Imagine.. seminar by Ryan Raffaelli

“Mechanisms of Institutional Re-Emergence and Field Level Identity Change: Swiss Watchmaking, 1983-2008”

We seek to understand the processes and mechanisms whereby “dying” technologies in an institutionalized field re-emerge at a later date.  In 1983, scholars and industry analysts predicted that mechanical watches, along with the Swiss Jura community of watchmakers who built them, would disappear (Landes, 1983). Unexpectedly, however, by 2008 the Swiss mechanical watchmaking industry had re-emerged as the world’s leading exporter (in monetary value) of watch industry products once again.  We examine how fields can be reconstituted such that technologies – and associated product and community identities – can re-emerge and re-institutionalize as dominant designs and powerful collectives.  Our analysis highlights the mechanisms that underlie such field-level changes, focusing on the re-framing of product and community identities.  We find that although new or discontinuous technologies tend to displace older ones (e.g., Anderson & Tushman, 1990), legacy technologies that are seemingly “dead” can re-emerge, co-exist with, and even come to dominate newer technologies.  

Ryan is currently a PhD student in the Management & Organization Department at Boston College's Carroll School of Management. His research interests are in the areas of institutions, innovation, and leadership.  More specifically, He focus on how innovation and shifts in institutional arrangements affect the dynamics of emerging fields & market categories. He is also interested in the mechanisms of institutionalization, especially the role that leaders play in the process of value infusion and meaning making in organizations.

Please register to : alh.ioa@cbs.dk no later than 01th of March.

The seminar is free of charge and for everyone who might be interested - academics or practitioners alike.