Organizations tend to model themselves after similar organizations in their field that they perceive to be more legitimate or successful. - Paul DiMaggio

Although there are as many ‘new institutionalisms’ as there are social science disciplines, this book is about just one of them, the one that has made its mark on organisation theory, especially that branch most closely associated with sociology.

The new institutionalism focuses instead on nonlocal environments, either organisational sectors or fields roughly coterminous with the boundaries of industries, professions, or national societies. Environments, in this view, are more subtle in their influence; rather than being co-opted by organisations, they penetrate the organisation, creating the lenses through which actors view the world and the very categories of structure, action and thought.

Organizations compete not just for resources and customers, but for political power and institutional legitimacy, for social as well as economic fitness.