in future institutional CSR research based on four promising but under-investigated areas. From our literature analysis, two central functions emerge (which we label ‘bridging’ and ‘referencing’) that values can perform in the institutional analysis of CSR. Based on these two functions, our values-focused framework will help scholars examine the moral foundations that inform business–society interactions as well as understand how companies can responsibly manage those interactions with societal stakeholders.

Bohn, Gümüsay, von Richthofen & Reischauer (2023): Digital Organising

The digital is pervasive, forming and transforming the ways individual and collective actors organise. We posit digital organising as a key concept that enables researchers and practitioners alike to capture novel forms of organising. Digital organising refers to the collective purposeful alignment and distributed action fostered through digital technologies. We discuss its core processes, datafication and connectification, and how both amplify centralised and decentralised organising. Based on these conceptualisations, we discuss the paradoxical nature of digital organising and offer an outlook for future inquiries.

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