schools and theoretical approaches
epistemological foundations of political science
organizational theory
neo-institutional theory
approaches to organization theory
macrosociological theories
managing environments
concepts
Institutional theory has been grappling with one major problem: how to explain the dynamics of change in institutions. Scholars in the three longstanding “new institutionalisms”—(1) rational choice institutionalism (RI), (2) historical institutionalism (HI), and (3) sociological institutionalism (SI)—have increasingly sought to “endogenize” change, that is, explain it “from the inside.” In response to criticisms that their analytic frameworks could account for continuity but not for change, which they explained mainly “from the outside,” as the result of exogenous shocks, these neo-institutionalists have increasingly sought to explain the origins of and shifts in interest-based preferences, historical paths, or cultural frames. [Source: International Encyclopedia of Political Science; Institutional Theory]
institutional theory
comparative and historical theory