Bridging Different Institutional Logics: The Role of Institutional Work in Translating Sustainable Product-Service Systems Across Contexts

Abstract

Product-service systems (PSS) are increasingly adopted by firms seeking to pursue environmental and social responsibilities alongside commercial goals, often with near-term trade-offs. Yet, their implementation across diverse national contexts is often fraught with tensions between competing institutional logics, constraining the scalability and robustness of PSS strategies. While institutional theory highlights how logics guide organizational behavior, less is understood about how firms transfer global sustainability logics across organizational and national boundaries and translate them into locally viable practices in differing institutional environments. This study addresses this gap through a comparative qualitative case study of a global heating system provider, drawing on 43 in-depth interviews and complementary field data from its headquarters in Japan and its subsidiary and customers in Türkiye. We identify three institutional logics—sustainability, state, and commercial—that jointly influence PSS adoption but interact differently across contexts. Our findings reveal three mechanisms of institutional work that underpin the transfer and translation of logics: strategic creation of sustainability practices, tight and loose coupling of logics under varying institutional conditions, and negotiation of disruption trade-offs between environmental and profitability priorities. We develop a conceptual model that specifies the mechanisms through which sustainability logics are transferred across organizational and national boundaries and translated into locally enacted practices, leading to either tight, incremental, or symbolic integration of PSS strategies. Theoretically, this research advances institutional theory by demonstrating that institutional logics are not fixed determinants of behavior but resources that actors actively interpret, recombine, and sometimes only nominally adopt when transferring them across contexts. Practically, it provides guidance for managers and policymakers on designing harmonization strategies, aligning incentives, and overcoming infrastructural barriers to enable substantive sustainability transitions.