The Process of Deinstitutionalization: The Case of Swiss Banking Secrecy

Conceptualizing deinstitutionalization as the gradual erosion of a once-institutionalized organizational activity, we investigated the processes involved in institutional erosion, which we studied in an institutional conflict surrounding the incompatibility of Swiss banking secrecy with the global trend towards tax transparency. Our emerging grounded theory holds that institutional erosion resulted from a sequence of interaction practices between incumbents and challengers of the banking secrecy institution. This sequence combines two countervailing processes: incumbent resistance and challenger use of power. Our theoretical model highlights that incumbent resistance has important unintended consequences which contribute to deinstitutionalization. Our study has implications for research on deinstitutionalization, political perspectives on institutions, and research on transnational institutional settings.