Organizing the un-organized? Evidence from Indian diamond industry

The Indian diamond industry is composed of tens of thousands of firms engaged in cutting and polishing of diamonds and resides in the so-called un-organized sector. However, together, these firms produce 11 out of 12 diamonds set in jewelery worldwide. In absence of formal systems of governance, how are firms in this industry organized? We conduct a firm and industry level of analysis of the intangible aspects of organizing, i.e. organizational culture. Using competing values framework, we collect data from hundreds of artisans and workers of the Indian diamond industry. Results suggest that such informal firms may be more organized than originally thought. We then propose initial theory of an informal firm.