Geoforum 38 (2007) 393–413
www.elsevier.com/locate/geoforum
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© 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2006.10.001
Everyday e
Vects, practices and causal mechanisms of ‘cultural
embeddedness’: Learning from Utah’s high tech regional economy
Al James
Department of Geography, University of Cambridge, Downing Place, Cambridge CB2 3EN, England, United Kingdom
Received 2 June 2006; received in revised form 30 September 2006
Abstract
In recent years, economic geographers have drawn extensively upon notions of ‘cultural embeddedness’ to explore how spatially vari-
able sets of cultural conventions, norms, values and beliefs shape
Wrms’ innovative performance in dynamic regional economies. However,
our understanding of these causal links remains partial, reinforced by an ‘over-territorialised’ conception of cultural embeddedness which
sidelines the role of institutional actors operating outside and across the boundaries of ‘the local’. So motivated, this paper o
Vers a theo-
retically-informed – and theoretically informing – empirical analysis of the high tech regional economy in Salt Lake City, Utah to explore
the everyday causal mechanisms, practices and processes – both local and extra-local – through which
Wrms’ cultural embedding within
the region is manifested, performed and (un)intentionally (re)produced. In so doing, this paper aims to further our understanding of the
constitutive entanglement and complex interweaving of cultural/economic practices, and to contribute to the development of an in-depth
empirical corpus of work which compliments the exciting conceptual developments that have largely dominated cultural economic geog-
raphy over the last decade.
© 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Embeddedness; Innovation; Culture/economy; Region; Mechanisms; Salt Lake City
1. Introduction
Received wisdom in economic geography has long held
‘economy’ and ‘culture’ as separate spheres, each with their
own discrete set of institutions, rationalities and conditions
of existence. However, since the early 1990s, economic
geographers have increasingly rejected these economy ‘ver-
sus’ culture dualisms in favour of a range of more
Xuid and
hybrid conceptions that emphasize the mutual constitution
of these two spheres (see e.g.
Gibson-Graham, 1996; Lee and Wills, 1997; McDowell,
2000; Ray and Sayer, 1999
). In so doing, scholars have
brought to the centre of their analyses the so-called ‘soft’
sociocultural aspects of economic behaviour previously
ignored in conventional economic analyses but which fun-
damentally organise the workings of the space economy
(
). This shift has been particularly
apparent within the post-Fordist regional learning and
innovation literature in economic geography. Here, schol-
ars have drawn extensively upon the concept of ‘cultural
embeddedness’ to explore how
Wrms’ production processes
operate within, and impact on, the spatially variable sets
of social conventions, norms, attitudes, values and beliefs of
the societies within which economic decisions and practices
take place. Indeed there has now emerged a strong consen-
sus that it is simply impossible to explain the continuing
advantage of some regional economies over others if
we fail to take into account the ways in which
Wrms’ activ-
ities are culturally constituted (
However, despite the widespread popularity of this con-
cept, the economic consequences of cultural embeddedness,
394
A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393–413
along with the causal mechanisms and practices through
which
Wrms come to be culturally embedded, remain poorly
understood. The nature of this knowledge gap more
broadly has been usefully summarised by
:
‘We need to understand the various ways in which
Wrms as collective actors and various individuals or
groups of them are embedded, and the ways in
which these di
Verent embeddednesses are related to
economic outcomes, both at the level of
Wrms and
their spatial environmentsƒ Empirical studies are
needed, to open up the richness of “embeddedness”
in comprehensive studies ƒ to reveal the processes
through which economic action and outcomes are
a
Vected by “embeddedness”’ (1997, p. 30, empha-
ses added).
Taking up Oinas’s call, this paper aims to advance our
understanding of ‘cultural embeddedness’ by means of a
theoretically informed – and theoretically informing –
empirical analysis of the regional high tech industrial
agglomeration in Salt Lake City, Utah, a region widely rec-
ognized as the heartland of ‘Mormonism’, the distinctive
culture associated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Lat-
ter-day Saints (informally, the ‘Mormon Church’). Not
only does this regional case study o
Ver a particularly visible
(and hence measurable) instance of regional cultural econ-
omy, but in common with many other regions around the
world, economic development o
Ycials in Utah have them-
selves increasingly recognised the fundamental role of cul-
tural norms, values and conventions in shaping and
conditioning regional economic competitiveness as they
have sought to emulate Silicon Valley’s spectacular growth
dynamic over the last three decades.
The paper begins with a brief review of how di
Verent
notions of cultural embeddedness have been variously
employed by economic geographers to understand uneven
patterns of regional economic development, their concep-
tual divergence from
Polanyi’s (1944) and Granovetter’s
original formulations, and the ongoing limits
to our understanding (Section
). This is followed by an
introduction to, and epistemic justi
Wcation of, the Salt Lake
case study (Section
). Section
summarises the main ways
in which the behaviour of Utah’s high tech
Wrms can be
seen as constituted through, and di
Verentially shaped by,
the socially constructed norms, values and evaluative crite-
ria within Mormonism, and also measures the conse-
quences of that ‘cultural embedding’ for
Wrms’ abilities to
learn, innovate and compete (i.e. why cultural embedded-
ness matters). Section
then unpacks the multi-scaled set of
‘everyday’ practices, causal mechanisms and tangible
agents through which Mormon cultural values come to
de
Wne Wrms’ systems of organisational control, rule sys-
tems, decision-making processes, and observed behaviour –
that is, it seeks to explain how cultural embeddedness is
(re)constructed over time. Finally, Section
explores the
wider signi
Wcance of this analysis in terms of its overcoming
some persistent limitations within the regional learning and
innovation literature, and also identi
Wes some important
directions for future research.
2. Connecting ‘cultural embeddedness’ to regional economic
development
Over the last two decades, in the context of the widely
documented (although by no means uncontested) shift to a
globalised post-Fordist knowledge economy, a major
research agenda within economic geography has developed
around the local determinants of entrepreneurship. Build-
ing on an earlier interest in agglomeration economies and
‘traded’ input–output linkages (e.g.
), scholars have broadened their anal-
yses to examine how ‘untraded’ sociocultural, institutional
and relational characteristics of regional industrial
agglomerations foster and support conditions conducive to
knowledge creation, inventiveness, information dissemina-
tion, and learning. The regional innovation and learning
literature is now extensive (see
for useful recent reviews), but at the
broadest level the advantages of agglomeration are argued
to emerge from: localised information
Xows; technological
spillovers; collective learning; and the creation of specia-
lised pools of knowledge and skill premised on formal and
informal networks of collaborative interaction between
Wrms and their employees which aid the circulation of tacit
knowledge within the region (
). Crucially, scholars have also
focused on the qualitative rules, conventions, and norms
on which actors draw to combine varied skills, competen-
cies and ideas to create new knowledge and so underpin
innovation. Innovation is therefore increasingly regarded
as a fundamentally interactive, and hence unavoidably
socio-cultural, process (
Asheim, 2001; Malecki and Oinas,
).
One of the most common approaches within this
regional learning and innovation literature has involved the
geographical application and operationalisation of the con-
cept of ‘embeddedness’ – although of course, the regional
scale is by no means the only spatial logic of embeddedness!
(see e.g.
Coe et al., 2004; Hess, 2004; Lewis et al., 2002; Liu,
). Embeddedness is broadly de
W-
ned as the set of social relationships between economic and
non-economic actors (individuals as well as aggregate
groups of individuals, i.e. organizations), which in turn cre-
ate distinctive patterns of constraints and incentives for
economic action and behaviour (see e.g.
2001; Zukin and DiMaggio, 1990
). The concept was
Wrst
put forward by
in his book ‘The Great
Transformation’ which explicitly rejected the then domi-
nant view of the economy as ‘natural’, pre-given, self-regu-
lating and inevitable in form, instead arguing that markets
are socially constructed and governed. Polanyi also dis-
tinguished between three types of economic exchange in
society (reciprocal, redistributive and market) each charac-
terised by a distinct form of embeddedness in social and
A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393–413
395
cultural structures.
1
Polanyi’s ideas were later reworked
and reintroduced to social science in the mid-1980s by
in reaction to: (i) an undersocialised
view of economic action represented by neoclassical eco-
nomics which ‘assumes rational self-interested behaviour
minimally a
Vected by social relations’ (1985, p. 481); and
(ii) an oversocialised view in modern sociology which con-
ceives of ‘people as obedient to the dictates of consensually
developed systems of norms and values, internalised
through socialisation, so that obedience is not perceived as
a burden’ (p. 483).
2
Taking a route through the middle,
Granovetter instead stressed the concrete and ongoing
nature of the social relations in which economic actors are
enmeshed, and outside of which it is impossible to under-
stand fully their economic activities. In so doing, Granovet-
ter shifted the analytical focus of embeddedness away from
Polanyi’s earlier focus on abstract economies and societies
onto individual people, groups, organisations and networks
of interpersonal relationships (
). These ideas were
Wrst applied in economic geography
in the early 1990s (see
), and have
since given rise to an important research agenda within the
sub-discipline.
Regional economic geographical scholars have explored
a number of di
Verent dimensions of embeddedness, which
can usefully be grouped together under three broad (albeit
highly overlapping) headings, as recently typologised by
. First, societal embeddedness
refers to the ways in which the perceptions, strategies and
actions of economic actors are in
Xuenced and shaped by
their social, cultural and political backgrounds, both at the
individual level and at the aggregate level of the
Wrm (e.g.
Dicken and Thrift, 1992; Harrison, 1992
). Second, network
embeddedness describes the composition, structure and
architecture of formal and informal relationships among
di
Verent sets of individuals and organizations that a person
or organisation is involved in, and how that in turn shapes
their economic activities (e.g.
Third, territorial embeddedness refers to the extent to
which economic actors are ‘anchored’ in local territorial
networks of institutions, and to how those actors are in
Xu-
enced by the economic activities and social dynamics that
already exist in those places (e.g.
1996; Phelps et al., 1998; Scott, 1988; Tödtling, 1994;
Turok, 1993
).
work on the divergent
economic trajectories of Silicon Valley and Boston’s Route
128 through the 1980s is one of (if not the most!) widely
cited example of the ways in which embeddedness matters
in a regional context. Controlling for industrial sector,
products, historical period, business cycle position, political
events, and nation-state, Saxenian highlighted the impor-
tance of local cultural societal determinants of industrial
adaptation, their in
Xuence on interWrm networks of associa-
tion, and their territorial manifestations. In Silicon Valley,
Wrms’ embeddedness in a distinctive regional Californian
counter culture characterized by a willingness to embrace
risk, and loyalties to transcendent technologies over indi-
vidual
Wrms, underpinned a regional network-based indus-
trial system based on blurred inter
Wrm boundaries and
Xexible adjustment among producers of complex related
products.
3
In contrast,
Wrms’ embeddedness in a traditional
conservative East Coast business culture in Route 128 is
argued to have sustained relatively integrated corporations,
lesser interaction, and lower rates of economic growth.
Scholars have subsequently built upon Saxenian’s work to
examine further how ‘cultural embeddedness’ shapes pat-
terns of corporate behaviour, local production and employ-
ment relations, industrial adaptation and economic
development in other regions
4
(e.g.
Malecki, 1995; Morgan, 1997; Storper, 1995, 1997
However, while ‘cultural embeddedness’ has quickly
become established as a conceptual lynchpin of the regional
development literature, our understanding of the causal
mechanisms and everyday practices through which spatially
variable sets of socio-cultural conventions, norms, attitudes,
values and beliefs shape and condition
Wrms’ economic per-
formance remains under-speci
Wed. Indeed, despite its popu-
larity, even
study fails to outline fully the
causal links between the competitive culture described in
Silicon Valley and the success of this regional economy –
and nor does Saxenian measure those causal links (
). Additionally, regional learning accounts have
tended to ‘dehumanise’ processes of cultural embedding,
instead misrepresenting cultural embeddedness as some-
thing ethereal and eternal, divorced from everyday material
practice, or else have misconstrued ‘it’ as a self-perpetuating
inherited tradition that determines contemporary economic
activities (see
). Critics have also argued
that these problems are compounded by a tendency within
the regional learning literature to sideline the importance of
wider extra-local structures (
et al., 2002; Markusen, 1999; Oinas, 2002
), which reinforces
a partial view of the structures and forces shaping processes
of
Wrms’ sociocultural embedding, based on a misplaced
conception of regions as ‘closed systems’ or mere ‘containers
1
Speci
Wcally, while non-market economies based on ‘reciprocal and
redistributive exchange were constituted on the basis of shared values and
norms that had their roots in social and cultural bonds rather than mone-
tary goals, societies based on market exchange re
Xect only those underly-
ing values and norms that consider price’ (
).
2
In the undersocialised account, atomisation results from the utilitarian
pursuit of self-interest; in the oversocialised account, it results from behav-
iour patterns having been internalised such that ongoing social relations
have only a peripheral e
Vect on the behaviour of economic actors (p. 485).
3
account has been contested by
4
Arguments have therefore aligned themselves with the earlier
Xexible
specialisation school accounts of successful industrial districts in North-
Eastern Italy (e.g.
Becattini, 1978; Brusco, 1982; Piore and Sabel, 1984
),
which placed heavy emphases on trust, cooperation, and artisanal produc-
tion, to develop a theory of economic co-operation, where social ties and
community relationships shape economic behaviour.
396
A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393–413
of intangible assets and structures’ (
5
Indeed, this restrictive focus on locally bounded economic
activities means that our currently ‘over-territorialised’
notions of cultural embeddedness have lost sight of Pola-
nyi’s original notions of ‘societal’ embeddedness (
).
In seeking to overcome these limitations, this paper
explores the everyday mechanisms, practices and emergent
e
Vects at the local and extra-local scales through which
Wrms’ cultural embedding is manifest, performed and
(un)unintentionally (re)produced.
6
The paper also explores
the interactions between di
Verent mechanisms and prac-
tices of cultural embedding and their territorial manifesta-
tions. In so doing, the paper aims to further our
understanding of the constitutive entanglement and inter-
weaving of cultural/economic practices by grounding
‘cultural embeddedness’ in people’s everyday work-life
experiences (following e.g.
). The next section introduces the
Salt Lake City/Mormon case study and explains how – on
the one hand – it o
Vers a particularly visible case for explor-
ing these culture/economy issues, yet – on the other hand –
it is by no means a unique case.
3. Case Study: Salt Lake City (high tech meets Mormonism)
Salt Lake City is the main centre of population on
Utah’s Wasatch Front, an urban corridor of four counties
(Salt Lake, Weber, Davis and Utah) that runs north and
south between the foot of the Wasatch Mountains to the
east and Great Salt Lake to the west. High tech growth has
occurred here in three waves: a defense industry build-up in
the 1960s; growth of software and services in the 1980s
(when many Silicon Valley
Wrms began to move various
functions to Utah); followed by a cascade of start-ups in
the 1990s. This region is now home to over three quarters of
Utah’s total population of 2.38 million (
3400 high tech
Wrms employing over 67,000 people across a
range of subsectors (
Utah Department of Workforce Ser-
; see also
). ‘Computer software and sys-
tems design’ (formerly SIC 737) is Utah’s lead high tech
subsector in terms of employment and number of establish-
ments and therefore forms the focus of this analysis.
Signi
Wcantly, the Wasatch Front is also the geographical
heartland of Mormonism, the distinctive culture associated
with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS
Church). Mormons comprise over 75% of the state’s total
population (
LDS Church/Deseret News, 2000; Eliason,
), the same population from which Utah’s high tech
workforce is drawn. Indeed, for its entire history as a politi-
cal entity, Utah has been ‘Mormon Country’ (
, p.
164). Mormon culture is conservative by popular standards
with strong family and community impulses (
includes prohibitions against alcohol and drug use, a com-
mitment to fasting and prayer, modesty in dress, an empha-
sis on family and obedience to parents, and concerns for the
elderly and the poor. The church also opposes abortion,
divorce and premarital sex, whilst also emphasizing the
Protestant ethics of diligence, education and the attainment
of skills (
). Three key elements of Utah’s
Mormon culture make it especially suited to this research.
First, Mormonism is more than simply a creedal faith; it is
a whole way of life requiring an almost total commitment
in customs, values, and lifestyle (see
). More-
over, many commentators argue that Mormon culture is so
strong that there also exists a Mormon ethnicity (
son, 1980; May, 2001; Mitchell, 2000
). Second, the demo-
graphic dominance of Mormons in Utah creates a
denomination-speci
Wc domination of Utah’s general cul-
ture
7
– indeed, over 90% of all church members in Utah are
LDS (
). Third, Mormonism’s central tenets are
easily articulated and well known, and its ideologies written
5
Arguably, this narrow approach results from a particular form of ‘clo-
sure by space’ (
) in which case studies are delimited
and de
Wned according to the same administrative boundaries within which
highly accessible contextual data is initially available (typically at the
county or Metropolitan Statistical Area level). Fundamentally, however,
we cannot assume that the key processes that shape and condition our case
studies similarly obey those same (often arbitrary) administrative bound-
aries.
6
whose work explores the
production of ‘old industrial regions’ (through the case study of North
East England).
7
While I am aware of the dangers of essentialising Mormon cultural
practices and playing down the role of non-Mormon sub-cultures within
Utah, it is worth noting that the dominance of Mormon culture in Utah is
manifest in a range of secondary data at the state level. First, Utah has
been a Republican political stronghold since the 1960s, consistent with the
time when LDS Church leaders began outspokenly to favour conservative
positions on key social issues (
). Indeed, studies using
public opinion data to summarise the ideological and partisan orientations
of citizens by state have identi
Wed Utah as the most conservative and
Republican state in the US on average (
: 14–19;
: 41). Second, Utah’s fertility rate is approximately one
third higher than the US national rate, a function of Utah having more ba-
bies per woman (c.f. US average) and a higher proportion of Utah’s female
population being in child-bearing years compared with females nationally
(
). Both are consistent with Mormon family values which
encourage marriage followed by childbearing (
). Moreover, consistent with Mormonism’s discouragement
of divorce and bearing children out of wedlock (
), male and female Utahns alike are more likely to be married than
individuals in the US at any age (ibid.).
Table 1
Utah and Wasatch Front populations and labourforce, 2003
Source:
US Bureau of the Census (2004), Utah Department of Workforce
.
Population
Labourforce
Utah State
2,378,696
1,184,385
Salt Lake City/Ogden MSA
Salt Lake County
924,826
512,293
Davis County
255,343
124,837
Weber County
205,802
109,497
Provo/Orem MSA
Utah County
422,409
181,832
A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393–413
397
down and easily accessible. Moreover, the Utahn regional
variant of Mormonism has been recognized as particularly
visible, on the basis of the unique institutional history of
this region (Salt Lake City was founded by the Mormons in
1847 and remains the worldwide administrative centre for
the LDS Church) and the physical isolation of Salt Lake
Valley itself (
As such, Utah o
Vers a very visible case study to explore
the everyday causal mechanisms and practices through
which
Wrms’ cultural embedding within regional economies
is manifested, performed and (un)intentionally (re)pro-
duced, and hence through which we might further our
understanding of the constitutive entanglement and com-
plex interweaving of cultural/economic practices. Crucially
however, while this is a very visible case study, it is by no
means unique. Rather, there are thousands of regional
economies worldwide similarly premised on strong cohe-
sive regional cultures (be those based on gender, ethnicity,
trade unions, or particular sectoral specializations for
example) which unavoidably shape and condition local pat-
terns of entrepreneurship and regional economic develop-
ment trajectories. At the same time, some of the most
celebrated examples of regional industrial economies in the
geographical literature are themselves also based on reli-
gious regional cultures. These include Boston’s Route 128,
embedded in New England’s Protestant culture which has
been shown to sustain conservative business cultures in
local large electronics
Wrms (
); the ethnic
immigrant networks in Silicon Valley premised on Bud-
dhist, Hindu and Shintoist culture, which connect local
Wrms to dynamic growth regions in South–East Asia (e.g.
Saxenian, 1999; Saxenian et al., 2002
); and the embedded-
ness of the military industrial complex in Colorado Springs
in a strong Christian Evangelical regional culture (
). These religious cultural examples are
linked by a high degree of visibility, which in turn has
o
Vered scholars an important means of analysing culture–
economy interactions feasibly, and hence facilitated the
development of conceptual understandings which might
then be applied to other regions with regional cultures that
are less visible (and hence amenable to study) in the
Wrst
instance. Herein, therefore, lies the wider relevance of the
Utah case to the established regional learning and innova-
tion literature.
3.1. Methodology
This research was carried out between 2000 and 2004.
Initially, an industrial survey of the leading 105 computer
software
Wrms by 2000 revenue (10% sample) was con-
ducted across the four counties of the Wasatch Front.
8
Firms in the survey dataset employ 7585 people in Utah,
and in 2000 generated a combined revenue of $1031 million
from their Utah operations. Signi
Wcantly, almost three-
quarters (69%) of the
Wrms in the survey sample are Mor-
mon founded; 68% have a Mormon majority management
team; and 58% are Mormon founded and managed. (Argu-
ably, these
Wgures represent the broadest indicator of Wrms’
Table 2
Utah’s high tech subsectors, 2000 and 2003
Source:
Utah Department of Workforce Services (2004a,b)
.
NAICS
Description
Establishments
Employment
2000
2003
2000
2003
325413
In-vitro diagnostic substance manuf.
5
5
15
25
333314
Optical instrument and lens manuf.
7
7
187
154
3341
Computer and peripheral equipment manuf.
26
23
3942
1158
3342
Communications equipment manuf.
30
29
2398
2518
3344
Semiconductor and electronics manuf.
59
51
4618
2970
3345
Navigational, measuring & electromedical manuf.
53
58
3313
3813
335991
Carbon and graphite product manuf.
4
2
371
321
3364
Aerospace product and parts manuf.
50
44
7472
6302
3391
Medial equipment supplies manuf.
184
185
7430
7512
5112 & 5415
Software and computer systems design
1512
1588
19,598
16,055
51211
Motion picture and video production
185
192
3003
2322
51219
Postproduction and related activities
15
22
45
20
5172
Wireless telecommunications carriers
87
78
1459
719
5174
Satellite telecommunications
11
13
91
87
5179
Other telecommunications
5
7
82
53
5181
Internet service providers
250
246
3779
3150
54133
Engineering services
583
641
5710
5975
54138
Testing laboratories
107
107
1187
1208
54171
R&D in physical engineering and life sciences
227
246
3060
3722
TOT
3400
3544
67,715
57,354
8
Speci
Wcally, the survey focused on Wve key areas of the Wrm: (i) occupa-
tional structure and workforce composition; (ii) inter
Wrm relationships
and external orientation; (iii)
Wnancing histories; (iv) Wrms’ in-house tech-
nological capabilities and innovative R&D processes (v) competitive ‘per-
formance’ and growth. I achieved an overall response rate of just over
50%, and as such the survey dataset covers the top 20% of software
Wrms
on the Wasatch Front by 2000 revenue.
398
A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393–413
cultural embedding in the region). Second, in-depth inter-
views and group discussions were conducted with employ-
ees in 20 case study
Wrms, selected in order that these Wrms
cover the spectrum of non/Mormon founding and manage-
ment (Mormon majority, intermediate, and non-Mormon
majority
9
), and be evenly split between Salt Lake County
and Utah County to facilitate an exploration of the role of
local demographic context in shaping
Wrm behaviour: Utah
County has the highest LDS population of all counties in
Utah (90% LDS) in contrast to Salt Lake County which is
locally regarded as the most cosmopolitan county (64%
LDS). In the case study sample, the survey de
Wnition of
‘Mormon’
Wrms (Mormon founding and management) was
expanded to include the proportion of
Wrms’ total Utah
employees that are active Mormons. Mormons comprise
approximately 69% of
Wrms’ total employees in the case
study sample. In 2000 these
Wrms employed 1009 people in
Utah and their Utah operations generated a combined rev-
enue of over $111.3 million, and all have 20–99 employees,
the dominant size category in the survey sample. Qualita-
tive data were generated for these
Wrms through semi-struc-
tured interviews (following
), targeting employees in technical and non-technical
positions in a range of job positions. A range of industry
watchers and other government, church and economic
development o
Ycials were also interviewed, giving a total
of 100 interviews and over 130 hours of taped material
upon which the analysis presented here is largely based.
10
Each
Wrm case study was further developed using a number
of secondary data sources (annual reports, memos, etc.) as
part of a source triangulation strategy.
4. Exploring how and why
Wrms’ cultural embedding in the
region matters
The most striking manifestations of how the observed
behaviour of Mormon founded and managed software
Wrms in Utah’s high tech economy is constituted through
and shaped by Mormon cultural conventions and norms
include: management practices of praying over strategic
corporate direction and fasting for the company; explicitly
aligning software products with LDS Church teachings and
needs (especially education, translation and internet pri-
vacy); turning down ‘immoral work’ in non-alignment with
LDS teachings; and o
Vering pay and remuneration pack-
ages explicitly designed to allow for the maintenance of tra-
ditional Mormon nuclear family units among employees
(see
).
11
However, the economic implications of
this cultural embedding for
Wrms’ competitive performance
are best understood in terms of a series of sustained ten-
sions, between self-identi
Wed Mormon cultural traits also
manifest within local
Wrms, versus key elements of corpo-
rate and industrial cultures that have been consistently
shown in the regional learning literature as positively
underpinning
Wrms’ abilities to innovate. Previous work has
explored some of these tensions, including Mormon
Wrms’
lesser willingness to seek venture capital growth
Wnance
(within Utah and in other US states) relative to their non-
Mormon counterparts as a function of Mormon ethics of
anti-debt and frugality (
) and reduced work
hours relative to non-Mormon
Wrms in respect of Mormon
teachings on the primacy of family (
). In con-
trast, this section focuses speci
Wcally on the consequences
of this embedding for
Wrms’ abilities to access external
sources of knowledge and competencies, and to use new
knowledge once it enters the
Wrm.
4.1. Consequences for
Wrms’ external relationships
Over the last decade, scholars have shown that success-
ful learning and innovation require that
Wrms maintain
local and extra-local networks of external association (see
e.g.
Camagni, 1991; Florida, 1995; Cooke and Morgan,
1998; Maillat, 1995; Oinas and Malecki, 2002; Gertler and
Levitte, 2005
). When individuals with partially overlapping
knowledges come together and articulate their ideas collec-
tively, they are forced to derive more adequate ideas about
the technology they are trying to develop (
). Additionally, interaction also pro-
vides a basis for comparison of evolving ideas with other
practices not internally generated. Signi
Wcantly, Mormon-
ism is itself characterized by strong ethics of unity, reciproc-
ity and mutual commitment which shape the nature of
interaction among its members and are explicitly cultivated
by the LDS Church leadership (
12
One way to examine the extent to
which local
Wrms exhibit these Mormon cultural traits is to
track the extent to which Mormon ownership and manage-
9
The case study sample of 20
Wrms was divided into four categories: 6
MORMON FIRMS (Mormon founded, Mormon managed and Mormon
majority workforce); 6 NON-MORMON FIRMS (non-Mormon found-
ed, non-Mormon managed and non-Mormon majority workforce (con-
trol); 4 INTERMEDIATE I FIRMS (Mormon founded and Mormon
majority workforce but non-Mormon managed); and 4 INTERMEDI-
ATE II FIRMS (non-Mormon founded but Mormon managed and Mor-
mon majority workforce).
10
The sample of research participants interviewed comprised 75 males
and 25 females (representative of the gender breakdown of Utah’s high
tech workforce). The total sample of 100 research participants included 62
active Mormons, 5 inactive Mormons, and 21 non-Mormons.
11
Prevalence of prayer acknowledged as a valid basis for decision-mak-
ing at the management level (in 5
Wrms in the case study sample, all 5 have
majority Mormon workforces and Mormon management teams); fasting
for the company (in 3 of the Mormon founded and managed case study
Wrms); software products aligned explicitly with LDS Church teachings (in
2 of the 6 Mormon
Wrms in the case study sample, no non-Mormon Wrms);
pay packages explicitly designed to maintain traditional Mormon nuclear
family units (in 4 of the 6 Mormon case study
Wrms, but no non-Mormon
Wrms).
12
This group spirit is induced not only by the belief that unity is a Chris-
tian virtue, but also by the trying times that the Mormon pioneers experi-
enced (
). The settlement of the barren, harsh desert
environment of the Salt Lake Valley necessitated a co-operative irrigation
e
Vort in an environment that would not have yielded to more individualis-
tic e
Vorts (
).
A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393–413
399
ment a
Vect Wrms’ choice of strategic partners. SigniWcantly,
the Mormon founded and managed
Wrms in the case study
sample do have a higher proportion strategic partners
within Utah who are similarly Mormon founded and man-
aged (67.5%) than do their intermediate Mormon counter-
parts (57%) and non-Mormon counterparts (50%).
Likewise, when we examine
Wrms’ extra-local relationships
with strategic partners beyond Utah,
13
the Mormon
founded and managed
Wrms again have a higher proportion
(13.5%) of partners who are similarly Mormon founded
and managed than do their Mormon intermediate (8%) and
non-Mormon (5%) counterparts.
14
Subsequent interviews
uncovered how Mormon customs, conventions and social
norms generate a ‘cultural closeness’ between
Wrms that
aids working alliances (see
). However, whilst
this helps sustain interaction between like
Wrms, it simulta-
neously excludes non-Mormon
Wrms, constraining Mor-
mon founded and managed
Wrms’ abilities to learn from
these non-like companies.
Additionally, inter
Wrm alliances allow Wrms to broaden
their capacities more widely by combining their own com-
petencies with those of a partner to create a competitive
position that neither could have achieved alone. Thus, in
the context of increased complexity and intersectoral
nature of new technologies, and shortening product life-
cycles, partnerships allow
Wrms to speed the pace of prod-
uct introduction, improve product quality, and move more
quickly into new markets (
). In contrast,
Mormon culture is characterized by strong emphases on
individual self-su
Yciency, independence and self-reliance
(
), ethics rooted in the Mormon pioneer expe-
rience when Utah’s hostile physical environment forced
Mormon families to hone the virtue of self-su
Yciency in
order to survive (
). Interview discussions
uncovered how these Mormon traits often form the basis
for management decisions within local
Wrms: while Mor-
mon
Wrms have a higher propensity to interact with other
Mormon
Wrms, their overall levels of interWrm networking
are reduced relative to non-Mormon
Wrms. Strikingly, the
Mormon founded and managed
Wrms in the survey and
case study samples have on average around half as many
strategic partner
Wrms as their non-Mormon counterparts
in each
Wrm size category. These patterns are apparent for
Wrms’ Utahn partners, and when their extra-local relation-
ships with partners outside Utah are included in the analy-
sis.
15
Many research participants were aware of the limits of
such an introverted approach, consistent with previous
studies which have demonstrated that where
Wrms rely
mainly on internal resources their individual performance
is weakened, along with that of the entire regional system
(see e.g.
MacPherson, 1992; Wiig and Wood, 1997
). Rarely
does a single
Wrm have superior capabilities in all phases of
the production process, and so it is imperative that they
take advantage of the synergies that
Xow from shared
enterprise. As such, the introvertedness of particular Mor-
mon founded and managed
Wrms can be viewed as a second
potential constraint on their innovative capacities.
4.2. Consequences for
Wrms’ absorptive capacities
Continuous technological learning and innovation are
therefore highly dependent on
Wrms’ abilities to access
external sources of information and knowledge. Funda-
mentally however, they are also dependent on
Wrms’ abili-
ties to assimilate, recon
Wgure, transform and apply new
information to commercial ends. Di
Verent ‘absorptive
capacities’ (
) are not random.
Rather, the ability to absorb new knowledge will always
depend on socio-cultural constructions of what is accept-
able and desirable (
Schoenberger, 1997; Westwood and
). The innovation and learning literature has con-
sistently highlighted a set of cultural norms that, if widely
shared by the members of a
Wrm, actively promote the gen-
eration of new ideas and help in the implementation of new
approaches. These include a climate of openness in which
debate and con
Xict are encouraged; a willingness to break
with convention; widespread support for trying new things;
the right of employees to challenge the status quo; and mul-
tiple advocacy, that learning requires more than one ‘cham-
pion’ if it is to succeed (
Deal and Kennedy, 2000; DiBella
). Firms’ abilities to innovate therefore presume
a necessary relationship between learning and active
employee involvement at all levels; that all employees can
act as independent agents, take responsibility, experiment,
and make mistakes as they learn (
).
However, these traits contrast with Mormonism in four
ways. First, Mormon culture is characterized by cultural
emphases on unity and individual sacri
Wce for the com-
mon good, which previous studies highlight as sustaining
strong tendencies towards group conformity (
Second, these are reinforced by a pervasive respect for
13
Limits on the length of the survey instrument precluded a detailed
analysis of the exact location of these partner
Wrms, however, subsequent
in-depth interviews with local industry watchers and other economic
development o
Ycials suggested that the vast majority are US-based, with
a particular dominance by California.
14
These patterns are also consistent with a lesser willingness among
Mormon founded and managed software
Wrms to seek early-stage Wnanc-
ing from sources outside Utah relative to their non-Mormon counterparts.
This is true for all three
Wrm size categories: (i) survey sample: Micro cate-
gory: 38.9 c.f. 44.4%; Medium category: 57.1 c.f. 63.4%; (Medium-large cat-
egory: 62.5 c.f. 100%); (ii) case study sample: 33.3 c.f. 50%.
15
Strategic partners de
Wned in terms joint product development and/or
R&D, or other self-identi
Wed formal alliances as outlined on Wrms’ corporate
websites and subsequently con
Wrmed by research participants working in
Utah’s software industry. Utah only strategic partners for Mormon founded
and managed
Wrms compared with non-Mormon founded and managed
Wrms: (i) survey sample: Micro category: 0.8 c.f. 1.5; Medium category: 1.4 c.f.
2.3; (Medium-large category: 0.7 c.f. 3.0); (ii) case study sample: 0.2 c.f. 0.8. All
strategic partners (Utah and beyond) for Mormon founded and managed
Wrms compared with non-Mormon founded and managed Wrms: (i) survey
sample: Micro category: 4.1 c.f. 7.0; Medium category: 3.5 c.f. 7.1; (Medium-
large category: 4.9 c.f. 12.0); (ii) case study sample: 4.2 c.f. 7.8.
400
A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393–413
established ideas and church operating procedures
(
). Third, the LDS Church orga-
nizational system is also based on predominantly top-
down
Xows of information, in which leadership decision
are never challenged, only supported by the wider Mor-
mon populace – that ‘when the Prophet speaks the thinking
has been done’ (
). Fourth, these cultural
emphases of reverence for established ideas and leadership
authority are in turn reinforced by wider Mormon empha-
ses on being passive, non-confrontational and never
demeaning another person.
Signi
Wcantly, these distinctive Mormon cultural traits
are also manifest in the
Wrms in the case study sample.
Approximately 40% of these
Wrms are self-identiWed by the
industry research participants as having corporate cultures
that place a premium on unity within the
Wrm, and a ‘follow
thy leader’ mentality. This includes two thirds of the Mor-
mon founded and managed
Wrms, half of the Mormon
intermediate
Wrms, but only one of the non-Mormon Wrms.
Indeed, over half of the non-Mormon industry research
participants identi
Wed their Mormon colleagues and
employees as generally less willing to question ideas and
leadership authority. Additionally, almost one third of the
(47) active Mormon industry research participants also
identi
Wed this trend among their fellow Mormon employees
and colleagues generally, arguing that Mormon managers
and employees raised in the LDS Church simply ‘borrow’
from the models that are familiar to them.
Research participants outlined multiple ways in which
these Mormon-in
Xected corporate cultures are advanta-
geous. First, they suggested that a common value base
makes it easier for the
Wrm to mesh as a team, consistent
with norms highlighted in the innovation literature as pro-
moting corporate implementation of new ideas, namely:
teamwork, a shared vision and a common direction upon
which
Wrms can build consensus, mutual respect and trust
(
). Second, there was also widespread appre-
ciation among Mormon and non-Mormon research partici-
pants alike of the more friendly and less stressful work
environments that these Mormon-informed corporate cul-
tures sustain. However, research participants also identi
Wed
a number of disadvantages of these same corporate cul-
tures, in terms of Mormon cultural traits of respect for
established ideas, unity and top-down leadership authority
potentially undermining the processes of creative dissent,
constant questioning and multi-directional knowledge
Xows that underpin innovation in Wrms.
16
Indeed many of
the Mormon industry research participants were them-
selves aware of these limits (see
Overall therefore, while in some cases the Mormon cul-
tural constitution of
Wrms’ individual corporate cultures
potentially enhances and reinforces their innovative capaci-
ties; in other cases it potentially constrains them. To get a
handle on the overall meaning and implications of these
tensions for
Wrms’ economic performance, Wve metrics were
employed:
17
(i) linear revenue growth since start-up; (ii)
assumed exponential revenue growth since start-up; (iii)
R&D intensity I (R&D expenditure to annual revenue); (iv)
R&D intensity II (R&D employment to total employment);
and (v) productivity in terms of revenue per employee. The
results are shown in
.
Wve metrics
of
Wrms’ economic performance, the non-Mormon Wrms
outperform their Mormon counterparts (highlighted in
bold). These di
Verences are not likely to be a function of
age (that the non-Mormon
Wrms are simply older and more
well established) because the age distributions of the Mor-
mon and non-Mormon
Wrms are almost identical for each
of the employee size categories employed. Nor are these
di
Verences a function of Mormon and non-Mormon Wrms
being in di
Verent market niches: all Wrms are classiWed
under the same NAICS code. While limits of space preclude
16
I am nevertheless aware of the debates surrounding the need for con-
structive confrontation in the
Wrm, given the success of Japanese Wrms
based on very non-confrontational work cultures (see e.g.
scale and Athos, 1982; Suzuki et al., 2002
).
17
Indicators used follow
Gertler et al., 2000 and Williamson and Verdin
. Also see
for a discussion of the links
between age, growth and experience as sources of business unit advantage.
Table 3
Measuring the economic performance of Mormon versus non-Mormon founded and managed computer software
Wrms on Utah’s Wasatch Front (from
Metric of
Wrm competitiveness
Survey sample (105
Wrms)
Case study sample (20
Wrms)
Micro (1–19 emp)
Medium (20–99 emp)
(20–99 emp)
Mormon
Non
Mormon
Non
Mormon
Non
(i) Revenue growth since start-up
(a) Linear (2000 UT revenue/age)
0.16
0.32
0.78
1.05
0.18
0.73
(b) Exponential (2000 UT revenue/
Fage)
0.28
1.05
1.70
1.68
0.56
1.57
(ii) R&D intensity type I
(R&D expend as % of sales revenue)
0.23
0.24
0.22
0.53
0.29
0.59
(iii) R&D intensity type II
(R&D emp as % of total emp)
0.55
0.57
0.40
0.58
0.57
0.34
(iv) Productivity
($1000 revenue/employee)
60.47
155.71
123.69
88.82
88.74
103.83
A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393–413
401
a step-by-step analytical discussion here (see
the most striking di
Verences in economic performance at
the survey level include: exponential growth rates, where
the non-Mormon
Wrms outperform their Mormon counter-
parts three times over (micro category); Type I R&D inten-
sities (non-Mormon
Wrms, medium size category, two times
greater): and productivity (non-Mormon
Wrms, micro size
category, over two times greater). At the case study level,
the most striking di
Verences include: linear growth rates,
where the non-Mormon
Wrms outperform their Mormon
counterparts four times over; and exponential growth rates
(non-Mormon
Wrms three times greater). Thus while the
results are not monolithic, they lend support to the thesis
that the Mormon cultural in
Xection of the corporate cul-
tures of the Mormon founded and managed computer soft-
ware
Wrms in the survey and case study samples (i.e. their
Table 4
Measuring the signi
Wcance of the ‘key individuals’ mechanism of cultural embedding
Note: The two letter abbreviations at the head of the second and third columns (e.g. AN, PQ, IE, etc.) are the anonymised labels assigned to each of the 20
case study
Wrms.
MORMON FIRMS
NON-MORMON FIRMS
MANIFESTATION OF EMBEDDING
(Mormon founders AND
(SELF-IDENTIFIED)
Mormon management)
(Non-Mormon founders AND
Non-Mormon management)
AN PQ IE QD EC
JE UG
LJ
BW
NN
FN XH
BELIEF IN DIVINE INTERVENTION IN THE FIRM
Praying Over Corporate Strategic Direction - Firm Level
Fasting for the company – individual employees
Seeking revelation at the Temple w.r.t. the company
TURNING DOWN IMMORAL WORK
Firms unwilling to work on unwholesome content
Vocalised as Mormon cultural issue
Firm as money-making entity < firm as vehicle for good
MORMON ORIENTATED SOFTWARE PRODUCT
As deliberate corporate strategy
EXPLICIT FAMILY ORIENTATION
Pay levels to maintain Mormon family units amongst employees
Firms aware of competitors as people with families
CO-OPERATION AND TRUST
Mormon partners dominant
SELF-SUFFICIENCY
< half the mean total partners (UT and beyond)
NO Utah partners
RESPECT FOR ESTABLISHED IDEAS / AUTHORITY
High value placed on unity over creative dissent in firm
DEBT AVOIDANCE
Internal financing strategy from start-up…
…to make a MORAL decision
Reservations wr.t. non-Mormon VCist on board
FAMILY (THEN CHURCH) ABOVE ALL
Short work weeks (less than half mean average)
Above US average holiday lengths
Sunday working totally restricted
% POSSIBLE CELLS FILLED
61
12
402
A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393–413
‘cultural embeddedness’) has a constraining e
Vect on local
corporate economic performance, consistent with the con-
straints on
Wrms’ innovative capacities outlined above.
18
5. Unpacking the causal mechanisms and everyday practices
of cultural embedding
The cultural embedding of Mormon-founded and man-
aged software
Wrms on Utah’s Wasatch Front therefore has
important consequences for local corporate forms,
observed patterns of behaviour, innovation activities and,
hence, competitive economic performance. In turn, this begs
the question: what are the everyday causal mechanisms and
practices through which
Wrms’ cultural embedding within
the region is manifested, performed and (un)intentionally
(re)produced, and how are these locally instituted in Utah’s
high tech regional economy? Importantly, this attribution
of responsibility is necessary to avoid the perpetuation of
‘cultural embeddedness’ as a fuzzy concept (see
). Five major mechanisms are identi
Wable in the Utah
case and these are detailed below.
5.1. Corporate decision makers and opinion leaders
The major mechanism through which
Wrms’ behaviour is
constituted through, and unavoidably shaped by, socially
constructed cultural norms, values and evaluative criteria
centres on members of a particular regional culture who
also occupy positions of power within local
Wrms. Scholars
have traditionally focused on
Wrms’ founders in this context
who have clear vision of how the
Wrm should operate, and
how their personal values, priorities, ideas and values are
readily transmitted to new employees, becoming accepted
within the
Wrm and often persisting over time (
). However, the Utah case also
highlights a range of other everyday ‘opinion leaders’ and
‘culture carriers’ including Mormon managers, lead soft-
ware engineers and other personnel who by virtue of their
strong personality or previous achievements have signi
W-
cant in
Xuence on the opinions and behaviour of others.
Fundamentally, because what the
Wrm understands itself to
be is produced through the actions of its employees, the cul-
tural identities and commitments of these key individuals
are closely entwined with (although not identical to) corpo-
rate identities and commitments (
). As such, Mormon cultural values and conventions
inform decision-making processes, corporate strategy and
observed behaviour, through de
Wnitions of what has value
and what does not.
The importance of this ‘key individuals’ mechanism of
embedding is shown in
. This matrix shows how the
various manifestations of
Wrms’ embedding in Mormonism –
whose consequences for
Wrms’ economic performance were
discussed in Section
– are mutually reinforcing among the
case study sample of
Wrms. Not unsurprisingly, the Wrms
with Mormon founders, managers, and CEOs exhibited a
higher degree of cultural embedding than their Non-Mor-
mon founded and managed counterparts, as measured in
terms of the proportion of possible matrix cells
Wlled for
each type of
Wrm (61% for the Mormon Wrms; versus 26%
for the Intermediate Mormon
Wrms; versus 12% for the
Non-Mormon
Wrms).
The signi
Wcance of this mechanism was also conWrmed
in the interviews, the majority of research participants
Wnd-
ing it impossible to draw a line between their cultural iden-
tity and their work, instead outlining how Mormonism
provides them with a strong core of values upon which they
draw in the workplace:
‘We try to build the company on what we feel are
good values of the [Mormon] church, because it’s
only natural that the lifestyles that our key employees
are accustomed to in
Xuence the way we do business,
you can’t just leave them on the doorstep. Work is an
opportunity for people to see you as an example of
what you believe in’. CEO and Co-Founder, active
Mormon male
Moreover, for the majority of research participants, the
application of their religious values within the workplace
was not only regarded as acceptable, but also a ‘natural’
thing for them to do, consistent with previous studies (e.g.
Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner, 1997
) which have
documented how individuals setting up an organization
typically borrow from models or ideals that are familiar to
them:
‘While it’s not been a passive thing, it’s not been an
active decision to keep the company’s culture in line
with Mormon values either. It’s like no-one in
England starts a company and say’s everyone’s gonna
be a little reserved and sti
V upper-lipped. It’s just the
English way of doing things. This is just the Mormon
way of doing things’.
Director of Brand Manage-
ment and User Experience, active Mormon male
Thus, to understand how and why
Wrms’ organisational
structures, workplace norms, decision making processes
and observed patterns of behaviour come to be constituted
through, and di
Verentially shaped by, the socially con-
structed norms, values and evaluative criteria within a par-
ticular regional culture, we need to engage with the
scientists, engineers, programmers and other professionals
whose personal values and commitments become trans-
formed over time into deeply-held, implicit shared values,
norms and assumptions within the
Wrm concerning appro-
18
These results for the computer software sector are consistent with con-
cerns raised by several local industry commentators at interview regarding
the (under)performance of Utah’s high tech economy more generally over
the last decade. However, the metrics used in the analysis presented here
are based on a narrow economic de
Wnition of competitiveness. In contrast,
increasingly workers and families are being challenged in new ways to
combine the activities of production and reproduction, in an attempt to
achieve what has become known as ‘work/life balance’. As such, future
analyses might usefully include metrics on the social sustainability of cul-
turally-informed work practices.
A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393–413
403
priate behaviour and ways of thinking (
5.2. Strength in numbers (intra- and inter-
Wrm)
In addition to key individuals and opinion leaders, a sec-
ond major mechanism through which
Wrms come to be cul-
turally embedded in the region – as evidenced in the Utah
case – centres on a workforce majority who share similar
cultural values to the
Wrm’s opinion leaders. Research par-
ticipants highlighted three everyday workplace practices
which can be grouped together as a ‘strength-in-numbers’
mechanism. The
Wrst involves conformity to group norms
through daily associations with others, whose attitudes and
behaviour patterns either reinforce or proscribe (‘punish’)
one’s own. On one level, con
Wdence in one’s own attitudes
and beliefs is bolstered when others share the same perspec-
tives (
). At the same time, if we want to be
accepted at work we try to live up the expectations of our
colleagues, pay attention to their actions and take them as
our cue when we are uncertain of what to do (
). The greater the proportion of a workforce who share
a set of cultural values, the greater the likelihood that those
values become the norm that newcomers take as their cue,
and hence that these values become dominant in the
Wrm.
Second, this is reinforced by observation in the workplace
by other members of one’s own culture. Control comes
from the knowledge that someone who matters to us is pay-
ing close attention to what we are doing and will tell us if
our behaviour is appropriate or inappropriate (
, p. 161). The more members of a partic-
ular culture in a
Wrm’s workforce therefore, the greater that
control. A third practice involves the group rati
Wcation of
culturally informed corporate decisions. Because culture is
Wrst and foremost a group property (
counts in terms of particular cultural values conditioning
Wrm behaviour, is not only whether the Wrm’s decision-
makers embody those values, but also whether those values
are rati
Wed by the wider work group as a valid basis for
action. If most of the
Wrm’s employees do not share those
values, even if individuals do bring particular cultural con-
siderations into corporate decision-making processes, these
will rarely strike a responsive chord in most of the others
and instead be smothered by group indi
Verence. Research
participants in Utah con
Wrmed the importance of this tri-
partite ‘strength in numbers’ mechanism of embedding, but
also stressed the constraints upon its functioning:
‘We [Mormons] are always taught that it is an ethical
system we are learning, not just a Sunday morning
procedure. At the same time, the people you see on
Sunday are a lot like the people you see at work, so
it’s easier to carry over that value system into the
workplace’. Lead Programmer, active Mormon male
‘With the majority sharing the same culture, it allows
us to base some of our company decisions on Mor-
mon values. And the decisions are pretty easy because
we are all on the same page religiously. But just a cou-
ple of key personnel who aren’t Mormon would be
enough to swing the pendulum’.
Director of Tech-
nology and Co-Founder, active Mormon male
Additionally, this tri-partite ‘strength-in-numbers’ mecha-
nism also operates at the inter-
Wrm level, as shown in
. This matrix compares the incidence of the various mani-
festations of
Wrms’ embedding in Mormonism discussed in
Section
for case study
Wrms in two diVerent counties. Sig-
ni
Wcantly, the Mormon founded and managed Wrms in
Utah County exhibit a higher degree of cultural embedding
than do their Salt Lake County counterparts (
right
hand side), with Mormon
Wrms in the former Wlling 72% of
the embeddedness matrix cells, compared with 49% for their
Salt Lake County counterparts. In Utah County, Mormons
comprise 89% of the general population and average 82% of
Wrms’ total workforces, compared with Salt Lake County
equivalent
Wgures of 65% and 52% (
). As such,
there is a higher chance that a Mormon
Wrm in Utah
County will be surrounded by other similarly Mormon
founded and managed
Wrms from whom its employees
might receive peer support and group rati
Wcation of their
culturally-in
Xected business patterns, than might a Mormon
Wrm in Salt Lake County, along with inter-Wrm practices of
mutual observation and social control:
‘You see the same people turning up all over. So it
would be awfully strange for me to act totally di
Ver-
ent in business than I do at Church – that visibility
factor is an accountability factor; if you’re Mormon
then you’d better behave!’
Director of Technology
and Co-Founder, active Mormon male
These data also show a similar pattern for the non-Mor-
mon
Wrms (see
left-hand-side), with non-Mormon
Wrms in Utah County evidencing a higher degree of embed-
ding (19% of embeddedness matrix cells
Wlled) than their
Salt Lake County counterparts (5% of embeddedness
matrix cells
Wlled). The pattern for the Mormon Intermedi-
ate
Wrms reaYrms the signiWcance of the strength-in-num-
bers mechanism of embedding, with Intermediate
Wrms in
Utah County evidencing a higher degree of embedding
than their Salt Lake County counterparts (
Wgures of 33%
and 17% respectively).
5.3. Labour recruitment and job search practices
The everyday practices underpinning the ‘key individu-
als’ and ‘strength-in-numbers’ mechanisms of cultural
embedding outlined above are themselves shaped by a
series of labour recruitment and job search practices which,
in the Utah case, reinforce the Mormon cultural constitu-
tion of
Wrms’ workplace conventions, decision-making pro-
cesses, and observed patterns of behaviour. Previously,
scholars have suggested that
Wrms’ founders have a clear
notion, based on their own cultural history and personality,
of how things ought to be in their new
Wrm, and use that as
404
A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393–413
the basis for their selection of group of people to create a
core management team that shares their original vision
(
Schein, 1992; Furnham and Gunter, 1993
). The Utah
results are consistent with these ideas. On one level, the
degree to which
Wrms are Mormon founded positively cor-
relates with the degree to they are Mormon managed
(r
xy
D
0.510). At the same time, the proportion of
Wrms’
total workforces that are Mormon is positively correlated
with the proportion of Mormons in their founding teams
(r
xy
D
0.687) and management teams (r
xy
D
0.773). The
interviews highlighted three sets of practices which explain
these patterns: (i)
Wrms actively seeking employees that
match their own values; (ii) employees actively seeking
Wrms that match their personal values; and (iii) diYculties
Table 5
Measuring the signi
Wcance of the (inter-Wrm) ‘strength-in-numbers’ mechanism of cultural embedding
Note: the two letter abbreviations at the head of the second and third columns (e.g. AN, PQ, IE, etc.) are the anonymised labels assigned to each of the 20
case study
Wrms.
MORMON FIRMS
NON-MORMON FIRMS
(Mormon founded
AND managed)
MANIFESTATION OF EMBEDDING
(Non-Mormon founded
AND managed)
(SELF-IDENTIFIED)
UTAH
SALT LAKE
UTAH
SALT LAKE
AN PQ IE
QD EC JE
UG LJ BW NN FN XH
BELIEF IN DIVINE INTERVENTION IN THE FIRM
Praying Over Corporate Strategic Direction - Firm Level
Fasting for the company – individual employees
Seeking revelation at the Temple w.r.t. the company
TURNING DOWN IMMORAL WORK
Firms unwilling to work on unwholesome content
Vocalised a Mormon cultural issue
Firm as money-making entity < firms as vehicle for good
MORMON ORIENTATED SOFTWARE PRODUCT
As deliberate corporate strategy
EXPLICIT FAMILY ORIENTATION
Pay levels to maintain Mormon family units
Firms aware of competitors as people with families
CO-OPERATION AND TRUST
Mormon partners dominant
SELF-SUFFICIENCY
< half the mean total partners (UT and beyond)
NO Utah partners
RESPECT FOR ESTABLISHED IDEAS / AUTHORITY
High value on unity over creative dissent within firm
DEBT AVOIDANCE
Internal financing strategy from start-up…
…to make a MORAL decision
Reservations w.r.t. non-Mormon VCist on board
FAMILY (THEN CHURCH) ABOVE ALL
Short work weeks (less than half mean average)
Above US average holiday lengths
Sunday working totally restricted
A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393–413
405
of recruiting (non-Mormon) employees from out of state.
These are detailed below.
Under Title VII of the US Civil Rights Act (1964) it is
illegal to discriminate in labour recruitment based on
assumptions about the abilities, traits or performance of
individuals of a certain religious, ethnic or cultural group.
Nevertheless, results for the Utah case suggest that
Wrms do
discriminate between Mormon versus non-Mormon
employees. On one level, there exist direct
Wltering mecha-
nisms in the form of explicit requests on the type of candi-
date
Wrms are seeking to Wll a position, admitted by one
quarter of the
Wrms in the case study sample with varying
degrees of candidness:
‘It’s not stated, but when I know they’re Mormon,
will I be more likely to call them for interview? – yes.
Will I feel more comfortable because I won’t have to
wrestle with them over issues of character? – yes. If I
was ever charged with a discrimination lawsuit, would
they ever prove it? – probably not’.
Director of
Technology and Co-Founder, active Mormon male
There also exist indirect
Wltering mechanisms, as Wrms seek
to hire people who provide a ‘good
Wt’ with a Wrm’s exist-
ing culture. This practice is applicable to all of the
Wrms in
the sample, and is consistent with the notion that once we
develop an integrated set of cultural assumptions, we will
be most comfortable with those who share the same set of
assumptions, and uncomfortable in situations where
di
Verent assumptions operate (
Various ‘cultural markers’ (see
) are used by
recruiters to evaluate the desirability of potential candi-
dates:
‘If we have someone in from Utah County, I immedi-
ately make assumptions about them; something in the
way they act or the way they talk. But it’s not overt, I
don’t ever go in and sit down in a hiring process and
say ‘Oh, I wonder if these guys are Mormon or not’. I
just make those judgments during the course of an
interview’. Director of Marketing, active Mormon
male
‘Job interviews here are a nightmare; I’ve been asked
questions like how long I’ve been married, where did I
meet my husband, do I know Bishop blah from my
home town, which Ward I’m in – things that go real
close to the edges but without ever coming right out
and asking if you’re Mormon or not’.
Vice Presi-
dent of Marketing, inactive Mormon female
Practices of
Wrms actively recruiting employees who match
their existing cultural priorities is reinforced by potential
employees actively doing likewise in their search for poten-
tial employers. The main preferences vocalised by Mormon
candidates at job interview involve not working Sundays;
not working on violent, sexual, or gambling software con-
tent; earning a wage that is large enough for their wife to
remain at home and so maintain a traditional Mormon
nuclear family; and working on products with obvious
social bene
Wt. While these are not exclusively Mormon
preferences, research participants suggested that only
potential Mormon applicants vocalise these issues with
explicit recourse to religious justi
Wcations. These twin prac-
tices of culturally-motivated recruitment and job search are
thus crucial for understanding
Wrms’ cultural embedding
because together they reinforce the ‘key individuals’ and
‘strength-in-numbers’ mechanisms through which
Wrms’
organisational structures, workplace norms, decision mak-
ing processes, and observed behaviour are culturally consti-
tuted.
Additionally, Utahn
Wrms face signiWcant diYculties in
recruiting non-Mormon employees from out of state due
to a series of lifestyle and amenities considerations which
contrast with those increasingly recognised as attractive to
Table 6
Self-identi
Wed Mormon cultural markers
Cultural marker (self-identi
Wed)
Comments
‘Mormon Speak’
A particular vocabulary, much of which is derived from Mormon religious heritage – e.g. Mormons are
forever ‘grateful’, ‘blessed’, ‘humble’, and ‘take counsel’ with people
CTR Rings & Jewellery
CTRs (‘Choose the Right’) are a classi
Wcation of Mormon children aged 4 to 7 yrs, but the popular
terms has also given rise to a range of jewellery emblazoned with the initials for teenagers and adults
Garment Lines
Garments are the special underclothing worn by Mormons who have gained special endowment
ordinances in the Temple. Seams are visible under thin clothing (e.g. business suits) halfway down
the thigh, upper arm, and around the neck
Modesty in Dress
Mormons are counselled to be modest in their appearance
Not Drinking Alcohol/Smoking
Mormons abstain from most forms of ca
Veine, alcohol and tobacco as counselled by the ‘Word
of Wisdom’, the LDS Church’s divinely-inspired health code
Availability on Sundays/
Monday Evenings
Sunday is the Sabbath within the LDS Church, and Monday evenings the church’s ‘family home
evening’ in which members are urged to undertake worship as a family and when all other church
activities are suspended
Utah County Residence
Utah County’s population is o
Ycially 90% Mormon
BYU Alumnus Status
Brigham Young University’s student body is over 99% LDS
Mission Service
2 years for males; 18 months for females. The Mormon mission system enlists 60% of Mormons age
19–26 yrs. Some explicitly state Mission on their resumes, others remove the LDS Church label
406
A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393–413
knowledge workers (see
). First, Utah is a
racially homogenous state with over 92% of the population
identifying themselves as white non-Hispanic. Utah’s Mor-
mon population is even more homogenous: over 98%
white non-Hispanic (
). The dominant image
of the LDS Church as a predominantly white church of the
suburban west (
) discourages
many potential employees from moving to Utah. Second, a
legacy of the LDS Church’s anti-Equal Rights Amend-
ment campaign is a widespread lack of credibility for Mor-
monism as an advocate for women (
). Coupled
with the LDS Church’s active stance against homosexual-
ity and gay liberation (
), this reinforces an ultra-
conservative image of Mormon Utah that discourages
many:
‘You talk to potential employees about coming to
Utah, and the only things they know about it is Mor-
mons, Donnie and Marie, and ski-ing. So we don’t
even get up to the plate with about 90% of the poten-
tial employees because they’re afraid that everyone’s
gonna be Mormon and they won’t talk to us, that it’s
a boring place where nobody drinks and nobody has
fun. I’m a transplant – I told my family I was moving
to Utah and quite frankly they thought I was nuts!’
CEO, LEL, non-Mormon
‘There’s this perception of Utah as some holier-than-
thou Hicksville, that the Mormons are out here in
their stovepipe hats and horse and buggies, a cultural
lifestyle like in Urban cowboy you know, that we’ll go
bull riding and after that we’ll go shear some sheep!
OK, so this is not the birth place of free love, but peo-
ple have just no sense of how multicultural Salt Lake
City is. So that really limits our ability to grow, and I
don’t know that we’ll ever completely eliminate
that’.
Director of User Experience, NSO, active
Mormon
Almost three quarters of the
Wrms in the case study sample
admitted severe di
Yculties of attracting appropriately qual-
i
Wed employees from outside Utah. These barriers therefore
restrict workforce diversity by discouraging non-Mormon
potential employees. At the same time, research partici-
pants con
Wrmed that the majority of their non-Utah
employees who have moved from out of state are members
of the LDS Church keen to move closer to the Mormon
cultural heartland. This reinforces the ‘key individuals’ and
‘strength-in-numbers’ mechanisms of cultural embedding
outlined above.
5.4. Education, socialisation and training
Within the geographical literature, universities have
been widely theorised as central to high tech regional dyna-
mism, functioning as: sources of advanced research; supply-
ing skilled labour, continuing education and retraining;
aggressively licensing their intellectual property; granting
faculty time to consult to
Wrms; and developing research
parks and local incubators (e.g.
Saxenian, 1994; Scott and Paul, 1990
). But while these con-
crete roles of universities have been well theorised, there has
been relatively little discussion of the practices of universi-
ties as mechanisms that reinforce
Wrms’ cultural embedding
via graduates as ‘embodied culture’. In Utah, Brigham
Young University (located in Provo 45 miles south of Salt
Lake City) is the US’s largest privately owned religious uni-
versity, wholly
Wnanced and managed by the LDS church
(
). Three everyday practices at
BYU are pertinent to the analysis here. First, faculty are
encouraged to integrate secular academic learning with
LDS religious teachings, and its student body are selected
only from individuals who voluntarily live the principles of
the LDS Church. Thus, over 99% of BYU’s current 32,000
students are members of the LDS Church (
Second, as a condition of their continuing enrolment, stu-
dents must observe the University’s strict honour code,
which includes continuing ecclesiastical endorsement and
regular church attendance, along with speci
Wc policies on
dress, grooming, and residential living. This honour code
maintains a strong Mormon culture at BYU. Third, even in
their major subject, students are urged to frame their ques-
tions in ‘prayerful’ and ‘faithful’ ways:
‘We encourage students to use the moral indepen-
dence they’ve learned to help shape the way business
is done. We’re hoping that the students grow that
innate spiritual character, that wherever they then go
in the world they can hopefully share that point of
view in decisions that are made’.
BYU computer
science Professor, active Mormon male
Research participants explained how Mormon-centred
examples are widely used to illustrate academic arguments,
even in technical subjects, and how many student meetings
are opened with prayers (traits also prevalent amongst the
Mormon founded and managed
Wrms in the case study Wrm
sample
19
).
The strength of this mechanism of cultural embedding
centres, therefore, on graduates socialized into BYU’s dis-
tinctive culture taking its attendant norms, attitudes and
values to their subsequent
Wrms on employment, via the
labour recruitment and job search mechanisms of cultural
embedding outlined above. Signi
Wcantly, around one quar-
ter of BYU computer science graduates stay in Utah once
they have graduated (BYU Internal Salary Survey, 1996–
1999). Moreover, the survey showed that of Utah’s lead
105 software
Wrms, 36% of Wrms were founded by BYU
alumni (includes 55% of all the Mormon founded
Wrms),
and 33% of
Wrms were headed by CEO’s who are BYU
alumni. Additionally, one quarter of the
Wrms in the case
study sample outlined an explicit preference for BYU
19
Prevalence of meetings opened with prayers (in 5
Wrms in the case
study sample, all 5 have majority Mormon workforces and Mormon man-
agement teams).
A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393–413
407
graduates, on the basis of the mission experience.
20
The
vast majority of BYU’s student body are returned mission-
aries. Having defended the church and its doctrines for
two years, returned missionaries tend to be more orthodox
and active in the church than other members (
). Consequently, BYU students are also typically two
years older than the average undergraduate elsewhere and
are recognised as more self-assured, polished, mature,
and self-con
Wdent (
), which many local
Wrms
Wnd attractive:
‘When you get a young man at the age 19, send them
out to a foreign country and tell them to ‘sell Jesus
Christ’, that’s a very challenging position to be in. But
you learn that it’s OK to be rejected, how to move on,
how to communicate with people, and come back
more emotionally mature than your buddies who’ve
been at Frat parties’.
CEO and Co-Founder, active
Mormon male
Two other elements of the LDS educational system further
reinforce the Mormon cultural embedding of
Wrms in
Utah’s high tech regional economy. First, as the LDS
Church continues to grow in excess of 11 million members
worldwide, the result is that there are currently over
200,000 college-aged church members in the US alone,
while the BYU undergraduate population remains limited
to 32,000. Consequently, the quality of BYU students is
much higher than would otherwise be expected for compa-
rable universities elsewhere in the US, further reinforcing
their attractiveness to many Utahn high tech employers,
with important consequences for
Wrms’ cultural embedding
via the labour recruitment and job search mechanisms
described above. Second, in addition to BYU, the LDS
Church also operates 1407 institutes at colleges and univer-
sities in the US and Canada (including the University of
Utah) to provide LDS-orientated educational and social
programmes for college students in secular education (
), and therefore exercise a high
degree of social control over non-BYU Mormon students’
(and hence graduates’) sense of identity and behaviour (see
). Crucially, these components of the LDS
Church educational system also increase the chances of
young Mormons maintaining their commitment to LDS
culture in later (work) life.
5.5. Legislative structures: local and extra-local
Finally, to understand fully the practices and mecha-
nisms through which
Wrms come to be culturally embedded
within regional economies, it is important also to consider
the role of political-economic institutions at multiple scales
which structure
Wrm behaviour and labour market func-
tioning (see also
). Two pieces of state legisla-
tion play a major role in reinforcing the Mormon cultural
constitution of many of Utah’s computer software
Wrms’
internal structures and observed patterns of behaviour as
outlined. First, Utah maintains some of the toughest state
liquor laws and anti-smoking policies in the US,
21
reinforc-
ing the ultraconservative image of Mormon Utah which
discourages many non-Mormon potential employees from
out of state moving to Utah, employees that would other-
wise weaken the Mormon cultural constitution of local
software
Wrms’ workplace practices and behaviour cur-
rently premised on Mormon majority workforces. Second,
Utah is a ‘right-to-work’ state, which prohibits contractual
terms conditioning employment on membership in, or
Wnancial support of, a labor union.
22
Research participants
explained the implications of this legislation for reinforcing
the multiple ways in which the norms, values and evaluative
criteria within Mormonism inform the practices and behav-
iour of local
Wrms:
‘Legislation in Utah is very much in favour of the
employer. As this right-to-work state, employers can
allow their religion to drive their management style,
they can hold business meetings where prayers are
said and it’s no big deal. You say a prayer at a busi-
ness meeting in California [non right-to-work state],
you’re gonna get your butt sued o
V!’. President and
CEO and Founder, WSU, non-Mormon female
Both pieces of legislation evidence the systemic power of
the LDS Church in Utah government (
). Because the Mormon component of Utah’s popula-
tion has grown past 70%, almost invariably most of the
candidates for Utah public o
Yce have been members of the
LDS Church. There is also a very strong public perception
in Utah that non-Mormons, women, and ethnic minorities
have little chance of being elected and so few stand for
o
Yce. These two key factors have historically combined to
produce Mormon majorities in excess of 80% in the Utah
legislature in recent decades (
). Thus, even though the LDS Church as a for-
mal institution rarely gets involved in Utah politics, deci-
sions are nevertheless made as if it had been involved. Thus,
Utah’s anti-liquor and anti-smoking laws re
Xect the LDS
prohibition of alcohol and tobacco use as part of its
divinely-inspired health code; and Utah’s right-to-work
status (since 1955), the LDS Church’s historical opposition
20
In 1999 the LDS Church supported 58,593 LDS Missionaries in the
Weld across the US and to 119 other countries worldwide (
), approximately 75% of whom are young men between
the ages of 19 and 26. After 8 weeks training in Utah, Missionaries are sent
out in pairs, on two year assignments (18 months for females) to teach the
LDS Gospel, win converts, and participate in community service.
21
Utah has the toughest anti-smoking policy of any US state, and al-
though Utah’s liquor laws have been relaxed as part of preparations for
the 2002 winter olympics, many restaurants still require that customers get
a patron who is a ‘member’ of the establishment to sponsor them in order
that they be allowed to buy alcohol.
22
The origin of the phrase “right to work” is often attributed to a 1941
Dallas Morning News editorial which urged the adoption of an amend-
ment to the federal constitution protecting the right of employees to work
without coercion with respect to joining a labor union.
408
A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393–413
to labour unions, and its doctrines on work as a God-given
privilege that should be available to all (
US federal legislation is also important. Most impor-
tantly, the US Workplace Religious Freedom Act (1972)
amended Title VII of the US Civil Rights Act (1964) to
require employers to make reasonable accommodation for
the religious beliefs of employees and prospective employ-
ees, unless doing so would ‘impose an undue hardship’,
de
Wning religion as ‘all aspects of religious observance and
practice, as well as belief’. The Religious Freedom Restora-
tion Act (1997) further increased employers’ responsibilities
to accommodate workers’ religious beliefs within the work-
place. These two pieces of legislation therefore reinforce
Wrms’ obligations to accommodate Mormon workers’ reli-
gious-cultural values at work, reinforcing the ‘strength-in-
numbers’ mechanism of cultural embedding premised on
practices of conformity to group norms, mutual observa-
tion, and group rati
Wcation of culturally informed deci-
sions.
5.6. Integrating the causal mechanisms of cultural embedding
Rather than the all-encompassing notions of ‘regional
culture’ often employed in the regional learning and inno-
vation literature, Paivi Oinas has instead argued for recog-
nition of the distinction between: (i) regional culture; (ii)
regional industrial culture; and (iii) organisational cultures
(see
):
‘Why are these distinctions important? Because ƒ it
helps us to understand
Wrms as actors in regional
development: as actors having to operate in – and at
least partly having to accept as a given – a preexisting
regional culture, but also as actors that within that
wider culture create their own internal organizational
cultures and participate in the formation of a regional
industrial culture that, in its turn, supports their
operation.’
).
Firms’ cultural embeddedness can therefore be understood
in terms of the ways in which regional cultural systems of
collective beliefs, ideologies, understandings and conven-
tions (regional culture) shape local
Wrms’ systems of organi-
zational control, rule systems and decision-making
processes (organisational culture). Indeed, these culturally
in
Xected patterns of corporate behaviour are often com-
mon to other
Wrms in the region (regional industrial cul-
). It is the various manifestations of
these cultural in
Xections, their meaning and consequences
for
Wrms’ observed economic performances, and their
underlying causal mechanisms and responsible agents
which have formed the focus of this paper.
Overall, the causal mechanisms through which regional
cultural imperatives unavoidably come to inform
Wrms’
organizational structures, workplace conventions, deci-
sion-making processes, and observed patterns of behav-
iour as evidenced in the Utah case are represented
graphically in
. The primary mechanisms are two-
fold. The
Wrst can be termed the ‘key individuals’ mecha-
nism, and centres on
Wrms’ founders and management
teams who exist simultaneously as members of the
Wrm and
of the regional culture and whose personal actions, identi-
ties and commitments become closely entwined with corpo-
rate identities and commitments. This is in turn reinforced
by the ‘strength-in-numbers’ mechanism in which cultur-
ally-informed decisions are rati
Wed at the group level, rein-
forced by processes of conformity to the group, mutual
observance and peer pressure, and which operate at
both the intra- and inter-
Wrm levels. These primary mecha-
nisms are underpinned by a series of secondary reinforcing
mechanisms which include: (i) culturally-motivated job
search and labour recruitment practices which reinforce
existing corporate cultures, as
Wrms seek employees that
match their existing corporate culture, and employees seek
Wrms that match their own personal values; (ii) educational
and skilling mechanisms, in which graduates as embodied
cul-ture take the university’s cultural values, attitudes and
norms into which they have been socialised to the
Wrms
that subsequently employ them; (iii) programmes adminis-
tered by civic institutions that socialise their individual
members into a particular set of values and which there-
fore maintain a high degree of social control over mem-
bers’ sense of identity and behaviour patterns; and (iv)
local, regional and national legislation that strengthens
the power of the employer vis-à-vis the employee, or which
increases employers’ responsibilities to accommodate
their employees’ particular cultural lifestyles in the work-
place.
Overall, therefore, cultural embeddedness is not pre-
given, inherited or static, but continually remade via these
various causal mechanisms and practices which might use-
fully be grouped together in terms of their e
Vects on three
general sets of ‘relations of embeddedness’, namely: (i)
those between individuals and individuals; (ii) those
between individuals and the
Wrm; and (iii) and those
between the
Wrm and its wider (formal and informal) insti-
tutional environment. In this way, the cultural values, atti-
tudes, expectations and behaviour of employees and
Wrms
in the region are informed by those of its lead civic, educa-
tional, political and labour institutions, in turn shaped by
legislative mechanisms at the regional and national scales
which regulate patterns of corporate governance. These
spill over to workers,
Wrms and industries in the region
through the course of time (see also
), in
e
Vect setting the social rules and deWning the norms of
behaviour across
Wrms throughout the region (see
). This is not to argue that regional culture mechan-
ically or rigidly determines worker and
Wrm behaviour, but
rather that it structures the material and cultural resources
that enable and constrain the actions of individuals and the
Wrms in which they work. As such, it is imperative that we
conceptualise the
Wrm as embedded in socio-cultural rela-
tions both as a collectivity and via the embeddedness of its
individual employees (see also
) articulated
through the three sets of relations detailed above.
A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393–413
409
6. Conclusion
While the concept of ‘cultural embeddedness’ has been
drawn upon extensively to theorise and explain uneven pat-
terns of regional economic development, our understanding
of the causal mechanisms and practices through which spa-
tially variable sets of socio-cultural conventions, norms,
attitudes, values and beliefs shape and condition the eco-
nomic performance of
Wrms in regional industrial systems
remains under-speci
Wed. On the one hand, regional learning
accounts tend to ‘dehumanise’ processes of cultural embed-
ding by divorcing them from everyday material practice as
experienced by workers. On the other hand, this literature
also su
Vers from a tendency to underemphasise the impor-
tance of wider extra-local structures based on a misplaced
conception of regions as ‘closed systems’ or mere ‘contain-
ers’ of intangible assets and sociocultural structures. In con-
trast, this paper has sought to make visible the everyday
practices, mechanisms and emergent e
Vects both locally
and extra-locally through which the cultural embedding of
Wrms within regional economies is performed and (un)unin-
tentionally (re)produced. Drawing on the case study of the
high tech regional economy in Salt Lake City, Utah, the
paper
Wrst summarised how local computer software Wrms’
abilities to access external sources of knowledge and com-
petencies, and to use new knowledge once it enters the
Wrm
are di
Verentially shaped by the socially constructed norms,
values and evaluative criteria within this region’s dominant
culture (particularly Mormon ethics of unity, reciprocity,
self-su
Yciency, independence, self-reliance and non-con-
frontation). The paper has also explored the meaning and
consequences of that cultural embedding for
Wrms’ eco-
nomic performance, as measured across a series of metrics
of competitiveness. Second, in contrast to previous tenden-
cies within the regional learning literature to ‘dehumanise’
cultural embeddedness as a rei
Wed set of inherited relations,
the analysis focused on the deliberative human agents,
actors and bureaus whose ongoing purposive actions are
not only constitutive of, but also themselves constrained by,
processes of cultural embedding. As part of this, the analy-
sis unpacked some important extra-regional labour market
practices and national legislative structures.
While the analysis presented here has illustrated these
mechanisms with regard to the Utah case, arguably these
represent locally-instituted manifestations of more general
mechanisms which are potentially applicable to other
regions with strong cultures, be those based on class, eth-
nicity, unionization, or industrial specialization. But what
of empirical con
Wrmation of that transferability? Impor-
tantly, some recent work on the masculinist work cultures
in Cambridge’s high tech regional economy (
James, 2007; c.f. Massey, 1995
) and on the long hours work
culture in Dublin’s ICT cluster (
) has identi-
Wed similar mechanisms of cultural embedding in opera-
tion, and hence that the analysis presented does potentially
o
Ver a useful framework for understanding the everyday
Fig. 1. Connecting the major mechanisms of
Wrms’ cultural embedding in the region.
NATIONAL-SCALE POLITICAL LEGISLATION
e.g. Civil Rights Act (1964) & Workplace Religious Freedom Act (1972)
STATE-SCALE POLITICAL LEGISLATION
e.g. anti-smoking and liquor licensing laws; impacts on amenities and lifestyle choices
CORPORATE DECISION MAKERS & OPINION LEADERS
Simultaneous occupation of positions of corporate power
and regional cultural identity
Borrowing from models are familiar with
STRENGTH IN NUMBERS
INTRA-FIRM LEVEL
INTER-FIRM LEVEL
Conformity to norms of the group
Influence of surrounding firms
Mutual observance
Visibility factor – lead firms
Group ratification of culturally-informed decisions
CIVIC
INSTITUTIONS
Socialisation
Systemic govt
power
LABOUR RECRUITMENT
Firms actively seeking employees
that match their own values
Employees seeking firms that match
their own values
EDUCATIONAL
INSTITUTIONS
Universities/colleges
Graduates as
embodied culture
FOUNDING / MANAGING / STAFFING FIRMS
410
A. James / Geoforum 38 (2007) 393–413
mechanisms and practices which underpin the mutual con-
stitution of culture/economy in other places. Clearly how-
ever, there remains considerable scope for future studies to
explore this transferability.
Second, in order to avoid a static view of embedded-
ness, future work should explore further how the meaning
and consequences of these di
Verent mechanisms and prac-
tices of cultural embedding for
Wrms’ observed behaviour
and economic performance evolve over time, as
Wrms
grow in size, set up subsidiaries in other regions, or else
merge with other
Wrms. Preliminary results from the Utah
case suggest that as
Wrms grow from small cohesive
groups of people committed to similar culturally-
informed goals and objectives to larger, more bureau-
cratic and segmented type corporate environments, the
values of the founders and the original group often
became lost (‘key individuals’ mechanism weakened), in
turn reinforced by new employees joining a company with
a greater diversity of skill sets and cultural backgrounds,
resulting in a lesser rati
Wcation of regionally-culturally-
informed decisions within the
Wrm (‘strength-in-numbers’
mechanism weakened):
‘So last year in particular we went through a lot of
political in-
Wghting with this new batch of employees,
with the traditional LDS structure really
Wghting up
against the people who came in from the outside. And
the outside won, they usually always do’.
Director
of Marketing, FQY, active Mormon
And
Wnally, given the negative impacts of some mecha-
nisms and practices of cultural embedding on
Wrms’ eco-
nomic performance as illustrated in the Utah case, future
work might also explore the amenability of these various
mechanisms to deliberate programmes of targeted change
in pursuit of new patterns of
Wrm behaviour and hence
regional economic development (for example, in line with
the myriad cluster policy proscriptions in the UK, US and
beyond that have simply exhorted
Wrms to become more
cooperative or embracing of risk). In so doing, cultural eco-
nomic geographers can further their development of a pow-
erful, in-depth empirical corpus of work commensurate
with the exciting conceptual developments that have largely
dominated cultural economic geography over the last
decade, and hence circumvent the critiques of ‘thin empir-
ics’ and ‘scanty evidence’ recently leveled at the sub-disci-
pline (
).
Acknowledgements
I am grateful for comments on earlier versions of this
paper by Mia Gray, Jane Pollard, Sarah Damery, three
anonymous referees, and audiences at invited seminars to
the Departments of Geography at the Universities of New-
castle Upon Tyne, Oxford and Lund. Thanks also to all of
my research participants in Utah who kindly took time out
from their busy work schedules to be interviewed, and espe-
cially those who bought me lunch. The research was funded
by the Economic and Social Research Council (Award:
R00429934224).
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Document Outline
- Everyday effects, practices and causal mechanisms of ‘cultural embeddedness’: Learning from Utah’s high tech regional economy
- Introduction
- Connecting ‘cultural embeddedness’ to regional economic development
- Case Study: Salt Lake City (high tech meets Mormonism)
- Exploring how and why firms’ cultural embedding in the region matters
- Unpacking the causal mechanisms and everyday practices of cultural embedding
- Conclusion
- Acknowledgements
- References
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