Different Paths for Institutional Theory : Foundational Dichotomies and Theoretical Framing

It is common for scholars to describe institutions as “rules of the game.” This description entails a separation between a society and its rules. Social change thus results as societies amend their framing rules. This paper explores that common treatment of institutions as rules with a treatment wherein societies and institutions as images of one another. If there were no rules governing interactions among some set of people, you would have a mass of people but that mass would not constitute what we recognize as society. This simple distinction between institutions as rules by which a society is governed and institutions as society itself creates divergent paths for institutional theory, which this paper explores