Using Instititional Theory to Understand For-Profit Sectors: The Case of Financial Reporting Standards

Abstract

W. R. Scott (1987) declared the institutional paradigm to be in a contemplative phase of consolidation & careful reassessment. Urging more deliberative development of the paradigm's empirical applications, institutionalism's applicability to the imposition, authorization, inducement, acquisition, & incorporation of standardized financial reporting practices at 150 of the 1969 Fortune 200 companies 1962-1977 -- particularly in relation to financial statements & investment tax credits -- is demonstrated. How the results might be used to illuminate the relationship between institutionalist theory & two other theories that have made the same or similar predictions -- resource dependence theory & rational choice theory -- is also discussed. 6 Tables. M. Maguire