To complement the literature that has extensively studied the roles of two types of stakeholder in institutional change – on the one hand institutional entrepreneurs and on the other defenders trying to maintain the status quo – this paper focuses on the role played by other actors, i.e. those who are neither defenders nor entrepreneurs, which researchers have typically overlooked. In particular, the present study explores the role of opportunistic actors in institutional change. In exploiting institutional change to increase or maintain their own interests, opportunistic actors indirectly influence change and its end result. Based on a longitudinal case study retracing the Serbian transition to a free market and democracy from 2000 to 2008, our contribution is threefold. First, we underline two strategies adopted by opportunistic actors: exploiting the opportunities offered by institutional change and controlling institutional actors. Second, we explore how the strategies performed by opportunistic actors and institutional entrepreneurs are intertwined in a complex web of relationships, where each strategy is enabled by the other. Finally, our analysis provides a re- conceptualization of the coalescence of agencies, as a combination of convergence and divergence.
