Institution‐Infused Sensemaking of Discontinuous Innovations: The Case of the Sharing Economy

This paper adopts an institutionalist perspective to develop a better understanding of why incumbent organizations struggle to respond to discontinuous innovations. Based on a case study of the hotel industry’s early response to the emergence of “sharing economy” businesses, it identifies three patterns of “institution‐infused interpretation” in incumbent managers’ sensemaking—i.e., interpretations that are triggered by decision makers’...