Beyond the Hype: Cultural Entrepreneurship in Nanotechnology

Abstract

How do radical technological fields become naturalized and taken for granted? This is a fundamental question given both the positive and negative hype surrounding the emergence of many new technologies. In this chapter, we study the emergence of the US nanotechnology field, focusing on uncovering the mechanisms by which leaders of the National Nanotechnology Initiative managed hype and its concomitant legitimacy challenges which threatened the commercial viability of nanotechnology. Drawing on the cultural entrepreneurship literature at the interface of strategy and organization theory, we argue that the construction of a naturalizing frame – a frame that focuses attention and practice on mundane, “rationalized” activity – is key to legitimating a novel and uncertain technological field. Leveraging the insights from our case study, we further develop a staged process model of how a naturalizing frame may be constructed, thereby paving the way for a decrease in hype and the institutionalization of new technologies.

Citation

Ometto, M.P., Lounsbury, M. and Gehman, J. (2023), "Beyond the Hype: Cultural Entrepreneurship in Nanotechnology", Di Stefano, G. and Wezel, F.C. (Ed.) Organization Theory Meets Strategy (Advances in Strategic Management, Vol. 43), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 11-45. https://doi.org/10.1108/S0742-332220230000043002