Sustaining extended enterprises as a matter of institutional logics: insights from the railway sector

Purpose: This paper aims to investigate the effect of institutional logics on the intended resource coordination and integration in extended enterprises (EEs).

Design/methodology/approach: The qualitative multiple case study approach collected data from three EEs and their hierarchical organizational context in the restructured and privatized railway sector of the Netherlands by observing 40 meetings, conducting 31 semi-structured interviews and 9 feedback meetings and perusing organizational documents.

Findings: Performance and professional logics characterized the EEs and their hierarchical organizational context. Aligning these logics failed to support the resource coordination and integration in the EEs because of the logics’ resource-centric nature. The co-creation logic in one of the EEs mitigated this resource centrism by addressing the resource personifications and representations of the professional and performance logics. Business unit representatives having hierarchically overlapping organizational positions supported this change process by offering protection from resource-centric logics.

Research limitations/implications: The chosen research design limits the generalization of the findings but reveals new scientific and practical insights on the role of institutional logics for sustaining EEs.

Practical implications: The various EE business-units, but especially their contract and concession authorities, need to realize the crippling effect of resource-centric logics on sustaining an EE. Becoming aware of the resource personifications and representations of these logics can assist in addressing their negative effects.

Originality/value: No previous studies have empirically investigated the effect of institutional logics on the intended resource coordination and integration in EEs.