University of Jyväskylä | JYX Digital Repository

  • English  | Give feedback |
    • suomi
    • English
 
  • Login
JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.
View Item 
  • JYX
  • Opinnäytteet
  • Väitöskirjat
  • View Item
JYX > Opinnäytteet > Väitöskirjat > View Item

Institutional perspectives on retailing : rethinking the adoption of large-scale retailing in Finland

Thumbnail
View/Open
530.3Kb

Downloads:  
Show download detailsHide download details  
Authors
Seppälä, Jarmo
Date
2018
Discipline
Taloushistoria

 
This dissertation focuses on the adoption of the hypermarket in Finnish retailing and examines how major retail organizations experienced the transition from established practices into new logic of retail business, the large-scale retail trade. The research builds on DiMaggio and Powell’s (1983) analytical categorization of institutional isomorphic mechanisms, but utilizes more recent theorizations and insights of organizational institutionalism in the detailed theoretical framing. My research questions were as follows. How did Finnish retail organizations initially regard the hypermarket format? How did their stances change over time? To answer these questions, I examined the adoption of this format in terms of local decision-making, internal propaganda and corporate training. Each topic was discussed in a separate research article. The key findings of the research suggest Finnish retail organizations were initially strongly opposed to the hypermarket format and the principles of modern large-scale retailing in general. Key stakeholders of each organization resisted the hypermarket for different reasons, because the new practices did not fit the established lines of operation of the organizations and challenged their ideology- based principles. Thus, the top management worked actively to create support for the new practices and eventually for the adoption of large-scale retailing. Consequently, ideologically and structurally divergent organizations became increasingly similar (or isomorphic) as hypermarkets reached an institutionalized position. The findings demonstrate the significant role of individual actors in facilitating the increase of isomorphism, thus modifying the original idea of structural effects. Above all, the dissertation offers an alternative and complementary view of an important period in Finnish retail history. ...
Publisher
University of Jyväskylä
ISBN
978-951-39-7473-2
Keywords
hypermarket large-scale retailing business history retail trade neo-institutional organization theory isomorphism management and organizational history
URI

http://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-951-39-7473-2

Metadata
Show full item record
Collections
  • Väitöskirjat [3035]

Related items

Showing items with similar title or keywords.

  • Strengthening Institutional Isomorphism in Development NGOs? Program Mechanisms in an Organizational Intervention 

    Kontinen, Tiina; Onali, Anja (SAGE Publications, 2017)
    Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in international development struggle between being actors in the mainstream or representatives of alternatives to it. However, many NGOs all over the world align with the mainstream ...
  • Peer interaction and pioneering organizational form adoption : A tale of the first two for-profit stock exchanges 

    Cheung, Zeerim; Gustafsson, Robin; Nykvist, Rasmus (SAGE Publications, 2021)
    Building on a historical case study on the first two stock exchanges to adopt the now globally dominant for-profit organizational form, the Stockholm Stock Exchange in 1993 and the Helsinki Stock Exchange in 1995, we argue ...
  • Managing the paradox of unwanted efficiency : The symbolic legitimation of the hypermarket format in Finland, 1960–1975 

    Seppälä, Jarmo (Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2018)
    Occasionally, organisations are forced to adopt new practices that are inconsistent with the expectations of their stakeholders. An immediate adoption of the practices would risk the organisation’s legitimacy, but as ...
  • What about cultural policy? : interdisciplinary perspectives on culture and politics 

    Pyykkönen, Miikka; Simanainen, Niina; Sokka, Sakarias; Simanainen, Niina (Jyväskylän yliopisto, 2009)
  • How bright are the Nordic Lights? : job quality trends in Nordic countries in a comparative perspective 

    Mustosmäki, Armi (University of Jyväskylä, 2017)
    Nordic countries stand out from the rest of the Europe in terms of job quality. Comparative research literature sought to explain the distinctiveness of Nordic countries with diverse sets of institutional frameworks. ...
  • Browse materials
  • Browse materials
  • Articles
  • Conferences and seminars
  • Electronic books
  • Historical maps
  • Journals
  • Tunes and musical notes
  • Photographs
  • Presentations and posters
  • Publication series
  • Research reports
  • Research data
  • Study materials
  • Theses

Browse

All of JYXCollection listBy Issue DateAuthorsSubjectsPublished inDepartmentDiscipline

My Account

Login

Statistics

View Usage Statistics
  • How to publish in JYX?
  • Self-archiving
  • Publish Your Thesis Online
  • Publishing Your Dissertation
  • Publication services

Open Science at the JYU
 
Data Protection Description

Accessibility Statement

Unless otherwise specified, publicly available JYX metadata (excluding abstracts) may be freely reused under the CC0 waiver.
Open Science Centre