The previous subchapters presented the findings of this research study based on the existing literature on RDT and IT. The following sections focus on the contributions of the findings.
The section is divided into three parts: 1) theoretical implications; 2) methodological implications; and 3) practical implications. This division makes it possible to provide a distinct focus on each aspect. Still, there are apparent connections among the theory, methodology and practice in the current research. These three parts of the story are
interwoven and build up each other, so the division into three separate parts is to some extent
analytically counterproductive as they should be seen as a whole.
5.3.1 Theoretical implications
This study has aimed to further our understanding of the role of resource dependence in institutional change by exploring private cultural centres through a case study and four types of cultural centres in a more general questionnaire. While this research may not have found significant quantitative support for the themes that emerged in the qualitative phase, the mixture of the findings from the qualitative and quantitative phases of this research still has implications for advancing the conceptualisation of the joint resource dependence and institutional pressure phenomena.
IT and RDT are both organisational theories and aim to further understanding of
organisations’ operational context, with IT presuming an isomorphic approach, and RDT a strategical approach to gain resources. Integrating these theories, as this study has done, shows how a subject can be studied on a broader level. The empirical results linking the effects of resource dependence to a field in change are mixed. In other words, resource dependence and institutional change should be examined jointly to avoid incomplete pictures of the performance of the private cultural centres.
RDT guided this research as it contributed to the why and how of resource diversity, mission drift and organisational interdependencies in the field of cultural centres. RDT focuses on organisational environmental dependence as organisations do not only function through internal decision-making, mission goals or other processes but are equally shaped by resource environments (Pfeffer & Salancik, 2003). All the private cultural centres examined in this study rely on both public and private funders and are notably subject to resource dependency.
IT specifically explains how organisations respond to environmental pressures but overlooks their need for material economic resources. In an empirical context, this study demonstrates a real tension between IT and RDT, in the degree to which the private and public cultural centres differentially prioritise these two forms of pressures. RDT has mostly been employed to examine the use of alliances and collaboration to access to the resources required at a more organisational level. This research, however, suggests that resource dependence alters organisations’ interdependencies and strategic responses. A resource dependence threat can transform change agents into driven institutional entrepreneurs. In this case, the actors are eager to set up new logics with disparate connections to legitimacy. Supporting among other
the conclusion of Hambrick et al. (2005), isomorphic pressures can increase or decrease over time.
This study suggests that organisations are not entirely passive as IT proposes and do therefore not necessarily conform to the pressures laid upon them. Nor are organisations complete manipulators, as RDT suggests. The organisations in this study reveal the diverse traits of organisational actors and the nature of the pressures enforced upon them, but they also seem to possess a sort of political power. The private cultural centres can make sense of and change their environment and make strategical choices, including both compliance and
resistance. This study does not disagree with earlier views of IT and RDT but expands these views by arguing that these two theories are both complementary and interdependent on many levels, such as when explaining homogeneity, heterogeneity, isomorphism and diversification.
Regarding the concept of mission drift, the findings of this study suggest great differences in acquiring the needed resources. This finding, in turn, suggests that the concept of mission drift is not measurable between different fields and, as Weisbrod (2004) stated, is very hard to point out in a specific field or a single organisation.
The study findings show that private cultural centres are devoted to shaping and reinventing their organisational field. They started out as late adopters of ideas and practices in an institutional field where public cultural centres are the early adopters, with authenticated mission statements. Private cultural centres nonetheless have proven to be resilient to isomorphic pressures, confirming that isomorphism also works in reverse.
5.3.2 Methodological implications
A PhD thesis presents a different set of challenges to the researcher. In this particular case, the challenge was that cultural centres are still a quite unexplored concept. In retrospect, the sequential exploratory mixed methods design seemed to be the best alternative approach for this specific research. Here also lies a methodological implication.
This research applied a mixed-method approach, in which qualitative data from interviews were supported with quantitative results. Both the results and the experiences from this research can support the building of future mixed-methods research design. In classifications of suitable approaches to conducting research, the same approaches may be presented in unrealistic ways. For instance, taking this research as an example, the sequential data
collection was not all that practical. The qualitative data were collected before the quantitative data, as should be done in a sequential exploratory mixed methods study design. The analysis of the qualitative data began before collecting the quantitative data, as this study design prescribes. However, the analysis process was not completed before collecting the
quantitative data, so the analysis did not sufficiently help the design of the quantitative data collection tool. The sequential approach did have some advantages, such as the few pointers the first phase contributed to the second phase. Still, the second phase and the hypotheses were mostly formed by the theoretical background at that time and considerably less by the first phase. The second phase did clearly suffer from the overlapping process, resulting in a questionnaire that did not sufficiently measure the themes that emerged in the first phase.
5.3.3 Managerial implications
In addition to these theoretical and methodological contributions, this study has some managerial implications. A number of such implications for private cultural centres arose as the data were analysed, interpreted, discussed and compared with the existing literature in earlier chapters. This section summarises these implications.
Two unfolding issues are the differing nature of the institutional environments of the cultural centres and organisations’ strategic behaviour in this environment. Although this specific study focuses on a Finnish context, the results support some generalisations. These results serve to further our understanding of the effect resource dependence has on institutional change in organisation and the practical implications it might present.
Regarding separation of ownership and control, the study findings imply a division of cultural centres into four different groups (private, public, hybrid and governmental organisations), which all have their own specific pressures and strategies. The institutional backgrounds of these centre types lead them to act spontaneously in ways seen to serve their own interests without looking after any institutionalised interests in the matter. As stated by Lambert and Williams (2017), it is important to consider the ownership, governance and management structure before founding a new cultural centre.
As an organisational strategy and activity, inter-organisational cooperation could clearly improve both organisation growth and economic stability. Managers should consider inter-organisational cooperation as a way to achieve sustainable growth and stability. For resource scarcity, which seems to be the largest difficulty among private cultural centres, acquiring and
allocating resources should be planned ahead while staying within the frames of the mission statement. The field itself is not lucrative, so exploring the outskirts of the mission statement offers possibilities to gain resources. Regarding mission drift, managers should stay aware of the balance between focusing on the core content of the mission statement and possibilities to gain resources from activities farther from the core content.
For decision making, this study implies that driven managers of private cultural centres lean towards different strategies to diversify resource streams and choose a strategic response to institutional pressures. Since private cultural centres may occupy only restricted resources, centre managers might be compelled to carry out a set of limited strategies, with very minimal possibilities for alternative action. Furthermore, decision making seem to be tightly connected to regional needs and expectations. Managers need to know the specifics of the communities where cultural centres are and make decisions accordingly. Regarding change, this important aspect of cultural centres is quite under-explored by earlier research. This study attempted to expand our understanding on this aspect as institutional change adds to the development of cultural centres in the contexts of Western societies.