Between rationalism and romanticism: metaphors in managing conflicting institutional logics in science and technology parks

Abstract

This article examines how metaphors act as a semiotic resource for managing conflicting institutional logics. Due to their polysemic nature, metaphors help to bridge contending logics and facilitate their long-term co-existence without a need for a battle over dominance. Hence, metaphors provide a similar tool for reconciling competing logics as images and polysemic targets have been shown to offer in earlier studies. The study looks at the workings of metaphors by analysing discourse concerning science and technology parks (STPs) from the UK and Finland. The dataset includes interviews with park managers and representatives of client companies, parliamentary debates and self-presentations by the parks. The article shows how the six key metaphors used to describe STPs (the garden, the incubator, the accelerator, the conduit, the village, and the landlord) are utilized by various actor groups to reconcile the two conflicting institutional logics prevalent in the STPs: instrumental rationalism and romanticism.