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.

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.

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. will be an essential part of the libraries of organizational scholars in business schools and in departments of sociology and economics.

This book promises to be the touchstone reference for many years on the demography of organizations.

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

[is] . . . the reference book on the subject.

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.

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.

""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<P>"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<P>"This book promises to be the touchstone reference for many years on the demography of organizations."--Ronald S. Burt, University of Chicago<P>"The material in this book is virtually required reading for any serious course in organization studies."--Peter V. Marsden, Harvard University

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.

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

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 272

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 andjob 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