ABSTRACT

In seeking to shed new light on the production of ‘new’ management ideas the preceding chapters in this book have indicated the significance of considering different spheres prior to and after the market exchange in which commodified forms of management knowledge may reside. This chapter takes a longitudinal perspective to analyze how the evolving supply-side dynamics shape the ‘biography’ of knowledge commodities. Indeed, a contested issue in current research pertains to what happens after an idea's popularity declines: does it die or does it stay (Abrahamson and Fairchild, 1999; Clark, 2004; O'Mahoney, 2007; Perkmann and Spicer, 2008; Røvik, 2011; Spell, 2001)? Most studies focus on the early stages in the ‘lives’ of a management idea and primarily on the way these commodified forms of management knowledge are produced so as to be inherently attractive and accessible to managers (Clark, 2004; Clark and Greatbatch, 2004). But research offers less detail about the supply-side dynamics that arise after the initial stages beyond the assumption that these ideas are either abandoned or maintained as a result of their (lack of) legitimacy on the management knowledge market (Abrahamson and Fairchild, 1999; David and Strang, 2006; Suddaby and Greenwood, 2001), or that ‘old’ ideas may be reiterated as new commodities (Abrahamson and Eisenman, 2008; Guillén, 1994). Suddaby and Greenwood stress that the commodification of management knowledge unavoidably entails a ‘spiraling need for new ideas and practices that can be commodified and sold’ (2001: 945) and even suggest that the pace of commodification is quickening, resulting in ‘hypercompetition’ (2001: 945) among management knowledge entrepreneurs. Whatever the case, prior analyses cannot explain how and why management ideas are reshaped over time, or remain unclear about how population-level life cycle models relate to firm-level dynamics. This is an important gap in the literature on management ideas because such supply-side dynamics shape the way commodified forms of management knowledge evolve and how management knowledge may survive a fashion boom and bust on the market.