Future prospects and conceptual foundation for institutional theory in corporate marketing.

Abstract

The institutional setting has a major impact on how businesses act, are structured, make decisions, and run their operations. Managers are trying to establish credibility while keeping operations lean to obtain an edge in the market. We suggest a developmental process of institution-driven and legitimacy-embedded efficiency, and we highlight the convergence of legitimacy and efficiency in the context of commercial marketing to show how these ideas might be put into practice. We conclude by pointing out numerous fruitful avenues for further study of institutional theory and its application in corporate marketing. Finally, we provide a short overview of each article included in this issue.