Methodological Positionings and Perspectives: Comparing Economics of Convention With the Institutional Logics Approach

摘要

The article compares the French economics of convention (EC) with institutional logics approach (IL). Both approaches share a perspective on a pluralism of deeper structures for coordination in organizations and fields. The differences in theoretical embedding, theoretical concepts, and underlying methodological positions are worked out. While IL is closely linked to a "culturalist methodological holism," EC is linked to a methodological position of a "complex pragmatic situationalism." Still, the reception of EC in the current strand of IL is weak. Reception (in both directions) and comparison should avoid reducing these approaches to single concepts as "convention" or "institutional logics" and respect their embeddedness in different theoretical traditions and methodological cultures. Analytical dimensions for comparison of institutional approaches are proposed.