Snow Brand Milk crossed the divide between institutional and competitive isomorphism

Abstract

The development and diffusion of compliance activities in Japanese companies from around 2000 can be thought of as a typical example of the institutional isomorphism discussed by DiMaggio and Powell (1983), that is, isomorphism mechanisms that were at work irrespective of performance (Aizawa, 2018a). Snow Brand Milk Products had a corporate scandal in 2000, and the compliance activities it began soon after comprised institutional isomorphism. In actuality, at that time there was no extraordinary worsening of performance, though directly after the scandal in 2002, the company was beset by a worsening of performance that put the company in danger, and it waged its survival on a wide-ranging rethinking of the details of its compliance activities to make them more unique. In addition, it spun off core businesses and transferred some of its shares in order to win back trust. Companies that have confronted management crises and have survived work toward restoring trust using similar methods. In other words, even when the same company doesn’t have selection pressures, institutional isomorphism may arise, and when there are selection pressures, competitive isomorphism may arise.