schools and theoretical approaches
type: Concept
narrower: institutional theory

epistemological foundations of political science
type: Concept
narrower: institutional theory

organizational theory
type: Concept
narrower: institutional theory

neo-institutional theory
type: Concept
broader: institutional theory

approaches to organization theory
type: Concept
narrower: institutional theory

macrosociological theories
type: Concept
narrower: institutional theory

managing environments
type: Concept
narrower: institutional theory

concepts
type: Collection
type: ConceptGroup
member: institutional theory

institutional theory
broader: epistemological foundations of political science
broader: schools and theoretical approaches
broader: comparative and historical theory
broader: organizational theory
broader: managing environments
broader: macrosociological theories
broader: approaches to organization theory
definition: 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]
narrower: neo-institutional theory
type: Concept

comparative and historical theory
type: Concept
narrower: institutional theory