Learning to relocalize: institutional entrepreneurs as transformative agents in public food services

ABSTRACT

We explore purposive institutional change and the role of institutional entrepreneurs in initiating and driving relational learning processes. Supplementing new institutionalist theory with an institutional learning lens and using a longitudinal set of rich qualitative interview and observation data, we investigate how institutional entrepreneurs engage in transformational work to effectuate change in dominant institutional logics, thus transforming the institutional field. We propose that institutional entrepreneurs, by skilfully utilizing discursive and material practices to catalyze reciprocal learning processes, can introduce a new institutional logic and ensure its adoption and internalization by pivotal actors and stakeholders. We illustrate these dynamics using a municipality situated in Northern Finland as an example. The municipality has successfully managed to transform its food services as part of efforts to develop more sustainable regional economies and communities. It offers a rare case of successful purposive institutional change and an interesting best practice example both nationally and internationally.

KEYWORDS:

• Institutional change
• institutional entrepreneur
• institutional logic
• learning
• local food
• public food services

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their insightful and helpful comments and the journal editors for their assistance during the process of finalizing the article. Moreover, we would like to extend our gratitude to the research participants who took the time to share with us their experiences, views, and knowledge.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Act on Public Procurement and Concession Contracts, 1397, Ministry of Economic Affairs and Employment of Finland (2016). https://www.finlex.fi/en/laki/kaannokset/2016/en20161397.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Research Council of Finland [grant number 343277] – Skills of Self-provisioning in Rural Communities (SOS) Research Project and the University of Helsinki Doctoral Programme in Interdisciplinary Environmental Sciences (DENVI).