Slander, Shouts, and Silence: Incumbent Resistance to Disruptive Logics

Abstract

This paper develops a typology of incumbent resistance to disruptive new logics. Although scholars of institutional change have studied public forms of resistance, a comprehensive understanding of how incumbents oppose disruptive new logics also necessitates attention to the quiet forms of resistance. Conceptualizing resistance as a form of institutional work, we draw on insights from the literatures on institutional change and social movements to develop a typology of public, hidden, and implicit resistance to disruptive logics. Broadening the understanding of resistance work to include its quiet forms enables institutional scholars to understand how field incumbents resist disruption and why such efforts may be successful. A broadened analysis of incumbent resistance is vital for theorizing the past and future resilience of some of the most central institutions of modern society, such as the carbon-based economy and democracy.