Hélène Delacour

Grandeur et décadence du salon de Paris: une étude du processus de désinstitutionnalisation d'un évènement configurateur de champs dans les activités culturelles

This article examines the deinstitutionalization of a Field Configuring Event (FCE) and the consequences of this deinstitutionalization for an organizational field. To this end, we carried out a historiographical study of the deinstitutionalization of the Paris Salon. This pivotal FCE was the central event of the Beaux-Arts field in France for over two centuries before its progressive decline at the end of the 19th Century. From a theoretical point of view, our results show that the deinstitutionalization process of FCEs is the result of the interaction and dynamics of several factors, notably, the internal contradictions of the FCE, the emergence of alternatives resulting from institutional developments, and the constitution of a critical mass, followed by the development of institutional pressures that encourage the abandonment of the FCE. This study also enables us to analyze the impact of an FCE’s decline on the structure, distribution and nature of power, and especially on temporality within a field. Finally, it contributes to the study of the deinstitutionalization process in general. From a managerial point of view, this study suggests that promoters must organize themselves to integrate innovation, in order to avoid the decline of the FCE.

The Paradox of Controversial Innovation: Insights From the Rise of Impressionism

This article considers the strategies developed by a coalition of innovators and supporters to contribute to the consecration of a controversial innovation that transgresses the established codes. It does so through the analysis of Impressionism (1874–1900) that provoked a dramatic shift from classical to modern art. The case study suggests that such consecration can be achieved while claiming the distinctiveness of the controversial innovation, instead of toning it down. The findings reveal the importance of distributed strategies developed by loosely coordinated coalition members. More specifically, they point to simultaneous, and potentially contradictory, strategies: strategies aimed to enforce the distinctiveness of this controversial innovation, and strategies aimed to extend support for it, insisting that contradictory tensions between those strategies can prove useful in achieving consecration. Overall, the article contributes to research on the consecration of controversial innovations, as well as to the literature on framing and brokerage.

Résolution de guerre de standards par la coordination : De l’émergence à l’instrumentalisation d’un point focal

Si la litterature sur les guerres de standards a mis en evidence de nombreux facteurs permettant d’expliquer le succes d’une technologie sur une autre (comme l’importance des rendements croissants d’adoption), nous cherchons, a travers cet article, a proposer une approche complementaire. Nous montrons, en effet, comment le concept de point focal, generalement mobilise en theorie des jeux, permet d’expliquer l’emergence d’un standard. En l’absence de coordination entre les acteurs, la presence d’un point focal les conduit a opter pour la meme technologie et ainsi, a definir un standard sur un marche. Pour illustrer notre propos, nous etudions le cas de l’industrie pornographique et la maniere dont cette industrie a reussi a etre consideree comme point focal par les autres acteurs et a instrumentaliser cette position.