CANCELED: The Value of Values for Institutional Analysis

Though values were once the central focus of institutional scholarship, they occupy a marginal position in the contemporary literature. Viewing this situation as both a significant problem and a latent opportunity, our paper seeks to stimulate change by pursuing three broad aims. The first is to present an integrative review of the insitutional and sociological values literatures. This review addresses basic questions about values’ nature, origins, and functions, and uncovers many latent connections between these currently separate bodies of research. Drawing on this literature review, our second aim is to elaborate the "value of values" for institutional analysis. Specifically, we will suggest that a renewed focus on values can: a) enhance our understanding of institutions and their human inhabitants and, b) increase the moral and practical relevance of institutional scholarship. Our third aim is to sketch out a preliminary agenda for future research. While we stress that values can be incorporated into contemporary research in many different ways, our main focus is on promoting research that gives renewed attention to the enduring problems that were at the heart of early institutional scholarship.

 Grand Challenge seminar series

This presentation is part of the Grand Challenge seminar series. The aim of this series is to foster high-level discussions within ERIM on grand societal challenges (the reduction of poverty, increasing equality, combating climate change) and the opportunities that these provide for management and organizational research. The focus on grand challenges aligns with the interest of the business-society department and RSM more widely on sustainability and the UN's sustainable development goals. Specifically, we invite leading researchers from business schools around the world who connect grand challenges to management and organizational theory and publish their work in the leading journals of our field.