Acting cooperatively while being revolutionary: an insider-outsider cybermediary theory

We present an alternative perspective of a financial services cybermediary. Drawing on the institutional entrepreneurship literature and identity theory, we develop a theoretical model for cybermediaries that aim to become core players in the emerging online financial services field. In this model an alternating emphasis on either an insider perspective and interorganizational linkages, or an outsider perspective and revolutionary interpersonal interaction, enables cybermediaries to evolve from a legitimate peripheral position to a core directing position in the emerging online financial services field. Both feedback and feedforward learning processes hereby help to ensure the pivotal role of cybermediaries by locking in the identities of the main institutional constituents to their advantage.