從制度調和歷程探討市場創新

Abstract

當今行銷學者更加重視市場的本質具備複雜性與動態性，進而影響市場創新的學術研究開始探問，何以型塑根本結構改變的市場創新。然而，從消費者作為個體行動者的視角，探討造成結構性變化的市場創新機制研究甚少。本研究奠基於服務主導邏輯的制度與服務生態理論觀點，將市場創新視為一系列的制度調和歷程。本研究以解構影響制度複雜度的多重脈絡來源，以及來源間的相容性，深入探討制度複雜度的內涵如何影響個體行動者的制度調和程序，以理解處於多重制度脈絡的個體行動者如何協調出不同的制度安排，進而影響早期市場創新的結果。據此研究目的，本研究透過兩個處於萌芽初期的新興市場個案，同時受到市場與家庭兩種不同制度脈絡來源交織的制度複雜度所影響，分析個體行動者如何協調多重制度安排之間的不一致。 研究結論顯示，行動者的制度調和程序是一個持續循環的動態歷程，歷經進入反思、調動資源、與使實踐規範化等三個階段。受到不同制度複雜度的影響，致使個體行動者的制度調和程序的發展進程，與協調出的制度安排結果各不相同。其中，當個體行動者所處的多重脈絡來源為局部相容時，更能驅使其完成三個階段的制度調和程序，進而有機會創造出新型態的制度安排。本研究據此提出制度脈絡的來源、個體行動者所處的多重制度安排、以及協調制度安排間不一致的制度調和程序，皆會影響市場創新初期發展的成功或失敗。本研究成果除填補市場創新的研究缺口外，也為市場創新的制度複雜性研究奠定了個體觀點的基礎。

Recently, marketing scholars increasingly recognize market’s nature of complexity and dynamics. This inspires market innovation studies to shift the research focus on the exploration of fundamental changes in market structure. However, the existing market innovation literature overlooks individual actors’ agency for contributing to structural changes. This paper extends S-D logic’s institutional and service ecosystems perspective to market innovation which is a process of institutional reconciliation within institutional complexity. The research further defines institutional complexity according to the incompatibility of institutional arrangements originating from different contexts. By decomposing contextual sources and their incompatibilities, this paper aims to investigate institutional reconciliation across contexts at the micro level wherein individual actors reconcile multiple and incompatible institutional arrangements that can lead to or inhibit macro-level market innovation. Two case studies of new market emergence are used to illustrate how individual actors reconcile institutional incompatibility under institutional complexity across the market and the family contexts. The findings reveal that individual actors pass through a recursive three-phase institutional reconciliation process under institutional complexity: engaging in reflexivity, mobilizing resources, and normalizing practices. Individual actors are embedded within institutional complexity with variable (in)compatibility among different but interrelated institutional arrangements across contexts, which affects their reconciliation processes. The findings show that the partial institutional incompatibility across contexts enable individual actors to proceed through three-phase institutional reconciliation process at one go, creating novel institutional arrangements. The current study affirms the contextual source, the surrounding institutional arrangements, and the process through which actors reconcile themselves with the incompatible institutional arrangements have important impacts on market innovation outcomes. This paper contributes to the market innovation literature by explaining that institutional complexity affects the institutional reconciliation process at the individual level, leading to uncertain market innovation outcomes at early stages.