Approval in nanotechnology patents: Micro and macro factors that affect reactions to category blending

Organization Science

Volumn 26, Issue 1, 2015, Pages 119-139

  Lo, Jade Yu Chieh ^a   Kennedy, Mark Thomas ^b  

^a DREXEL UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^b IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

Approval; Categorical imperative; Category blends; Innovation; Institutional logics; Nanotechnology; Typicality

Indexed keywords

EID: 84923295491     PISSN: 10477039     EISSN: 15265455     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1287/orsc.2014.0933     Document Type: Article

References (107)

1. Armstrong EA (2002) Crisis, collective creativity, and the generation of new organizational forms: The transformation of lesbian/gay organizations in San Francisco. Lounsbury M, Ventresca MJ, eds. Social Structure and Organizations Revisited, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 19 (Emerald Group Publishing, Bingley, UK), 361-395.
2. Austin DH (1993) An event-study approach to measuring innovative output: The case of biotechnology. Amer. Econom. Rev. 83(2): 253-258.
3. Battilana J, Dorado S (2010) Building sustainable hybrid organizations: The case of commercial microfinance organizations. Acad. Management J. 53(6):1419-1440.
4. Baum JA, Oliver C (1996) Toward an institutional ecology of organizational founding. Acad. Management J. 39(5):1378-1427.
5. Berger PL, Luckmann T (1966) The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge (Doubleday, Garden City, NY).
6. Bogaert S, Boone C, Carroll GR (2010) Organizational form emergence and competing professional schemata of Dutch accounting, 1884-1939. Hsu G, Negro G, Koçak ö, eds. Categories in Markets: Origins and Evolution, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 31 (Emerald Group Publishing, Bingley, UK), 115-152.
7. Bourdieu P (1984) Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgement of Taste (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA).
8. Cameron AC, Trivedi PK (1986) Econometric models based on count data: Comparisons and applications of some estimators and tests. J. Appl. Econometrics 1(1):29-53.
9. Carroll G (1984) Organizational ecology. Annual Rev. Sociol. 10:71-93.
10. Carroll GR, Hannan MT (1989) Density dependence in the evolution of populations of newspaper organizations. Amer. Sociol. Rev. 54(4):524-541.
11. Carroll GR, Swaminathan A (2000) Why the microbrewery movement? Organizational dynamics of resource partitioning in the U.S. brewing industry. Amer. J. Sociol. 106(3):715-762.
12. Chaiken S, Trope Y (1999) Dual-Process Theories in Social Psychology (Guilford Press, New York).
13. Chalmers AF (1999) What Is This Thing Called Science? (Hackett Publishing Company, Indianapolis).
14. Chase WG, Simon HA (1973) Perception in chess. Cognitive Psych. 4(1):55-81.
15. Clemens ES (1993) Organizational repertoires and institutional change: Women's groups and the transformation of U.S. politics, 1890-1920. Amer. J. Sociol. 98(4):755-798.
16. Clemens ES, Cook JM (1999) Politics and institutionalism: Explaining durability and change. Annual Rev. Sociol. 25:441-466.
17. Darby MR, Zucker LG (2006) Grilichesian breakthroughs: Inventions of methods of inventing in nanotechnology and biotechnology. Ann. d'Economie Statistique (79/80):143-164.
18. DiMaggio PJ (1988) Interest and agency in institutional theory. Zucker LG, ed. Institutional Patterns and Organizations: Culture and Environment (Ballinger, Cambridge, UK), 3-22.
19. DiMaggio P (1997) Culture and cognition. Annual Rev. Sociol. 23: 263-287.
20. DiMaggio PJ, Powell WW (1983) The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. Amer. Sociol. Rev. 48(2):147-160.
21. Dollinger MJ (1984) Environmental boundary spanning and information processing effects on organizational performance. Acad. Management J. 27(2):351-368.
22. Douglas M (2002) Purity and Danger: An Analysis of Concept of Pollution and Taboo (Routledge, New York).
23. Durand R, Paolella L (2013) Category stretching: Reorienting research on categories in strategy, entrepreneurship, and organization theory. J. Management Stud. 50(6):1100-1123.
24. Fiske ST, Taylor SE (1991) Social Cognition, 2nd ed. (McGraw Hill, New York).
25. Fleming L (2001) Recombinant uncertainty in technological search. Management Sci. 47(1):117-132.
26. Fligstein N (1996) Markets as politics: A political-cultural approach to market institutions. Amer. Sociol. Rev. 61(4):656-673.
27. Fligstein N (2001) Social skill and the theory of fields. Sociol. Theory 19(2):105-125.
28. Friedland R, Alford RR (1991) Bringing society back in: Symbols, practices, and institutional contradictions. Powell WW, DiMaggio PJ, eds. The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis (University of Chicago Press, Chicago), 232-263.
29. Gamson WA, Meyer DS (1996) Framing political opportunity. McAdam D, McCarthy JD, Zald MN, eds. Comparative Perspectives on Social Movements: Political Opportunities, Mobilizing Structures, and Cultural Framings (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK), 275-290.
30. Giddens A (1984) The Constitution of Society (University of California Press, Berkeley).
31. Gillund G, Shiffrin RM (1984) A retrieval model for both recognition and recall. Psych. Rev. 91(1):1-67.
32. Glynn MA, Navis C (2013) Categories, identities, and cultural classification: Moving beyond a model of categorical constraint. J. Management Stud. 50(6):1124-1137.
33. Gobet F, Voogt Ad, Retschitzki J (2004) Moves in Mind: The Psychology of Board Games (Psychology Press, East Sussex, UK).
34. Granqvist N, Grodal S, Woolley JL (2013) Hedging your bets: Explaining executives' market labeling strategies in nanotechnology. Organ. Sci. 24(2):395-413.
35. Greenwood R, Suddaby R (2006) Institutional entrepreneurship in mature fields: The big five accounting firms. Acad. Management J. 49(1):27-48.
36. Hall BH, Jaffe A, Trajtenberg M (2005) Market value and patent citations. RAND J. Econom. 36(1):16-38.
37. Hannan MT, Freeman J (1977) The population ecology of organizations. Amer. J. Sociol. 82(5):929-964.
38. Hannan MT, Freeman J (1986) Where do organizational forms come from? Sociol. Forum 1(1):50-72.
39. Haveman HA, Rao H (1997) Structuring a theory of moral sentiments: Industrial and organizational co-evolution in the early thrift industry. Amer. J. Sociol. 102(6):1606-1651.
40. Hintzman DL (1990) Human learning and memory: Connections and dissociations. Annual Rev. Psych. 41(1):109-139.
41. Hsu G (2006a) Evaluative schemas and the attention of critics in the US film industry. Indust. Corporate Change 15(3):467-496.
42. Hsu G (2006b) Jacks of all trades and masters of none: Audiences' reactions to spanning genres in feature film production. Admin. Sci. Quart. 51(3):420-450.
43. Hsu G, Hannan MT, Koçak Ö (2009) Multiple category memberships in markets: A formal theory and two empirical tests. Amer. Sociol. Rev. 74(1):150-169.
44. Hsu G, Negro G, Koçak Ö, eds. (2010) Categories in Markets: Origins and Evolution, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 31 (Emerald Group Publishing, Bingley, UK).
45. Jaffe AB (1986) Technological opportunity and spillovers from R & D: Evidence from firms' patents, profits and market value. Amer. Econom. Rev. 76(5):984-1001.
46. Jaffe AB, Trajtenberg M, Henderson R (1993) Geographic localization of knowledge spillovers as evidenced by patent citations. Quart. J. Econom. 108(3):577-598.
47. Jepperson RL (1991) Institutions, institutional effects, and institutionalism. Powell WW, DiMaggio PJ, eds. The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis (University of Chicago Press, Chicago), 143-163.
48. Kaplan S, Vakili K (2013) Studying breakthrough innovations using topic modeling: A test using nanotechnology patents. Rotman School of Management Working Paper 2261731, University of Toronto, Toronto. http://ssrn.com/abstractD2261731.
49. Kennedy MT (2008) Getting counted markets, media, and reality. Amer. Sociol. Rev. 73(2):270-295.
50. Kennedy MT, Fiss PC (2013) An ontological turn in categories research: From standards of legitimacy to evidence of actuality. J. Management Stud. 50(6):1138-1154.
51. Kennedy MT, Lo Y-C, Lounsbury M (2010) Category currency: The changing value of conformity as a function of ongoing meaning construction. Hsu G, Negro G, Koçak ö, eds. Categories in Markets: Origins and Evolution, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 31 (Emerald Group Publishing, Bingley, UK), 369-397.
52. King BG, Clemens ES, Fry M (2011) Identity realization and organizational forms: Differentiation and consolidation of identities among Arizona's charter schools. Organ. Sci. 22(3):554-572.
53. Klein JT (1990) Interdisciplinarity: History, Theory, and Practice (Wayne State University Press, Detroit).
54. Kodeih F, Greenwood R (2014) Responding to institutional complexity: The role of identity. Organ. Stud. 35(1):7-39.
55. Koppikar V, Maebius SB, Rutt JS (2004) Current trends in nanotech patents: A view from inside the patent office. Nanotechnology Law Bus. 1(1):Article 4.
56. Lerner J (1994) The importance of patent scope: An empirical analysis. RAND J. Econom. 25(2):319-333.
57. Lounsbury M (2002) Institutional transformation and status mobility: The professionalization of the field of finance. Acad. Management J. 45(1):255-266.
58. McCray P (2005) Will small be beautiful? Making policies for our nanotech future. History Tech. 21(2):177-203.
59. McKelvey B (1999) Toward a Campbellian realist organization science. Baum JAC, McKelvey B, eds. Variations in Organization Science: In Honor of Donald T. Campbell (Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA), 383-411.
60. McKendrick DG, Carroll GR, Jaffee J, Khessina OM (2003) In the bud? Analysis of disk array producers as a (possibly) emergent organizational form. Admin. Sci. Quart. 48(1):60-94.
61. Menand L (2010) The Marketplace of Ideas (W.W. Norton & Company, New York).
62. Mervis CB, Rosch E (1981) Categorization of natural objects. Annual Rev. Psych. 32:89-115.
63. Meyer JW, Rowan B (1977) Institutionalized organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony. Amer. J. Sociol. 83(2):340-363.
64. National Academy of Sciences (2004) Facilitating Interdisciplinary Research (National Academies Press, Washington, DC).
65. National Nanotechnology Initiative (2009) About the NNI. Accessed September 2010, http://www.nano.gov/about-nni/what/funding.
66. National Science Board (2008) Report to Congress on Interdisciplinary Research at the National Science Foundation. Report NSB-08-80, National Science Foundation, Arlington, VA.
67. National Science Foundation (2007) Impact of Proposal and Award Management Mechanisms (IPAMM) final report. Report, National Science Foundation, Arlington, VA.
68. Negro G, Leung MD (2013) "Actual" and perceptual effects of category spanning. Organ. Sci. 24(3):684-696.
69. Negro G, Hannan MT, Rao H (2010) Categorical contrast and audience appeal: Niche width and critical success in winemaking. Indust. Corporate Change 19(5):1397-1425.
70. Phene A, Fladmoe-Lindquist K, Marsh L (2006) Breakthrough innovations in the U.S. biotechnology industry: The effects of technological space and geographic origin. Strategic Management J. 27(4):369-388.
71. Pólos L, Hannan MT, Carroll GR (2002) Foundations of a theory of social forms. Indust. Corporate Change 11(1):85-115.
72. Pontikes EG (2012) Two sides of the same coin how ambiguous classification affects multiple audiences' evaluations. Admin. Sci. Quart. 57(1):81-118.
73. Porter AL, Youtie J (2009) How interdisciplinary is nanotechnology? J. Nanoparticle Res. 11(5):1023-1041.
74. Powell WW, Koput KW, Smith-Doer L (1996) Interorganizational collaboration and the locus of innovation: Networks of learning in biotechnology. Admin. Sci. Quart. 41(1):116-145.
75. Powell WW, White DR, Koput KW, Owen-Smith J (2005) Network dynamics and field evolution: The growth of interorganizational collaboration in the life sciences. Amer. J. Sociol. 110(4):1132-1205.
76. Roco MC (2005) International perspective on government nanotechnology funding in 2005. J. Nanoparticle Res. 7(6):707-712.
77. Roco MC (2011) The long view of nanotechnology development: The National Nanotechnology Initiative at 10 years. Roco MC, Hersam MC, Mirkin CA, eds. Nanotechnology Research Directions for Societal Needs in 2020: Retrospective and Outlook, Science Policy Reports, Vol. 1 (Springer, New York), 1-28.
78. Romanelli E (1991) The evolution of new organizational forms. Annual Rev. Sociol. 17:79-103.
79. Rosch E (1983) Prototype classification and logical classification: The two systems. Scholnick EK, ed. New Trends in Conceptual Representation: Challenges to Piaget's Theory? (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ), 73-86.
80. Rosch E (1999) Principles of categorization. Margolis E, Laurence S, eds. Concepts: Core Readings (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge), 189-206.
81. Rosch E, Lloyd BB (1978) Cognition and Categorization (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ).
82. Ruef M (2000) The emergence of organizational forms: A community ecology approach. Amer. J. Sociol. 106(3):658-714.
83. Sampat BN (2004) Examining patent examination: An analysis of examiner and applicant generated prior art. Working paper, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
84. Schumpeter JA (1934) The Theory of Economic Development: An Inquiry into Profits, Capital, Credit, Interest and the Business Cycle, 2nd ed. (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA).
85. Scott WR (2008) Institutions and Organizations: Ideas and Interests (Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA).
86. Simon HA (1947) Administrative Behavior: A Study of Decision-Making Process in Administrative Organizations (Macmillan, Chicago).
87. Simon HA (1974) How big is a chunk? By combining data from several experiments, a basic human memory unit can be identified and measured Science 183(4124):482-488.
88. Sismondo S (2009) An Introduction to Science and Technology Studies (Wiley-Blackwell, West Sussex, UK).
89. Stinchcombe AL (1965) Social structure and organizations. March JG, ed. Handbook of Organizations (Rand McNally, Chicago), 142-193.
90. Swidler A (1986) Culture in action: Symbols and strategies. Amer. Sociol. Rev. 51(2):273-286.
91. Taniguchi N (1974) On the basic concept of nanotechnology. Proc. Internat. Conf. Prod. Engrg. Tokyo, Part II (Japan Society of Precision Engineering, Tokyo), 18-23.
92. Thornton PH, Ocasio W (1999) Institutional logics and the historical contingency of power in organizations: Executive succession in the higher education publishing industry, 1958-1990. Amer. J. Sociol. 105(3):801-843.
93. Thornton PH, Ocasio W, Lounsbury M (2012) The Institutional Logics Perspective: Foundations, Research, and Theoretical Elaboration (Oxford University Press, New York).
94. Tilly C (1999) Durable Inequality (University of California Press, Berkeley).
95. Toescu EC (2005) Integration and interdisciplinarity in contemporary neurosciences. J. Cellular Molecular Medicine 9(3):529-530.
96. Tolbert PS, Zucker LG (1983) Institutional sources of change in the formal structure of organizations: The diffusion of civil service reform, 1880-1935. Admin. Sci. Quart. 28(1):22-39.
97. Tracey P, Phillips N, Jarvis O (2011) Bridging institutional entrepreneurship and the creation of new organizational forms: A multilevel model. Organ. Sci. 22(1):60-80.
98. Trajtenberg M, Henderson R, Jaffe A (1997) University versus corporate patents: A window on the basicness of invention. Econom. Innovation New Tech. 5(1):19-50.
99. Tversky A, Kahneman D (1973) Availability: A heuristic for judging frequency and probability. Cognitive Psych. 5(2):207-232.
100. USPTO (2007) Introduction to the USPTO. Accessed September 2013, http://www.uspto.gov/patents/law/exam/presentation/intro_to_ca.jsp.
101. Weick KE (1993) Sense making in organizations: Small structures with large consequences. Murnighan JK, ed. Social Psychology in Organizations (Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ), 10-37.
102. Weick KE (1995) Sensemaking in Organizations (Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA).
103. Wry T, Lounsbury M (2013) Contextualizing the categorical imperative: Category linkages, technology focus, and resource acquisition in nanotechnology entrepreneurship. J. Bus. Venturing 28(1):117-133.
104. Wry T, Greenwood R, Jennings PD, Lounsbury M (2010) Institutional sources of technological knowledge: A community perspective on nanotechnology emergence. Phillips N, Sewell G, Griffiths D, eds. Technology and Organization: Essays in Honour of Joan Woodward, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 29 (Emerald Group Publishing, Bingley, UK), 149-176.
105. Zucker LG, Darby MR, Fong J (2011) Communitywide database designs for tracking innovation impact: COMETS, STARS and Nanobank. NBER Working Paper 17404, National Bureau of Economic Research, Cambridge, MA.
106. Zuckerman EW (1999) The categorical imperative: Securities analysts and the illegitimacy discount. Amer. J. Sociol. 104(5):1398-1438.
107. Zuckerman EW (2005) Typecasting and generalism in firm and market: Genre-based career concentration in the feature film industry, 1933-1995. Jones C, Thornton PH, eds. Transformation in Cultural Industries, Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Vol. 23 (Emerald Group Publishing, Bingley, UK), 171-214.