Abstract:  To conform or not is the core problem for organizations under institutional pressures. The institution theory and resource-based views provide conflicting ideas on this problem especially for those organizations in different network positions. The former argues that the central position increases the visibility of the firms in the field and the strength of pressures, which motivates those firms to conform to the institutional demands. And the latter argues that the central position of the firms can acquire more information and resources, which gives them the opportunity and the ability to conduct institutional entrepreneurship and challenge the institutional prescription. So how to deal with institutional pressures for those firms in different positions still need further theoretical and empirical studies. Integrating complex institution theory and RBV, we theoretically analyze the influencing mechanics of institutional pressures and network centrality on e-business practice adoption in industry cluster. According to the classical institution theory, we divide institutional pressures into regulative pressure and normative pressure, and presume the positive relationship between the two different pressures and practice adoption of cluster films. Considering the network positions and regulative pressure, we argue that cluster firms in central position have more resources than those firms in peripheral position, so they can form the interdependence relationship with the local government, which gives those firms the opportunity to change the local government’ policies designs to fulfill both sides’ value. So those central cluster firms are more intent to comply with the policies. But for cluster firms in peripheral position, they can hardly form the interdependence relationship with the local government, and can also escape from the eyes of local government easily, which means they will not fulfill the policies of local government effectively. Thus, we get the hypothesis 3 that the central position and regulative pressure have positive interactive effect on practice adoption of cluster firms. Considering the network positions and normative pressure, we argue that cluster firms in peripheral position must depend on the local industrial system because of the poor internal resources, and comply to the local norms, or they will be expelled from the local industrial system. But for cluster firms in central position, they can depend on themselves and will not have to obey the norms of local industrial system. Thus, we get the hypothesis 4 that the central position and normative pressure have negative interactive effect on practice adoption of cluster firms.The objective of the empirical study is the Shangyu Umbrella Cluster Firms and their e-business adoption decision. Since 2013, Zhejiang government promote the policies of “the replacement of traditional markets by e-business”, which formed the transformative institutional pressures in the region. Then many firms had to decide whether to adopt e-business under the strong institutional pressures about “the replacement of traditional markets by e-business”, which provide the effective research environment to testify the organizational responsive mechanics under institutional pressures. During 2015.12-2016.01, we collected 146 effective questionnaires from Shangyu Umbrella Industry Cluster, which is one of famous industry clusters in Zhejiang Province. With statistic software SPSS, reliability and validity analysis were conduct, and the results indicated our data have good reliability and validity. Then correlation and regression analysis were conducted to testify hypotheses, and the analysis basically prove the four hypotheses. Based on regression analysis, the empirical study reveals the following conclusions. First, institutional pressures have positive effects on cluster firms’ e-business practice adoption, which confirms the main idea of institutional theory. Second, regulative pressure and network centrality have positive interactive effect on cluster firms’ e-business adoption. This indicates the cluster firms in central position are more sensitive to the regulative pressures, and are more inclined to conform to the demand of the local government. The reason is the interdependence between those firms and local government, which motivate both parts to produce win-win policies and induce those cluster firms to conform the regulative pressure. Third, normative pressure and network centrality have negative interactive effect on cluster firms’ e-business adoption. In contrast, the cluster firms in peripheral position are more sensitive to the normative pressure just because of the dependence of those firms on the local industrial system, so they are more inclined to conform to the norm of local industry cluster. As for cluster firms in central position, they have enough resources and information and less depend on local industrial system as those peers in peripheral position, so are not really care about regional normative pressure.Our results have important value for institutional theory, especially for the researches on the organizational responsive mechanics under institutional pressures. Through the integrative of complex institution theory and RBV, we provide new explanation on the conflicting views about responsive mechanics under institutional pressure in different network position, which promotes the development of the research on firm practice adoption under institutional pressure. Also, our results have important practical value. For local government, the focus on the leading firms of public policies is proved to be right strategy. Because those firms always occupy central position, they are more sensitive to the regulative pressure from local government, and inclined to conform to local demands, which also forms the basis for the normative institutional pressure in the region. And under normative pressure, the peripheral cluster firms are more inclined to obey the rules. This means the local government can motivate the whole cluster firms with the help of leading firms.This research also has several limitations which provide the future research directions. Firstly, the institutional entrepreneurship of cluster firms in central network position need more empirical studies. Secondly, the influencing mechanics of regional policy on the whole industry cluster need more theoretical and empirical studies. Thirdly, our research model can be verified by other clusters and other types of practice adoption to improve the external validation.

Key words: institutional pressure, industrial cluster, e-business practice adoption, network centrality