Institutional isomorphism revisited: Convergence and divergence

sociological institutionalism has focused on processes of isomorphism. I argue that this is a one-sided focus that leaves out many insights from other institutional and macrosociological approaches and does not do justice to actual social change because it overlooks the role played by divergent institutional development. While the sug-gestion of divergent trends is not new, there have been few attempts to integrate di-vergence into the theoretical premises of the new sociological institutionalism. Based on the typology proposed by DiMaggio and Powell, I show that the mechanisms identified by them as sources of isomorphic change can support processes of diver-gent change as well. The theoretical challenge is to identify conditions under which these mechanisms push institutional change toward homogenization or divergence. The new sociological institutionalism is the most influential theory in recent decades addressing issues of institutional development (DiMaggio and Powell 1983; Meyer and Rowen 1977). This theoretical approach was developed in connection with the study of organizations (DiMaggio and Powell 1991; Strang and Soule 1998), but has since been expanded to cover the analysis of institutional change more generally