Session 11: Organizational Ecology and Evolution

Topics

This week adopts a population-level, evolutionary view in which forms (or species) of organizations are naturally selected by environmental forces. The population ecology model, which adopts this view, argues that it is the distributions of resources in the environment – not individual organizations – that determine which organizations (and forms of organizations) will survive and grow. Consequently, there are significant limits – greater than earlier perspectives recognized – to the degrees to which individual organizations can exercise strategic choices that affect their success. Organizations are placed at the mercy of their environments, since they either fortuitously “fit” into a niche or they are “selected out” and fail.

• Discussants: George and Cameron

• Prof. Van de Ven’s slides on organization ecology & evolution

Required Readings

• Hannan & Freeman (1977) "The Population Ecology of Organizations," AJS, 82, 5: 929-964.

• Barnett (1990) "The Organizational Ecology of a Technological System," ASQ, 35: 31-60.

• Aldrich & Ruef (2006) "Organizations Evolving," Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, chapters 2-3, pp 16-60.

• Baum & Shipilov (2006) “Ecological Approaches to Organizations” in Clegg et al (Eds.) Handbook of Org Studies. Sage: 55-109.

• Hiatt, Sine & Tolbert (2009), From Pabst to Pepsi: The deinstitutionalization of social practices and the creation of entrepreneurial opportunities,” ASQ, 54: 635-667.

Supplementary Readings on Organizational Ecology

• • Freeman, Carroll & Hannan (1983) “The liability of newness: Age dependence.” ASR, 48: 692-710.

  • Astley (1985) "The Two Ecologies: Population and Community Perspectives on Org. Evolution," ASQ, 30: 224-41.

  • Hannan, Carroll, Dundon, & Torres (1995) "Organizational Evolution in a Multinational Context: Entries of Automobile Manufacturers in Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy," ASR, 60, 4: 509-528.

  • Swaminathan (1995) The proliferation of specialist organizations in Amer. Wine industry,” ASQ, 40, 653-680.

  • Hannan & Freeman (1989) Organizational Ecology, Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press.

  • Aldrich (1979) Organizations and Environments, NY Prentice Hall.

  • Hannan & Carroll (1995) “Organizations in Industry: Strategy, Structure & Selection,” New York: Oxford.

  • Amburgey & Rao (1996), “Organizational Ecology: Past, Present and Future Directions,” AMJ, 39: 1265-1286.

  • Sorensen & Stuart, 2000. “Aging, Obsolescence, and Organizational Innovation,” ASQ, 45: 81-112.

  • Carroll & Hannan (2000) “The Demography of Corporations and Industries,” Princeton, Chpts. 1-2, pp. 1-34.

  • Baum & Rao (2004) “Evolutionary Dynamics of Organizational Populations and Communities,” in Poole & Van de Ven, Handbook of Organizational Change, Oxford.

  • Hsu, G. and M.T. Hannan. 2005. Identities, genres, and organizational forms. Organization Science, 16(5) 474-490.

  • Zuckerman, E. W. 1999. The categorical imperative: Securities analysts and the illegitimacy discount. American Journal of Sociology, 104(5) 1398-1438.

  • Zuckerman, E.W. 2000. Focusing the corporate product: Securities analysts and de-diversification. ASQ 45(3) 591-619.

  • Zuckerman, E.W., T.-Y. Kim, K. Ukanawa, J. v. Rittman, 2003. Robust identities or nonentities? Typecasting in the feature-film labor market. American Journal of Sociology, 108(5) 1018-1074.

  • Hannan, M.T., J.N. Baron, G. Hsu, O. Kocak. 2006. Organizational identities and the hazard of change. Industrial and Corporate Change 15(5) 755-784.

Further Readings on Organizational Evolution

• • Campbell (1969) “Variation, Selection, and Retention in Sociocultural Systems,” General Systems, 16: 69-85.

  • McKelvey, B. (1982) “Organizational Systematics: Taconomy, evolution, classification,” Univ. of CA Press.

  • Nelson & Winter (1982) “An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change,” Harvard U. Press, Chpts. 3-5, pp. 51-138.

  • Romanelli (1991) "The Evolution of New Organizational Forms," Annual Review of Sociology, 17: 79-103.

  • Nelson (1994) “Evolutionary Theorizing About Economic Change” in Smedel & Swedberg (Eds.) Handbook of Economic Sociology Princeton Univ. Press 108-136.

  • Baum & Singh (Eds.) (1994) Evolutionary Dynamics of Organizations, New York: Oxford.

  • Greve (1996) "Patterns of Competition: The Diffusion of a Market Position in Radio Broadcasting," ASQ, 41: 29-60.

  • Baum & McKelvey (Eds.) (1999) Variations in Organization Science: Perspectives in Honor of Donald T. Campbell, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp. 63-77.

  • Van de Ven & Grazman (1999) "Evolution in a Nested Hierarchy: A Genealogy of Twin-Cities Health Care Organizations, 1853-1995," in Baum & McKelvey (Eds.), Variations in Organization Science: Perspectives in Honor of Donald T. Campbell, Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, pp. 185-212.