Dr. Guido Möllering

 

Research Projects

 

Market Constitution and Collective Institutional Entrepreneurship

Today more than ever, "the market" is viewed as either the solution or the problem. However, the constitution of a market is far from simple. It involves the establishment of a process sustained by decentral, flexible actions that are possible because they refer to common, relatively stable structures. To a certain extent, such institutional preconditions of the market process emerge from the stabilization and generalisation of initially random behavioral patterns. But they are also actively created at various societal levels by various actors with partly convergent, partly contrary interests. Hence, the project investigates the manifold preconditions and results of market constitution in general, focusing on the possibility of collective attempts at shaping (new) markets through co-operation between actors: collective institutional entrepreneurship. The aim is to contribute to a differentiated theory of the constitution of markets as processes that are stable and self-reproducing but also adaptive and continuously malleable. Empirically, the project could study new markets in the semi-conductor industry, energy sector or services. Project duration: April 2005 to May 2010.

 

Path-Creating Networks: Innovating Next Generation Lithography in Germany and the U.S.

The semiconductor industry faces the challenge of overcoming the physical and economic limitations of current production systems and the path dependency of established technologies by creating new technological paths. This can only be achieved through collective and cooperative efforts by various actors who, at the same time, compete in markets and between regions. This preparatory study at the FU berlin (Prof. Sydow) and TU Berlin (Prof. Windeler), sponsored by the Volkswagen-Stiftung, is set to identify and analyse potential paths, key actors, existing constellations and appropriate research methods in this field.
Timing incl. Preperatory Study: 08/2003 to 09/2009. GM until 03/2005.

 

Untersuchungen zur Typologie sozialer Kompetenzentwicklungsnetzwerke

Sponsor: BMBF. Timing: 11/2001 to 12/2002.
See Sydow, J./Duschek, S./Möllering, G./Rometsch, M. (2003): Kompetenzentwicklung in Netzwerken: Eine typologische Studie. Wiesbaden: Westdeutscher Verlag.

 

Trust as a Mechanism of Economic Coordination

Trust addresses the fundamental problem of forming positive expectations despite actors’ uncertainty and vulnerability in their interactions with other actors. In economic sociology, trust is a key concept the classic authors in the field recognized early on. However, the full range of roles trust plays in economic relationships has only recently been studied. Projects at the MPIfG investigating trust aim to understand and explain the foundations of trust as a coordination mechanism. An interdisciplinary approach enables researchers to integrate individual findings within a general framework which, in turn, generates new research questions. This theoretical work is linked to empirical research looking, for example, at countries such as China, the Philippines, Turkey and Ukraine, where institution-based trust is lacking and has to be compensated for by personal networks and active trust development. Rather than reducing it to calculativeness, the overall approach adopted in these projects analyzes trust from pragmatist and constitution-theoretical perspectives.