The Demography of Corporations and Industries

by Glenn R. Carroll, Michael T. Hannan

Overview

Most analysts of corporations and industries adopt the focal perspective of a single prototypical organization. Many analysts also study corporations primarily in terms of their internal organizational structures or as complex systems of financial contracts. Glenn Carroll and Michael Hannan bring fresh insight to our understanding of corporations and the industries they comprise by looking beyond prototypical structures to focus on the range and diversity of organizations in their social and economic setting. The result is a rich rendering of analysis that portrays whole populations and communities of corporations.



The Demography of Corporations and Industries is the first book to present the demographic approach to organizational studies in its entirety. It examines the theory, models, methods, and data used in corporate demographic research. Carroll and Hannan explore the processes by which corporate populations change over time, including organizational founding, growth, decline, structural transformation, and mortality. They review and synthesize the major theoretical mechanisms of corporate demography, ranging from aging and size dependence to population segregation and density dependence. The book also explores some selected implications of corporate demography for public policy, including employment and regulation.


In this path-breaking book, Carroll and Hannan demonstrate why demographic research on corporations is important; describe how to conduct demographic research; specify fruitful areas of future research; and suggest how the demographic perspective can enrich the public discussion of issues surrounding the corporation in our constantly evolving industrial society. All researchers and analysts with an interest in this topic will find The Demography of Corporations and Industries an invaluable resource.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780691186795
Publisher:	Princeton University Press
Publication date:	06/05/2018
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	520
File size:	40 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Glenn R. Carroll is the Paul J. Cortese Distinguished Professor of Management at the Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley. Michael T. Hannan is the StrataCom Professor of Management and Professor of Sociology at Stanford University.

Table of Contents

	List of Figures	xi
	List of Tables	xv
	Preface	xix
	Acknowledgments	xxvii
Part I	The Case for Corporate Demography	1
1	About Organizations	3
1.1	Aging and Learning	3
1.2	Inertia and Change	5
1.3	Competitive Intensity	7
1.4	Global Competition	9
1.5	Historical Efficiency	11
1.6	Employment and Entrepreneurship	12
1.7	A Look Ahead	14
2	The Demographic Perspective	17
2.1	Demography of Business Organizations	18
2.2	Organizing Principles of Demography	25
2.3	Formal Demography and Population Studies	26
2.4	Demographic Explanation	28
2.5	The Demography of the Work Force	31
2.6	Internal Organizational Demography	32
3	Toward a Corporate Demography	35
3.1	Earlier Efforts	36
3.2	Retaining the Classical Structure	39
3.3	Making Demography Organizational	40
3.4	A Research Strategy	56
4	Forms and Populations	59
4.1	Population versus Form	60
4.2	Identity and Form	67
4.3	Codes	68
4.4	Organizational Forms	73
4.5	Organizational Populations	74
4.6	Systems of Forms	76
4.7	Implications for Corporate Demography	78
Part II	Methods of Corporate Demography	83
5	Observation Plans	85
5.1	Designs in Organizational Research	86
5.2	Trade-offs in Observation Plans	89
5.3	Impact of Observation Plans	95
6	Analyzing Vital Rates	101
6.1	Event-History Designs	101
6.2	Stochastic-Process Models	110
6.3	Life-Table Estimation	117
6.4	Constant-Rate Models	127
7	Modeling Corporate Vital Rates	135
7.1	Duration Dependence	135
7.2	Dependence on Covariates	139
7.3	Note on Left Truncation	149
7.4	Comparing Designs by Simulation	150
7.5	Simulation Findings	155
8	Demographic Data Sources	163
8.1	Criteria for Evaluating Sources	164
8.2	Commonly Used Sources	167
8.3	Using Multiple Sources	185
8.4	Data Realities	188
Part III	Population Processes	191
9	Organizational Environments	193
9.1	Telephone Companies	194
9.2	Modeling Environments	197
9.3	Environmental Imprinting	205
9.4	Imprinting in High-Tech Firms	207
10	Density-Dependent Processes I	213
10.1	Models of Population Growth	214
10.2	Corporate Density Dependence	216
10.3	Theory of Density Dependence	222
10.4	Interpreting Density Dependence	228
10.5	Weighted Density	232
10.6	Programmatic Issues	236
11	Density-Dependent Processes II	239
11.1	Density Delay	240
11.2	Population-Age Interactions	243
11.3	Size Interactions	251
11.4	Multilevel Processes	253
12	Segregating Processes	261
12.1	Resource Partitioning	262
12.2	Research on Partitioning	269
12.3	Size-Localized Competition	274
Part IV	Organizational Processes	279
13	Age-Dependent Processes	281
13.1	Models of Age Dependence	282
13.2	Age-Related Liabilities	288
13.3	Age and Growth Rates	290
13.4	Theories of Age Dependence	291
13.5	Core Assumptions	296
13.6	Liabilities of Newness and Adolescence	301
13.7	Liability of Senescence	303
13.8	Alignment, Drift, and Obsolescence	306
13.9	Liability of Obsolescence	309
14	Size Dependence	313
14.1	Size and Growth Rates	315
14.2	Age, Size, and Mortality	319
14.3	Automobile Manufacturers	322
14.4	Extending the Formalization	331
15	Initial Mobilizing	339
15.1	Organizing Activities	340
15.2	Theoretical Arguments	343
15.3	Automobile Preproducers	346
16	Organizational Transformation	357
16.1	Theory and Research	358
16.2	Structural Inertia	362
16.3	Transformation and Mortality	368
16.4	Innovation in Automobile Manufacturing	374
Appendix	A Property-Based Formalization of Inertia Theory	377
Part V	Selected Implications	381
17	Organization Theory	383
17.1	Equilibrium Orientation	383
17.2	Alignment and Fitness	385
17.3	Adaptation and Selection	389
17.4	Speed and Efficiency of Change	393
17.5	Historical Efficiency and Competition	397
18	Regulation	401
18.1	Early Telephony	403
18.2	Interconnection Laws	404
18.3	The Kingsbury Commitment	406
18.4	Regulation and Deregulation in Banking	411
18.5	System Dynamics after Deregulation	414
18.6	Deregulation and Organizational Growth	418
19	Employment	423
19.1	Effects on Careers	424
19.2	Corporate Demography and Job Shifts	425
19.3	Job Creation and Dissolution	426
19.4	Corporate Demography and Individual Mobility	429
19.5	Employment Benefits and Social Welfare	432
19.6	Effects of Careers on Corporate Demography	437
20	Organizational Diversity	439
20.1	Beer and Wine Industries	440
20.2	Diversity, Careers, and Inequality	444
20.3	Toward a Community Ecology of Corporations	451
	References	453
	Index	481

What People are Saying About This

Burt

This book promises to be the touchstone reference for many years on the demography of organizations.
— Ronald S. Burt, University of Chicago

Oliver Williamson

The Demography of Corporations and Industries is an ambitious book. Originating in research on organizational ecology, the authors adopt a demographic perspective in which variety among firms within industries becomes the object of analysis. Vitality resides in the differences—which has important ramifications for organization theory and for public policy toward business. This book will influence research on organizations well into the new millennium.
— Oliver Williamson, University of California, Berkeley

From the Publisher

"The Demography of Corporations and Industries is an ambitious book. Originating in research on organizational ecology, the authors adopt a demographic perspective in which variety among firms within industries becomes the object of analysis. Vitality resides in the differences—which has important ramifications for organization theory and for public policy toward business. This book will influence research on organizations well into the new millennium."—Oliver Williamson, University of California, Berkeley

"Organizational ecology has for twenty years been among the most powerful paradigms for the study of organizations. This volume takes the next step, explicating clearly the tradition's demographic foundations, and elucidating its value for students of the firm. The Demography of Corporations and Industries will be an essential part of the libraries of organizational scholars in business schools and in departments of sociology and economics."—Paul J. DiMaggio, Princeton University

"This book promises to be the touchstone reference for many years on the demography of organizations."—Ronald S. Burt, University of Chicago

"The material in this book is virtually required reading for any serious course in organization studies."—Peter V. Marsden, Harvard University

Peter V. Marsden

The material in this book is virtually required reading for any serious course in organization studies.

DiMaggio

Organizational ecology has for twenty years been among the most powerful paradigms for the study of organizations. This volume takes the next step, explicating clearly the tradition's demographic foundations, and elucidating its value for students of the firm. The Demography of Corporations and Industries will be an essential part of the libraries of organizational scholars in business schools and in departments of sociology and economics.
— Paul J. DiMaggio, Princeton University

Marsden

The material in this book is virtually required reading for any serious course in organization studies.
— Peter V. Marsden, Harvard University

Editorial Reviews

Glenn R. Carroll and Michael T. Hannan, Co-Winners of the 2002 Max Weber Award

From the Publisher

A compelling contribution that is destined to be a mandatory addition to the bookshelves of the beginner and the advanced scholar and a testament to the vigor and reach of the ecological program of research.

Administrative Science Quarterly - Hayagreeva Rao

The Demography of Corporations and Industries [is] . . . the reference book on the subject.

Population Studies - Hallie J. Kintner

This is one of the most scientific textbooks in the field. . . . [It] serves as an (almost) ideal example for students and scholars alike, and it is highly relevant for nearly everybody interested in organizations, policy, management, strategy, and contingency. Students of modernity will also find much of interest.

Contemporary Sociology - Jeroen Bruggeman

Destined to become the standard reference . . . Caroll and Hannan admirably chronicle the first steps toward legitimizing organizational demography as a distinct specialist form.

American Journal of Sociology - David Knoke

A compelling contribution that is destined to be a mandatory addition to the bookshelves of the beginner and the advanced scholar and a testament to the vigor and reach of the ecological program of research.
— Hayagreeva Rao

Administrative Science Quarterly

The Demography of Corporations and Industries [is] . . . the reference book on the subject.
— Hallie J. Kintner

Population Studies

This is one of the most scientific textbooks in the field. . . . [It] serves as an (almost) ideal example for students and scholars alike, and it is highly relevant for nearly everybody interested in organizations, policy, management, strategy, and contingency. Students of modernity will also find much of interest.
— Jeroen Bruggeman

Contemporary Sociology

Destined to become the standard reference . . . Caroll and Hannan admirably chronicle the first steps toward legitimizing organizational demography as a distinct specialist form.
— David Knoke

American Journal of Sociology