Jules or Jim: Alternative Conformity to Minority Logics

To what extent do organizations respond favorably to minority participation, i.e. conform to demands from minority resource suppliers that hold an unconventional logic? A favorable response to minority participation (i.e. “alternative conformity”) contributes to decrease the influence of dominant players, alter the resource suppliers’ social structure, and promote new logics, which makes alternative conformity a soft control strategy for organizations. We expect a positive relationship between minority participation and alternative conformity and that relationship to be attenuated by organizations’ adherence to the dominant logic, centrality of minority logic holders, and minority logic’s institutional credit. We test and find strong support for our hypotheses using original data on investment funds in the French film industry (1994-2008).