by evidence of what are probably more basic social and psychological reasons behind the event-poi... more by evidence of what are probably more basic social and psychological reasons behind the event-pointing the way toward possibly helping certain families remain together-or by evidence of the conditions under which marital dissolution is beneficial. Hannan, Tuma, and Groeneveld are in a position to comment on whether other data were gathered in the Seattle-Denver experiment hat elucidate family functioning in relation to the family stability findings, or what kinds of data should have been or now should be collected from the families in the experiment. Their insights as noneconomists could lead to better research efforts in the future-research that would better illuminate what is happening "out there" and hence serve as a better guide to national problem solving. LEONARD GOODWIN Worcester Polytechnic Institute
This article assesses the robustness of recent estimates of the effect of density on the founding... more This article assesses the robustness of recent estimates of the effect of density on the founding rates in organizational populations. It reports reanalyses of data on founding rates of six populations of organizations using a generalization of quasi-likelihood estimation that allows specification of autocorrelation processes. Autocorrelation is indeed present in five of the six data sets. However, the main substantive finding of earlier research proves to be robust-a nonmonotonic relationship between density and founding rate-continues to hold in most cases even when autocorrelation is taken into account. In other words, the predicted pattern of nonmonotonic density dependence is robust with respect to the form of autocorrelation investigated.
Abstract Deregulation has stimulated much economic and political interest. This paper develops a ... more Abstract Deregulation has stimulated much economic and political interest. This paper develops a framework for understanding the effects of deregulation from an ecological perspective and reports empirical studies of financial institutions (banks, thrifts and mutual funds) at two levels of analysis: the system and the population. These both show that deregulation bad a dramatic impact on the level of competitive intensity within the financial industry. The main contributions of this paper are the application of a general sociological ...
... All rights reserved METHODS FOR TEMPORAL ANALYSIS * 10580 Michael T. Hannan and NancyBrandon ... more ... All rights reserved METHODS FOR TEMPORAL ANALYSIS * 10580 Michael T. Hannan and NancyBrandon Tuma Department of Sociology, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305 INTRODUCTION Most sociological research still relies on cross-sectional analysis. ...
The comments printed in this section are limited to brief critiques of articles and reviews publi... more The comments printed in this section are limited to brief critiques of articles and reviews published in the AJS. These comments are ex-pected to address specific errors or flaws. Comments on articles are not to exceed 1,500 words, those on reviews 750 words. Authors of articles ...
Hannan, West, and Barron investigate the development of credit unions over time, focusing on orga... more Hannan, West, and Barron investigate the development of credit unions over time, focusing on organizational processes that shaped and continue to determine the evolution of credit unions. They clarify how the potential for future development of the credit union movement is shaped by the past dynamics of American credit union development, the growth of competing forms of deposit institutions, and government regulation. They use the theoretical and methodological perspective of organizational ecology. This approach to organizational analysis seeks to understand how social conditions affect the rates at which new organizations and new organizational forms arise, the rates at which organizations change their fundamental features, and the rates at which organizations and organizational forms die out. Hannan, West, and Barron posed hypotheses that apply to many kinds of organizational populations and collected credit union data appropriate for testing these hypotheses. Their research reveals a number of informative patterns in the proliferation and growth of credit unions. These patterns suggest strong parallels with the dynamics of other kinds of organizational populations. Consequently, they conclude that their research indicates that organizational ecology theory can help us better understand the evolution of credit unions.
Why do organizations generally lose their competitive edge as they get older? Recent theory and r... more Why do organizations generally lose their competitive edge as they get older? Recent theory and research on the dynamics of audiencesand categories in markets shed some new light on issues of organizational obsolescence. ő Inertia and environmental drift lie at the core of theoretical thinking about organizational obsolescence (Barron, West, and Hannan 1994; Hannan 1998; Carroll and Hannan 2000). The basic story holds that environments drift, but aging organizations cannot adapt well to change. As a result, fitness declines with age at some point, and viability then declines with further aging. Prior theoretical work on this issue suffers two important limitations. First, it does not specify clearly what drift means and why it affects fitness. Second, it relies on very strong—possibly unrealistic—assumptions of imprinting and inertia. According to this line of reasoning (Hannan and Freeman 1977, 1989), organizations get pre-selected at time of founding to fit to prevailing environme...
... the geographical proximity, frequent labor mobility, and dense network ties among Silicon ...... more ... the geographical proximity, frequent labor mobility, and dense network ties among Silicon ... large in Silicon Valley: the fluid labor market; the rapid pace of technical, market, and social ... mobility, employability, flexibility, and a new generation of employees with shorter ...
Recent theory and research have reconceptualized categories in markets and in other settings as p... more Recent theory and research have reconceptualized categories in markets and in other settings as part of the languages developed to characterize roles in a producer-audience interface. An important development in this work is the characterization of memberships in producer categories and in audiences as potentially partial. Producers often are regarded as members in a category to varying degrees, and audience members share to varying degrees in consensus about the applicability and meanings of category labels. Such partiality gives rise to fuzziness in boundaries, which has implications for the emergence and persistence of categories. A fast-developing literature has explored these implications empirically.
by evidence of what are probably more basic social and psychological reasons behind the event-poi... more by evidence of what are probably more basic social and psychological reasons behind the event-pointing the way toward possibly helping certain families remain together-or by evidence of the conditions under which marital dissolution is beneficial. Hannan, Tuma, and Groeneveld are in a position to comment on whether other data were gathered in the Seattle-Denver experiment hat elucidate family functioning in relation to the family stability findings, or what kinds of data should have been or now should be collected from the families in the experiment. Their insights as noneconomists could lead to better research efforts in the future-research that would better illuminate what is happening "out there" and hence serve as a better guide to national problem solving. LEONARD GOODWIN Worcester Polytechnic Institute
This article assesses the robustness of recent estimates of the effect of density on the founding... more This article assesses the robustness of recent estimates of the effect of density on the founding rates in organizational populations. It reports reanalyses of data on founding rates of six populations of organizations using a generalization of quasi-likelihood estimation that allows specification of autocorrelation processes. Autocorrelation is indeed present in five of the six data sets. However, the main substantive finding of earlier research proves to be robust-a nonmonotonic relationship between density and founding rate-continues to hold in most cases even when autocorrelation is taken into account. In other words, the predicted pattern of nonmonotonic density dependence is robust with respect to the form of autocorrelation investigated.
Abstract Deregulation has stimulated much economic and political interest. This paper develops a ... more Abstract Deregulation has stimulated much economic and political interest. This paper develops a framework for understanding the effects of deregulation from an ecological perspective and reports empirical studies of financial institutions (banks, thrifts and mutual funds) at two levels of analysis: the system and the population. These both show that deregulation bad a dramatic impact on the level of competitive intensity within the financial industry. The main contributions of this paper are the application of a general sociological ...
... All rights reserved METHODS FOR TEMPORAL ANALYSIS * 10580 Michael T. Hannan and NancyBrandon ... more ... All rights reserved METHODS FOR TEMPORAL ANALYSIS * 10580 Michael T. Hannan and NancyBrandon Tuma Department of Sociology, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305 INTRODUCTION Most sociological research still relies on cross-sectional analysis. ...
The comments printed in this section are limited to brief critiques of articles and reviews publi... more The comments printed in this section are limited to brief critiques of articles and reviews published in the AJS. These comments are ex-pected to address specific errors or flaws. Comments on articles are not to exceed 1,500 words, those on reviews 750 words. Authors of articles ...
Hannan, West, and Barron investigate the development of credit unions over time, focusing on orga... more Hannan, West, and Barron investigate the development of credit unions over time, focusing on organizational processes that shaped and continue to determine the evolution of credit unions. They clarify how the potential for future development of the credit union movement is shaped by the past dynamics of American credit union development, the growth of competing forms of deposit institutions, and government regulation. They use the theoretical and methodological perspective of organizational ecology. This approach to organizational analysis seeks to understand how social conditions affect the rates at which new organizations and new organizational forms arise, the rates at which organizations change their fundamental features, and the rates at which organizations and organizational forms die out. Hannan, West, and Barron posed hypotheses that apply to many kinds of organizational populations and collected credit union data appropriate for testing these hypotheses. Their research reveals a number of informative patterns in the proliferation and growth of credit unions. These patterns suggest strong parallels with the dynamics of other kinds of organizational populations. Consequently, they conclude that their research indicates that organizational ecology theory can help us better understand the evolution of credit unions.
Why do organizations generally lose their competitive edge as they get older? Recent theory and r... more Why do organizations generally lose their competitive edge as they get older? Recent theory and research on the dynamics of audiencesand categories in markets shed some new light on issues of organizational obsolescence. ő Inertia and environmental drift lie at the core of theoretical thinking about organizational obsolescence (Barron, West, and Hannan 1994; Hannan 1998; Carroll and Hannan 2000). The basic story holds that environments drift, but aging organizations cannot adapt well to change. As a result, fitness declines with age at some point, and viability then declines with further aging. Prior theoretical work on this issue suffers two important limitations. First, it does not specify clearly what drift means and why it affects fitness. Second, it relies on very strong—possibly unrealistic—assumptions of imprinting and inertia. According to this line of reasoning (Hannan and Freeman 1977, 1989), organizations get pre-selected at time of founding to fit to prevailing environme...
... the geographical proximity, frequent labor mobility, and dense network ties among Silicon ...... more ... the geographical proximity, frequent labor mobility, and dense network ties among Silicon ... large in Silicon Valley: the fluid labor market; the rapid pace of technical, market, and social ... mobility, employability, flexibility, and a new generation of employees with shorter ...
Recent theory and research have reconceptualized categories in markets and in other settings as p... more Recent theory and research have reconceptualized categories in markets and in other settings as part of the languages developed to characterize roles in a producer-audience interface. An important development in this work is the characterization of memberships in producer categories and in audiences as potentially partial. Producers often are regarded as members in a category to varying degrees, and audience members share to varying degrees in consensus about the applicability and meanings of category labels. Such partiality gives rise to fuzziness in boundaries, which has implications for the emergence and persistence of categories. A fast-developing literature has explored these implications empirically.
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