Institutional Pressure and Failure Dynamics in the Swedish Voucher School Sector

Abstract

We conducted a comparative case study following the growth and decline of the two largest private school organisations in Sweden from the voucher school deregulation in 1992 until the bankruptcy of one of the organisations in 2013. Using archival data, hand-coded data relating to media exposure, interviews with managers and company press releases, we have explored institutional pressure and responses of school organisations to institutional conformity and resistance. Both of the organisations studied constitute private equity managed business groups, but rely on distinct growth strategies and different types of political and market-based ties to powerful stakeholders. Our results explain how organisational responses to institutional pressure are intimately linked to organisational structure, and furthermore how conformity may not translate into conditions which enhance survival as has been previously theorised.