Through a nine-month ethnography in an advertising agency in Iran, a deeply conservative society,... more Through a nine-month ethnography in an advertising agency in Iran, a deeply conservative society, we explore the microprocesses through which actors search for and exploit areas of institutional plasticity toward incremental change. Given the infeasibility of more significant change in a highly institutionalized arrangement, actors in these settings are likely to seek out institutions characterized by the highest degree of plasticity. Yet, extant institutional research has not yet addressed the question of how they may go about doing so, which is what we seek to do in this article. By studying how celebrity endorsement became more normative in the field of advertising despite initial resistance from Iranian government regulators, we make four contributions to institutional literature. First, we demonstrate how institutional plasticity can serve as an antecedent to incremental institutional change in highly institutionalized contexts. Second, we trace the source of institutional plas...
The purpose of this thesis is to examine the process of creativity in advertising from a practice... more The purpose of this thesis is to examine the process of creativity in advertising from a practice-based perspective and illustrate the dynamics and relations between practices that can constitute this phenomenon. A nine month long ethnographic study was conducted in the context of an international advertising agency in Iran, where the organisational aim of doing being creative is in contradiction with the broader social system of the country which largely promotes conservative thinking. Such tension makes practitioners aware of their intertwinement with the practices involved in the creativity process and thus it is easier for them to reflect on what they are doing (Sandberg and Tsoukas 2011). This setting thus provides a good platform to capture the logic of practices. By drawing on Schatzki’s (1996) theories of practice, the everyday practices of creatives, their interaction with other members of their advertising agency, their clients and audiences as well as with existing advert...
The purpose of this qualitative study is to understand the risk-reducing strategies used by Chine... more The purpose of this qualitative study is to understand the risk-reducing strategies used by Chinese consumers in a collectivistic culture to balance the psychological dichotomy they face when consuming counterfeit luxury products to construct their social identities. Consumers, on the one hand, are tempted to buy counterfeit luxury products due to their remarkable price advantages, while on the other hand they are reluctant to use these products given the fear of being socially caught out. This dissonance intensifies in a collectivistic culture, where the concept of social face is important. The study involved reviewing a large volume of literature on the research of non-deceptive counterfeit luxury consumption, based on which 26 semi-structured in-depth interviews among Chinese consumers were conducted to explore strategies used by consumers to construct their social identity through using counterfeit luxury products. In addition, the ways they select and use these products to avoid being caught out in order to maintain their constructed social identity were investigated. The data were analyzed by adopting (Mitchell in Manag Decis 30(3):26–31, 1992) risk reduction framework, and the findings illustrate the different strategies taking place through two separate consumption phases: pre-purchase and post-purchase. This research offers new insights into non-deceptive counterfeit consumption by introducing perceived risk and risk-reducing strategies.
Through a nine-month ethnography in an advertising agency in Iran, a deeply conservative society,... more Through a nine-month ethnography in an advertising agency in Iran, a deeply conservative society, we explore the microprocesses through which actors search for and exploit areas of institutional plasticity toward incremental change. Given the infeasibility of more significant change in a highly institutionalized arrangement, actors in these settings are likely to seek out institutions characterized by the highest degree of plasticity. Yet, extant institutional research has not yet addressed the question of how they may go about doing so, which is what we seek to do in this article. By studying how celebrity endorsement became more normative in the field of advertising despite initial resistance from Iranian government regulators, we make four contributions to institutional literature. First, we demonstrate how institutional plasticity can serve as an antecedent to incremental institutional change in highly institutionalized contexts. Second, we trace the source of institutional plas...
The purpose of this thesis is to examine the process of creativity in advertising from a practice... more The purpose of this thesis is to examine the process of creativity in advertising from a practice-based perspective and illustrate the dynamics and relations between practices that can constitute this phenomenon. A nine month long ethnographic study was conducted in the context of an international advertising agency in Iran, where the organisational aim of doing being creative is in contradiction with the broader social system of the country which largely promotes conservative thinking. Such tension makes practitioners aware of their intertwinement with the practices involved in the creativity process and thus it is easier for them to reflect on what they are doing (Sandberg and Tsoukas 2011). This setting thus provides a good platform to capture the logic of practices. By drawing on Schatzki’s (1996) theories of practice, the everyday practices of creatives, their interaction with other members of their advertising agency, their clients and audiences as well as with existing advert...
The purpose of this qualitative study is to understand the risk-reducing strategies used by Chine... more The purpose of this qualitative study is to understand the risk-reducing strategies used by Chinese consumers in a collectivistic culture to balance the psychological dichotomy they face when consuming counterfeit luxury products to construct their social identities. Consumers, on the one hand, are tempted to buy counterfeit luxury products due to their remarkable price advantages, while on the other hand they are reluctant to use these products given the fear of being socially caught out. This dissonance intensifies in a collectivistic culture, where the concept of social face is important. The study involved reviewing a large volume of literature on the research of non-deceptive counterfeit luxury consumption, based on which 26 semi-structured in-depth interviews among Chinese consumers were conducted to explore strategies used by consumers to construct their social identity through using counterfeit luxury products. In addition, the ways they select and use these products to avoid being caught out in order to maintain their constructed social identity were investigated. The data were analyzed by adopting (Mitchell in Manag Decis 30(3):26–31, 1992) risk reduction framework, and the findings illustrate the different strategies taking place through two separate consumption phases: pre-purchase and post-purchase. This research offers new insights into non-deceptive counterfeit consumption by introducing perceived risk and risk-reducing strategies.
Uploads