Strategic, structural contingency and institutional explanations in the adoption of innovative manufacturing practices
对比战略权变、结构权变和新制度主义三种理论对制造企业采纳创新实践的解释力，基于164家工厂数据发现制度视角的解释力最强，为未来研究提供了方向。
Abstract The main argument in this paper is that in order to understand the phenomenon of how innovative manufacturing practices diffuse we need to invoke theoretical arguments other than the ones that are conventionally used. In particular, neo‐institutional arguments can shed light on the determinants of manufacturing practice adoption and implementation. We juxtapose both theoretically and empirically three different theoretical perspectives that can be used to address the phenomenon: strategic contingency, structural contingency and neo‐institutional arguments. A preliminary empirical test of the three competing perspectives is tested in a sample of 164 manufacturing plants. We find that the institutional perspective explains much more of the variance in the practices adopted and implemented by the plants than either the structural contingency or the strategic contingency theories. This motivates future research using some of the less familiar theoretical approaches.