How institutional entrepreneurs theorize change and change theorization.

This thesis explores how over time institutional entrepreneurs (IEs) theorize change in mature fields. Based on the case of a social enterprise that seeks to secure support for its innovative solution and introduce change across multiple actors in a mature field of global health, this study highlights how IEs theorize change and change their theorization throughout the institutional change project. Furthermore, drawing on the process ontology, I elaborate on the process of theorization by showing how field actors contest change and solution, prompting organization members to become more deeply embedded in the institutional environment and change their theorization. This counterintuitive observation adds a new perspective to the paradox of embedded agency and contributes to understanding how theorization and institutionalization processes unfold recursively. Finally, the insights from this study challenge the assumptions of IEs as heroic figures by illustrating how the cognitive frames and solutions of organization members change as they make sense of the institutional arrangements, interests, and issues of different field actors.