Concentration and Specialization: Dynamics of Niche Width in Populations of Organizations

Carroll, Glenn R.

doi:10.1086/228210

Cited by 710 publications

(647 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…We have countless studies of diffusion, through networks and otherwise (see Strang and Soule 1998 for a review). We know how industry concentration can prompt the births of specialists through resource partitioning (Carroll 1985). Network structures and their consequences are now reasonably well documented (Burt 1992).…”

Section: Mechanism-based Theorizingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prospects for Organization Theory in the Early Twenty-First Century: Institutional Fields and Mechanisms

Davis

Marquis

2005

Organization Science

479

355

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T his paper argues that research in organization theory has seen a shift in orientation from paradigm-driven work to problem-driven work since the late 1980s. A number of paradigms for the study of organizations were elaborated during the mid-1970s, including transaction cost economics, resource dependence theory, organizational ecology, new institutional theory, and agency theory in financial economics. These approaches reflected the dominant trends of the large corporations of their time: increasing concentration, diversification, and bureaucratization. However, subsequent shifts in organizational boundaries, the increased use of alliances and network forms, and the expanding role of financial markets in shaping organizational decision making all make normal science driven by the internally derived questions from these paradigms less fruitful. Instead, we argue that problem-driven work that uses mechanism-based theorizing and research that takes the field rather than the organization as the unit of analysis are the most appropriate styles of organizational research under conditions of major economic change-such as our own era. This sort of work is best exemplified by various studies under the rubric of institutional theory in the past 15 years, which are reviewed here.Key words: organization theory; social mechanisms; organizational fields; paradigms Organization theory has found itself at an interesting crossroads at the turn of the century. On the one hand, we are constantly reminded that we live in a world in which large organizations have absorbed society and vacuumed up most of social reality (Perrow 1991). Multinational corporations (MNCs) have transcended political boundaries in their sales and their production processes, and dozens of them have annual revenues that surpass the GDP of all but a few nations. Their employees are like citizens with rights, benefits, and legalistic grievance procedures (Dobbin and Sutton 1998). Just as nation-states in centuries past came to be the dominant locus of power through their monopoly on the legitimate use of physical force, MNCs dominate the world economy (and thus society) through their concentrated control of capital. States are largely stuck with agreed-upon land borders, but MNCs and their mobile investments get to choose their jurisdictions in the marketplace of laws. It hardly seems a fair fight, as large organizations continue their drive to vacuum up whatever is left of social life. This situation locates organization theory as the queen of the social sciences, uniquely able to explain the dominant social structures of our times.Yet close inspection by our theoretical confreres in law and economics reveals most organizations to be mere legal fictions with no "inside" or "outside" analogous to borders-they are simply dense spots in networks of contracts among sovereign individuals (who may themselves be mere fictions-Jensen and Meckling 1976). With corporations, there is no there there-they are simply legal devices with useful properties for raising financ...

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Section: Mechanism-based Theorizingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Prospects for Organization Theory in the Early Twenty-First Century: Institutional Fields and Mechanisms

Davis

Marquis

2005

Organization Science

479

355

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…For example, key informants suggested density dependent mortality operated in some markets, viewed those organizations with limited (or incorrectly focused) business lines were not sufficiently fit to survive, reported developing cooperative relationships (Astley & Fombrun, 1983), and attempted at resource partitioning (Carroll, 1985). However, a fuller consideration of the population ecology perspective highlights remaining unanswered questions such as the nature environmental change (i.e.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A population ecology perspective on the functioning and future of health information organizations

Vest

Menachemi²

2017

Health Care Manage Rev

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“…However, we began by referencing White and White's (1993) analysis of the rise of the impressionism, where a transcendent conception replaced a hedonic conception. Moreover, in Carroll's (1985) resource partitioning model, specialists -with identities that are clearly more idiosyncratic than their generalist counterparts -only arise once a war of attrition has occurred among the generalists. Since specialist organizations seem more likely to induce a transcendent orientation than their generalist counterparts (see Carroll and Swaminathan 2000), it is far from clear that the transcendent conception of value inevitably gives way to the hedonic orientation.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hedonic and transcendent conceptions of value

Podolny¹,

Hill-Popper²

2004

Industrial and Corporate Change

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In this paper we introduce a conceptual distinction between a hedonic and transcendent conception of value. We posit three linguistic earmarks by which one can distinguish these conceptions of value. We seek validation for the conceptual distinctions by examining the language contained in reviews of cars and reviews of paintings. In undertaking the empirical examination, we draw on the work of M.A.K. Halliday to identify clauses as fundamental units of meaning and to specify process types that can be mapped onto theoretical distinctions between the two conceptions of value. Extensions of this research are discussed. AbstractIn this paper we introduce a conceptual distinction between a hedonic and transcendent conception of value. We posit three linguistic earmarks by which one can distinguish these conceptions of value. We seek validation for the conceptual distinctions by examining the language contained in reviews of cars and reviews of paintings. In undertaking the empirical examination, we draw on the work of M.A.K. Halliday to identify clauses as fundamental units of meaning and to specify process types that can be mapped onto theoretical distinctions between the two conceptions of value. Extensions of this research are discussed.

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Concentration and Specialization: Dynamics of Niche Width in Populations of Organizations

Cited by 710 publications

References 22 publications

Prospects for Organization Theory in the Early Twenty-First Century: Institutional Fields and Mechanisms

Prospects for Organization Theory in the Early Twenty-First Century: Institutional Fields and Mechanisms

A population ecology perspective on the functioning and future of health information organizations

Hedonic and transcendent conceptions of value

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