Organizational Ecology [Paperback]

Michael T. Hannan and John Freeman examine the ecology of organizations by exploring the competition for resources and by trying to account for rates of entry and exit and for the diversity of organizational forms. They show that the destinies of organizations are determined more by impersonal forces than by the intervention of individuals.Organizational Ecologyis an exceptional book. It is at several points an exemplar of integrating formal theory with sophisticated empirical research& The future will look back to&the period when theory emerged to formalize the temporal component in the relationship between competition and formal organization. The key book in that long look back will be Hannan and FreemansOrganizational Ecology. This is a book in which we can all take pride as sociologists.Michael Hannan and John Freeman began one of organization theorys more acrimonious debates. Borrowing heavily from the biological literature on population ecology, Hannan and Freeman argue that macrosocial processes play a major role in determining organizational success or failure, more so than managerial action& If you are interested in the debate, and you wish to be able to argue intelligently about the underlying issues, this is a good book to read.In the business of academic research, one often hears exhortations for the value of programmatic, long-term, longitudinal research, yet such instantiations are rare. Hannan and Freemans volume stands as one of these uncommon examples& For any serious scholar of organizations and strategy it would make sense to study this book.Hannan and Freeman examine the ecology of organizations by exploring the competition for resources and by trying to account for rates of entry and exit and for the diversity of organizational forms. They show that the destinies of organizations are determined more by impersonal forces than by the intervention of individuals.