Index of Paper Presentations for the Parallel Sessions - Academy of ...

3. Conceptual frameworkThis section reviews previous research conducted by leading scholars on the institutional and cultural contexttheories. Moreover, the effects of these theories are deeply analysed to ascertain the importance of their contributionin relation to the topic being researched.In the extant literature, a research stream focusing on institutional theory and led by such scholars as Dimaggio andPowell (1983), Scott (2001), Tolbert and Zucker (1996) have sought to explain organizational performance inspecific markets using the institutional theory, a branch of organizational theory ( Mahalingan and Levitt, 2007).Despite the many diverse definitions of institutional theories by scholars, it has mainly been viewed as a theoreticallens that is used to study the adoption and diffusion of organizational forms and practices (Bjorkman et al., 2006). Itis based on the principle that organizations are under social influence and pressure to adopt practices such as CRM –which are viewed as being appropriate for the situation (Scott, 2001). Kirca, Bearden and Roth (2011) assert that theinstitutional theory has gained support from the broader marketing community, particularly with regard to justifyinghow foreign firms behave in host countries. Hillebrand, Nijholt, and Nijssen (2010) concur when they suggest thatinstitutional processes can be important in explaining the adoption of CRM practices.Hall and Hall (2001) suggest that cultures can affect the way in which a company interacts with its communities.They compare cultures on a scale of high to low context. A high context communication or message rests on theimplicit codes whilst a low context communication achieves the opposite. This can be better explained by taking theexamples of Asian cultures where information is readily shared amongst members of the community. Suchcommunities are collectivists as they abide by the principle of ―sharing‖ or ―ubuntu‖ as referred to as in SouthAfrica.According to Arnould and Thompson (2005:870), Consumer Culture Theory (CCT) is ‗organised around a coreset of theoretical questions related to the relationships among consumers‘personal and collective entities: thecultures; underlying experiences, processes and structures; and the nature and dynamics of the sociologicalcategories through and across which these consumer culture dynamics are enacted and inflected.