Considering field-configuring events (FCEs) as institutional actors engaged in the field maintenance and change, we investigate how FCE organizers and participants perform institutional work. We studied the Bocuse d’Or contest in haute cuisine to see how FCE organizers and participants handle the various forms of institutional work associated with creation, maintenance and disruption. We found that they perform at the same time both maintenance and change work. Interestingly, the same forms of institutional work can be used for both purposes. Some forms associated with institutional creation can also be used to maintain or reinforce the established institution. Conversely, some forms associated with institutional maintenance can be used to enable change. By highlighting the performance of institutional maintenance and change in concert, we contribute to the discussion on institutional work and on the FCEs as both structuring mechanisms and triggers of the field evolution.
Both single longitudinal case studies and multiple case studies are widely used in qualitative research, but designs with two or three cases have been largely overlooked despite their advantageous features. In this essay, I will first present a panorama of two- and three-case designs published in five leading academic journals in strategy and organization in the past ten years. Next, alternative two- and three-case designs will be developed and illustrated, aiming at improving both validity and generalization by means of dissimilarities. Finally, recommendations on how to conduct these alternative designs will be provided.
