The Firm as an Architect of Polycentric Governance: Building Open Institutional Infrastructure in Emerging Markets

The authors apply pattern‐matching techniques to contrast qualitative case study data with perspectives from strategic management and institutional economics about how a firm can address voids in market‐based institutions. They identify a novel approach whereby the firm builds an open institutional infrastructure (OII) by investing in a pool of resources widely accessible beyond its exchange partners. To collectively govern OII, the firm must empower other actors within multilateral cross‐sector partnerships. And it must enforce the resulting rules through relational norms based on alignment between public and private value creation. These findings, achieved by adapting Elinor Ostrom's principles of polycentric governance to corporate actors who take the lead in building OII, advance our understanding of new organizational forms that transcend the traditional boundaries of firms and markets.