Reframing Informal Institutional Voids as the Attempted Remaking of Contested Social Spaces: Evidence from England

Md Nazmul Hasan; Krista Bondy

doi:10.1177/10564926241242045

Reframing Informal Institutional Voids as the Attempted Remaking of Contested Social Spaces: Evidence from England

Md Nazmul Hasan
, Krista Bondy

Management

Stirling Management School

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Citation (SciVal)

Abstract

The conventional perspective on institutional voids as mere absences has recently faced criticism. Recent research suggests that voids are instead sites of contestation between institutions. However, understanding the specifics of this and how informal voids function in such contestations requires deeper investigation. We combine insights from the institutional voids and political theory literatures to reconceptualise informal voids as spaces of attempted institutional remaking which occurs through three key activities - developing new norms, devising legitimate political interventions and negotiating new rules. We present data from 123 interviews to demonstrate these three activities. This evidence enables us to challenge two assumptions in the voids literature and to demonstrate how an informal void (as reconceptualised) functions at the nexus of health and urban development in England. This study has implications for investigating informal voids as active social spaces, where actors attempt to remake contested social spaces through three core types of activity.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	203-221
Number of pages	19
Journal	Journal of Management Inquiry
Volume	34
Issue number	2
Early online date	28 Mar 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/10564926241242045
Publication status	Published - 30 Apr 2025

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank colleagues from the TRUUD consortium who provided valuable feedback on a presentation of an earlier draft of the paper. We also thank TRRUD colleagues Professor Sarah Ayres, Dr Andrew Barnfield, Professor Nick Pearce, Dr Geoff Bates, Dr Anna Le Gouais, Dr Rosalie Callway, Daniel Black, Professor Kathy Pain, Dr Heeseo Rain Kwon, Sian Peake-Jones, Dr Caglar Koksal and Professor Cecilia Wong, who, along with us, collected and initially analysed the data used in the paper. Our deep thanks go to Associate Editor Professor Karan Sonpar for his valuable feedback on the previous versions of the paper and to the anonymous expert reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions. Finally, we are grateful to Dr Juliette Summers, Professor Oliver Mallet, Professor Iain Davies and Professor Nancy Harding for their thoughtful comments on the final two versions of the paper.

Funding

The authors disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This work was supported by the UK Prevention Research Partnership (award reference: MR/S037586/1), which is funded by the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Chief Scientist Office of the Scottish Government Health and Social Care Directorates, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, Health and Social Care Research and Development Division (Welsh Government), Medical Research Council, National Institute for Health Research, Natural Environment Research Council, Public Health Agency (Northern Ireland), The Health Foundation and Wellcome.

Keywords

business & society
decision-making: team/Organization
institutional theory
interviews
qualitative research

ASJC Scopus subject areas

General Business,Management and Accounting
Strategy and Management
Management of Technology and Innovation

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10.1177/10564926241242045Licence: CC BY

Cite this

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Reframing Informal Institutional Voids as the Attempted Remaking of Contested Social Spaces: Evidence from England

Abstract

Acknowledgements

Funding

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

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