How Golden Parachutes Unfolded: Diffusion and Variation of a Controversial Practice

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Fiss, Peer C.; Kennedy, Mark T.; Davis, Gerald F.
• 署名单位: University of Southern California; University of Michigan System; University of Michigan
• 刊物名称: ORGANIZATION SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1047-7039
• DOI: 10.1287/orsc.1110.0685
• 发表日期: 2012
• 页码: 1077-1099
• 关键词: diffusion; practices; variation; INSTITUTIONAL THEORY; corporate governance; golden parachute; concept network

摘要

We contribute to a growing focus on variation in diffusion processes by examining the ways in which contested practices are modified as they spread among adopters. Expanding on prior diffusion accounts, we argue that the extensiveness and similarity of a practice will vary in response to both population- and organization-level mechanisms. To examine these issues, we study variation in golden parachute contracts, a controversial corporate governance practice that emerged and spread widely during the hostile takeover wave of the 1980s. Using a concept network approach to analyze the composition of parachute plans, we find evidence of mechanisms that both increase and decrease extensiveness and variation of golden parachutes. Our findings hold implications for accounts of practice diffusion over contested terrain by revealing substantial variation in the course of diffusion.