Long-term evolutionary change in organizational populations: Theory, models and empirical findings from industrial demography

Long-term evolutionary change in organizational populations: Theory, models and empirical findings from industrial demography

Industrial and Corporate Change.
1997, Vol. 6, Issue 1, Pages 119-143

Organizational ecology is a theoretical perspective on organizations that attempts to explain long-term social evolution, especially the rise and fall of organizational populations. This article reviews the most sustained demographic research program of the perspective, one based on the density-dependent model of legitimating and competition. It discusses the theoretical model and evidence from industrial demography that has been offered in its support as well as criticisms that have been registered. Unresolved research problems of the program are identified and three major models-in-progress attempting to address these open questions are discussed and compared.