When a Good Idea Isn't Enough: Curricular Innovation as a Political Process

Abstract

Curricular innovations are needed to maintain the relevancy of business schools in a dynamic world, but innovations are not always implemented and sustained even ii their technical merit is high. Building from theory and longitudinal case data, we develop a process model of innovation that describes the recursive interplay between structure and political action in a dynamic organizational context. A temporal extension of the process model reveals how innovation persistence is negatively influenced by exogenous factors that disrupt the seli-reiniorcing relationship between structure and political action.