Research Interests
Topics: social and cognitive categories, expertise, emotions, institutional theory
Empirical settings: venture capital, cultural industries
Xiao, M.; Zhan, X.; & Cudennec A. 2025 Coping with Competing Institutional Logics in Policy Implementation. Governance. Vol. 38, Issue 3. e70036
Abstract
While recent research has studied the coping behaviors of street-level bureaucrats (SLBs), less attention has been paid to the institutional antecedents of these coping behaviors. This paper examines how macro-level institutional factors—specifically, competing institutional logics—shape SLBs' meso-level organizational conflicts and micro-level coping behaviors. We use semi-structured interviews and archival data to investigate environmental policy implementation in China, where developmental state logic and regulatory state logic coexist and compete. We found that regulatory state logic increases SLBs' workloads and accountability, while developmental state logic limits their power and resources. These competing institutional logics result in unclear responsibilities, expanding the number of tasks but constraining resources, creating pressure for enforcement officials while providing few rewards. In response, SLBs engage in active and passive coping behaviors. Our study contributes to public administration and institutional theory research by introducing a multi-level framework that links competing logics to organizational conflicts and individual coping.
Cudennec A. & Huynh C.W., 2023. In the Mood for Odd? The Role of Affective Factors in the Evaluation of Categorical Atypicality. Poetics. Vol 101, December 2023, 101838, doi: 10.1016/j.poetic.2023.101838)
Abstract
This paper investigates the impact of atypicality on cultural goods reception. While prior research has assumed controlled and highly cognitive mechanisms in audience evaluations, this paper probes the influence of affective states. We suggest that crises, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, trigger affective states and sway evaluations of atypical cultural goods. In a longitudinal study on movie evaluations (“Study 1”), we analyze how the external shock of the COVID-19 lockdown announcement — proxying heightened negative affects including anxiety — interacted with movies’ atypicality and their subsequent audience evaluations. Furthermore, two preregistered controlled experiments establish causal links at the individual level. Study 2 corroborates the causal relationship between COVID-19 lockdown announcement and increased negative affects. Study 3 shows that higher negative affects moderate how perceived novelty mediates atypicality’s effect on audience evaluations. Overall, this paper has important implications for research on categorization, social evaluations, and the consequences of COVID-19 policy consequences.
Cudennec A. & Durand R., 2023. Valuing Spanners: Why Category Nesting and Expertise Matter. Academy of Management Journal. Vol. 66. No. 1 ( https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2020.0042)
Abstract
Organizations need to both differentiate themselves while conforming to their audiences’ expectations. To meet this demand, organizations may span different categories. However, valuing spanners is challenging for audiences. We contend that spanners’ valuation depends on category nesting, as the congruence of informational cues varies between basic categories and subcategories. Furthermore, we expect that more expert audiences find spanners to be more congruent (and hence, more valuable) at a subordinate level than at a basic level of categorization. We test our hypotheses using a mixed methods design in the context of venture capital investments. We analyze observational data on more than 29,000 venture capital deals and develop two experimental studies. Our findings support our hypotheses that subcategory-spanning lowers valuation, and that this effect is attenuated as investors’ expertise increases. Our experimental studies further show that congruence is a causal mechanism explaining these effects. Our findings have important implications for research on organizational conformity and optimal distinctiveness, categorization in markets from an information processing perspective, and the impact of expertise on valuation.
Boulongne R., Cudennec A., & Durand R., 2019. When Do Market Intermediaries Sanction Categorical Deviation? The Role of Expertise, Identity and Competition. Research in the Sociology of Organizations. Eds. Haack P., Sieweke J. and Wessel L. Issue on the “Microfoundations of Institutions” 65(A), pp. 67-84
Abstract
This chapter studies the conditions under which market intermediaries reward or sanction market actors who deviate from the prevailing categorical order. The authors first assess how the expertise of a market intermediary – an understudied determinant of their authority – can lead to a positive evaluation of categorical deviation. Then, the authors identify two inhibitors that are likely to temper such positive appraisal: identity preservation and competition among market intermediaries. Factoring in both micro-level and macro-level dimensions of market dynamics, this chapter contributes to research on market intermediaries, the evolution of category systems, and more broadly, to the microfoundations of institutional change.