Reconciling institutional theory with organizational theories: How neoinstitutionalism resolves five paradoxes

The aim of the paper is to review and compare traditional and new institutional postulates in order to address some of the criticism that this theory has received.

Throughout this paper, five interesting paradoxes are presented in management contexts of change, the creation of competitive advantages, and organizational behaviour.

Light is shed on the integration efforts that seek to combine institutional theory with transaction cost theory, the resource‐based view of the firm, and the resource dependence theory.

The paper reviews the Oliver contribution work done around neoinstitutional theory. The paper offers a different view of organizational change, the creation of competitive advantage, and organizational behaviour.