A theoretical framework for understanding the practice-driven institutionalism: Evidence from hospitality industry

Abstract

The recent perspective of practice-driven institutionalism introduces a novel approach to comprehending the boundary framework within which organizational actions, interactions, norms, values, and behaviors develop. Nevertheless, the specific role played by memetics, particularly materials, in the genesis and networking of these practices within this framework remains unclear. In pursuit of this objective, we introduce a theoretical framework designed to facilitate the systematic analysis of the evolutionary dynamics inherent in institutional logics, with a particular emphasis on the practices that emerge from the epistemic discoveries of materials, which have been overlooked in tourism and business research in general. Relying on 520 interviews from tourism industry veterans, we conclude with a typology of material-dependent practice-driven institutionalism which points to a systematic pattern where industrial practices resemble each other in a domino effect around the attributes of a dominant material. The typology concludes that material-dependent practice-driven institutionalism creates an 'invisible glass ceiling' that maintains industry practices at the status quo, thereby neutralizing any organizational and managerial initiatives that contradict the inherent properties of the dominant material. We advocate for the adoption of the framework we have introduced among industry practitioners, as it offers a valuable tool for generating meaningful outcomes from their organizational endeavors and practices, set within the complex interplay of institutional logics.