TEMPORARY ACTORS IN AN ORGANIZATIONAL FIELD: HOW DO THEY REACT TO I NSTITUTIONAL PRESSURES? Amélie Boutinot 1 Vincent Mangematin 2 Grenoble Ecole de Management ABSTRACT Institutional scholars focus on practices and behaviors of actors permanently belonging to an organizational field – but what about organizations that are new and only temporary in such a field? How do they react to the field‟s institutional constraints? Based on an in-depth analysis of the architectural contest for QuikSilverRossignol‟s new European headquarters, this paper introduces the idea that such actors, who connect to a field only temporarily, may not conform to or change such institutional pressure, but may rather „surf‟ on institutions, adopting but adapting their rules in ways that do not lead to bricolage, institutional change or translation. Introducing the notion of „surfing on institution‟ allows us to complement the literature on organizations‟ responses to institutional pressures and norms. Keywords: Institution; Temporariness; Organizational field; Architecture 1 Corresponding author: Grenoble Ecole de Management, 12 rue Pierre Sémard, 38003 Grenoble Cedex 01 ; amelieboutinot@gmail.com 2 Grenoble Ecole de Management, 12 rue Pierre Sémard, 38003 Grenoble Cedex 01 hal-00665213, version 1 - 1 Feb 2012