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This paper examines institution building and the problems of collective action that must be overcome so that institutions can regulate the self-interested activity of organizations and facilitate the production or protection of resources that collectively benefit organizations. We show that the presence of competing groups of organizations is key to institution building because it may allow cooperating organizations to gain relative competitive advantage over other organizations and because the presence of salient rivals facilitates collective action. We use the history of tourism institutions at Niagara Falls to illuminate the collective action problems, and their solutions, associated with building institutions. We propose that (1) institution building in this context was the result of collective action among competitors to solve a common problem, (2) rivalry and competition between hotels on either side of the falls enhanced …