To what extent do broadly based sociocultural norms affect the distrib
ution of organizational characteristics within a population over time?
Under what circumstances are institutional norms more important than
alternative processes, such as market forces, in shaping this distribu
tion? This sociohistorical analysis of the impact of nationalism on th
e language of publication of Finnish newspapers in the 19th century ex
amines the interplay of institutional, ecological, and economic forces
. The findings confirm that the power with which institutional norms i
nfluence organizations can vary over time, across levels of analysis,
and as a function of ecological and economic forces and other, more pr
oximal, sources of institutional expectations.