Acting Globally but Thinking Locally? The Influence of Local Communities on Organizations

It is a paradox that in a globalizing and "boundaryless" economy, factors associated with local communities—such as interpersonal networks, laws, and tax rates, among others—remain important for understanding organizational behavior. As Marquis and Battilana argue, communities influence organizational behavior not only as local markets and resource environments, but also through a number of institutional pressures. Focusing on communities as institutional environments provides fresh theoretical insights into organizational behavior, in addition to offering a more unified perspective to the diverse set of research that is emerging on local communities. Key concepts include:

* Despite globalization, local factors remain important, and in many ways local particularities have become more visible and salient as globalization has proceeded.

* In today’s environment, organizations are embedded both locally and globally. Researchers need to account for these different levels in order to understand organizational behavior and also perhaps advance theory.

Christopher Marquis and Julie Battilana

Full Paper: http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/5823.html