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Patricia H. THORNTON

Senior Research Fellow

Strategy and Business Policy

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Biography

Patricia H. Thornton is Senior Research Fellow, Strategy and Business Policy and the Institute for Organizations and Society, HEC, Paris and the Grand Challenge Faculty and Professor of Sociology and Entrepreneurship at Texas A&M University. Her research interests focus on how institutions and organizations affect attention and strategy. She is first author with William Ocasio and Michael Lounsbury of The Institutional Logics Perspective: A New Approach to Culture, Structure and Process which received the George R. Terry award from the Academy of Management for outstanding contribution to management knowledge. She is currently interested in institutional analysis of three domains, innovation and entrepreneurship, inclusiveness and diversity, and solutions to grand challenges. She Received her Ph.D. at Stanford University. You may find further information about her at http://patriciathornton.com

Scientific articles

Book review: Robert N. Eberhart, Michael Lounsbury, and Howard E. Aldrich (eds.). Entrepreneurialism and Society: New Theoretical Perspectives (vol. 81). Entrepreneurialism and Soc

Administrative Science Quarterly, Mars 2025, vol. 70, pp NP1-NP4,

Categorizing Institutional Logics, Institutionalizing Categories: A Review of Two Literatures

Academy of Management Annals, June 2018, vol. 12, n° 2, pp 631-658, (in coll. with R. DURAND)

The Price of Admission: Organizational Deference as Strategic Behavior

American Journal of Sociology, July 2017, vol. 123, n° 1, pp 232-275, (in coll. with J. JOURDAN, R. DURAND)

Socio-cultural factors and entrepreneurial activity

International Small Business Journal, 2011, vol. 29, n° 2, pp 105-118, (in coll. with Domingo Ribeiro-Soriano, David Urbano)

The Rise of the Corporation in a Craft Industry: Conflict and Conformity in Institutional Logics

Academy of Management Journal, 2002, vol. 45, n° 1, pp 81-101,

Personal Versus Market Logics of Control: A Historically Contingent Theory of the Risk of Acquisition

Organization Science, May-June 2001, vol. 12, n° 3, pp 294-311,

The Sociology of Entrepreneurship

Annual Review of Sociology, 1999, vol. 25, n° 1, pp 19-46,

Institutional Logics and the Historical Contingency of Power in Organizations: Executive Succession in the Higher Education Publishing Industry, 1958– 1990

American Journal of Sociology, November 1999, vol. 105, n° 3, pp 801-843, (in coll. with William Ocasio)

Assessing the costs and outcomes together: Cost effectiveness of two systems of acute psychiatric care

Evaluation and Program Planning, 1990, vol. 13, n° 3, pp 231-241, (in coll. with Howard H. Goldman, Bruce L. Stegner, Maurice Rappaport, James E. Sorensen, C.Clifford Attkisson)

Books

De Gruyter Handbook of Sociology of Innovation and Entrepreneurship

De Gruyter (in coll. with O. SORENSON )

The Institutional Logics Perspective: A New Approach to Culture, Structure and Process

Oxford University Press (in coll. with W. OCASIO, M. LOUNSBURY )

Transformation in Cultural Industries, Research in the Sociology of Organizations

Emerald Group Publishing Limited (in coll. with C. JONES )

Markets From Culture: Institutional Logics and Organizational Decisions in Higher-Education Publishing

Stanford University Press

Chapters in edited books

Hybridity and Institutional Logics

Organizational Hybridity: Perspectives, Processes, Promises. Research In The Sociology Of Organizations, Marya L. Besharov and Bjoern C. Mitzinneck, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2 , 29-52

The Institutional Logics Perspective

The Sage Handbook Of Organizational Institutionalism, 2Nd Edition, Royston Greenwood, Christine Oliver, Thomas B. Lawrence, Renate E. Meyer, SAGE Publications, 4

Culture and Institutional Logics

International Encyclopedia Of The Social &Amp; Behavioral Sciences, 2Nd Edition, James D. Wright, Elsevier, 550-556

The Institutional Logics Perspective

Emerging Trends In The Social And Behavioral Sciences, Robert A. Scott, Marlis C. Buchmann, John Wiley & Sons US

Institutional Logics as Strategic Resources

Research In The Sociology Of Organizations, M. Lounsbry, E. Boxenbaum, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, Institutional Logics in Action , 165-201

Working papers

Scientific articles

Book review: Robert N. Eberhart, Michael Lounsbury, and Howard E. Aldrich (eds.). Entrepreneurialism and Society: New Theoretical Perspectives (vol. 81). Entrepreneurialism and Soc

Administrative Science Quarterly, Mars 2025, vol. 70, pp NP1-NP4,

Categorizing Institutional Logics, Institutionalizing Categories: A Review of Two Literatures

Academy of Management Annals, June 2018, vol. 12, n° 2, pp 631-658, (in coll. with R. DURAND)

The Price of Admission: Organizational Deference as Strategic Behavior

American Journal of Sociology, July 2017, vol. 123, n° 1, pp 232-275, (in coll. with J. JOURDAN, R. DURAND)

Socio-cultural factors and entrepreneurial activity

International Small Business Journal, 2011, vol. 29, n° 2, pp 105-118, (in coll. with Domingo Ribeiro-Soriano, David Urbano)

Books

De Gruyter Handbook of Sociology of Innovation and Entrepreneurship

De Gruyter (in coll. with O. SORENSON )

The Institutional Logics Perspective: A New Approach to Culture, Structure and Process

Oxford University Press (in coll. with W. OCASIO, M. LOUNSBURY )

Transformation in Cultural Industries, Research in the Sociology of Organizations

Emerald Group Publishing Limited (in coll. with C. JONES )

Markets From Culture: Institutional Logics and Organizational Decisions in Higher-Education Publishing

Stanford University Press

Chapters in edited books

Hybridity and Institutional Logics

Organizational Hybridity: Perspectives, Processes, Promises. Research In The Sociology Of Organizations, Marya L. Besharov and Bjoern C. Mitzinneck, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, 2 , 29-52

The Institutional Logics Perspective

The Sage Handbook Of Organizational Institutionalism, 2Nd Edition, Royston Greenwood, Christine Oliver, Thomas B. Lawrence, Renate E. Meyer, SAGE Publications, 4

Culture and Institutional Logics

International Encyclopedia Of The Social &Amp; Behavioral Sciences, 2Nd Edition, James D. Wright, Elsevier, 550-556

The Institutional Logics Perspective

Emerging Trends In The Social And Behavioral Sciences, Robert A. Scott, Marlis C. Buchmann, John Wiley & Sons US

Working papers

Education

  • Ph.D. Sociology, Stanford University - USA

Academic appointments

Academic Responsibilities at HEC

  • 2021- Senior Research Fellow, Strategy and Business Policy HEC Paris
  • 2019-2020 Distinguished Visiting Professor, Strategy and Business Policy HEC Paris

Scientific Activities

Membership in Academic or Professional Organisation

  • Innovation School Task Force Member
  • American Sociological Association Sections: Organizations, Occupations, Work, Economic Sociology, Culture
  • Academy of Management Sections: Organization Management Theory, Entrepreneurship
  • European Group on Organization Studies
  • Member, Advisory Council, Center for New Venture Entrepreneurship
  • Member, Council for Entrepreneurial Development, Research Triangle
  • Co-founder and board of directors, Interim Inc. Residential Treatment Services, authored plan to raise seed capital
  • Co-founder, Monterey County Respite Child Care Center
  • Monterey County Social Services Commission, supervisorial appointment
  • Co-founder and board of directors, Campus Community Improvement Association

Editorial activities

  • 2017- Member, George R. Terry Award Committee, Academy of Management
  • 2017- Presider, Section on Economic Sociology, Culture and Economy, American Sociological Association
  • 2015- Lead faculty for the College of Liberal Arts to develop the campus-wide minor in innovation and entrepreneurship, including lead author on the white paper; working with development; spearheading development of three new syllabi, Principles of Entrepreneurship (undergrad), Humanities and Social Science Innovation (undergrad) (With Dr. Kevin Barge), and Entrepreneurship: Theoretical and Empirical Perspectives (Ph.D. seminar)
  • 2015- Presider, Section on Organizations, Occupations and Work, Organizational Culture and Institutional Logics, American Sociological Association

  • Conference organisation

  • 2015- Shadow Organizer with Mark Ebers, “Doctoral Consortium,” Organization and Management Theory Division, Academy of Management
  • 2015- Lead Organizer with William Ocasio and Julien Jourdan, “The Antecedents and Consequences of Institutional Logics for Reasoning and Rationality,” European Group on Organization Studies