Abstract

Organizations are embedded in a multilevel institutional environment where institutions at each specific level do not necessarily have uniform impact on various functions of organizations. In other words, institutionalization should not be viewed as a macro process that only affects the overall form or behavior of an organization as a whole. It is a process that has various kinds of influences on different parts of an organization. Similarly, different parts of organizations may change institutional norms differently. These are some of the promising areas found in a systematic review of the last twenty years of empirical research in the institutional theory literature. This review also indicates that markets, industries, organizations, and official institutions at national, regional, and local levels have mostly attracted researchers' attention in the last twenty years. However, this may not be the case in the twenty-first century since global institutions and global norms have gained more power and are becoming the main driving force even behind the norms of national and regional institutions. More than 95% of the empirical studies have used samples from developed nations. This is while institutional theory, as a natural/open system perspective at the ecological level of analysis, is known as one of the best theoretical frameworks for understanding organizations and their management activities in developing countries. These promising areas are explored using samples from a developing context. The perceptions of top executives, managers, and experts of the Iranian air transportation industry are collected through interviews and survey questionnaires to examine these issues. It is claimed that as global arrangements and norms cover a broader scope of organizations and their activities, there will be less chance for national, regional, and local institutional pressures to influence them. Functional activities or strategies of the major players of an industry may change the norms of related national or local institutions.