Innovations as catalysts for organizational change: Shifts in organizational cognition and search

This paper uses data on radio format changes to test hypotheses on innovati ons as catalysts for nonmimetic change in organizations. Innovations are di fficult to interpret using existing schemata, causing organizations to sear ch for information on the opportunities and threats implicit in observed in novations. Such search may lead to mimetic adoption of the innovation or, m ore likely, to more varied nonmimetic change. Results show an effect of inn ovations on the rate of nonmimetic change in radio markets, with innovation s in large or nearby markets having greater effect and innovations by large organizations having less effect. The social and competitive relations of the innovator to a given organization are thus modifiers of the catalytic e ffect. These findings have implications for theories of innovation, competi tion, and organizational isomorphism.(.)