Too Much of a Good Thing? Product Proliferation and Organizational Failure

Organization Science

Volumn 12, Issue 5, 2001, Pages 539-558

  Barnett, William P ^a   Freeman, John ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

Complexity; First Mover Advantage; Organizational Change; Organizational Ecology; Organizational Failure; Organizational Inertia; Technological Change; Technological Competition; Technological Innovation

Indexed keywords

EID: 0035617772     PISSN: 10477039     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1287/orsc.12.5.539.10095     Document Type: Article

References (88)

1. Abernathy, W. J., J. M. Utterback. 1978. Patterns of industrial innovation. Tech. Rev. 80(7) 2-9.
2. Aldrich, Howard E., Ellen R. Auster. 1986. Even dwarfs started small: Liabilities of age and their strategic implications. Staw, Cummings, eds. Research in Organizational Behavior 8 JAI Press, Greenwich, CT. 165-198.
3. Amburgey, Terry L., Kelly Dawn, Barnett William P. 1993. Resetting the clock: The dynamics of organizational failure. Admin. Sci. Quart. 38(1) 51-73.
4. Anderson, Phillip, Michael L. Tushman. 1990. Technological discontinuities and dominant designs: A cyclical model of technological change. Admin. Sci. Quart. 35(4) 604-633.
5. Barnett, William P. 1990. The organizational ecology of a technological system. Admin. Sci. Quart. 35(1) 31-60.
6. _. 1994. The liability of collective action: Growth and change among early telephone companies. J. A. C. Baum, J. V. Singh, eds. Evolutionary Dynamics of Organizations. Oxford University Press, New York. 337-354.
7. _, Glenn R. Carroll. 1995. Modeling internal organizational change. Annual Rev. Sociology 21 217-236.
8. Baron, James N., Brian S. Mittman, Andrew E. Newman. 1991. Targets of opportunity: Organizational and environmental determinants of gender integration within the California civil service, 1979-1985. Amer. J. Sociology 96(6) 1362-1401.
9. Barron, David N., Elizabeth West, Michael T. Hannan. 1994. A time to grow and a time to die: Growth and mortality of credit unions in New York, 1914-1990. Amer. J. Sociology 100(2) 381-421.
10. Baum, Joel A. C., Steven J. Mezias. 1992. Localized competition and organizational failure in the Manhattan hotel industry, 1898-1990. Admin. Sci. Quart. 37(4) 580-604.
11. _, Christine Oliver. 1991. Institutional linkages and organizational mortality. Admin. Sci. Quart. 36(2) 187-218.
12. _, Jitendra V. Singh. 1996. Dynamics of organizational responses to competition. Soc. Forces 74(4) 1261-1297.
13. Blossfeld, H. P., G. Rohwer. 1995. Techniques of Event-History Modeling. Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ.
14. Bourgeois, L.J., Kathy M. Eisenhardt. 1988. Strategic decision processes in high velocity environments: Four cases in the microcomputer industry. Management Sci. 34(7) 816-835.
15. Brittain, Jack, John Freeman. 1980. Organizational proliferation and density-dependent selection. John R. Kimberly, Robert H. Miles, eds. The Organizational Life Cycle. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA. 291-338.
16. Burgelman, Robert A. 1994. Fading memories: A process theory of strategic business exit in dynamic environments. Admin. Sci. Quart. 39(1) 24-56.
17. Burns, Tom, George M. Stalker. 1961. The Management of Innovation. Tavistock, London, U.K.
18. Camerer, Colin, Roberto Weber. 1998. Sustaining coordination in growing firms: Experimental explorations. Paper presented at the Stanford Strategic Management Conf. February 1998.
19. Carroll, Glenn R. 1984. Dynamics of publisher succession in newspaper organizations. Admin. Sci. Quart. 29(1) 93-113.
20. _, Jacques Delacroix. 1982. Organizational mortality in the newspaper industries of Argentina and Ireland: An ecological approach. Admin. Sci. Quart. 27(2) 169-198.
21. _, Michael T. Hannan. 1989. Density delay in the evolution of organizational populations: A model and five empirical tests. Admin. Sci. Quart. 34(3) 411-430.
22. _, Albert C. Teo. 1996. Creative self-destruction among organizations: An empirical study of technical innovation and organizational failure in the American automobile industry, 1885-1981. Indust. Corporate Change 5(2) 619-644.
23. _, Lyda S. Bigelow, Marc-David Seidel, L. B. Tsai. 1996. The fates of De Novo and De Alio producers in the American automobile industry, 1885-1981. Strategic Management J. 17(s) 117-138.
24. Coch, L., J. R. P. French, Jr. 1948. Overcoming resistance to change. Human Relations 1(4) 512-532.
25. Delacroix Jacques, Anand A. Swaminathan. 1991. Cosmetic, speculative and adaptive change in the wine industry: A longitudinal study. Admin. Sci. Quart. 36(4) 631-661.
26. Dobbin, Frank, John R. Sutton, John W. Meyer, W. Richard Scott. 1993. Equal opportunity law and the construction of internal labor markets. Amer. J. Sociology 99(2) 396-427.
27. Dosi, Giovanni. 1984. Technical Change and Industrial Transformation. Macmillan, London, U.K.
28. Edelman, Lauren. 1990. Legal environments and organizational governance: The expansion of due process in the American workplace. Amer. J. Sociology 95(6) 1401-1440.
29. _. 1992. Legal ambiguity and symbolic structures: Organizational mediation of civil rights law. Amer. J. Sociology 97(6) 1531-1576.
30. Fleming, Lee. 1998. Explaining the source and tempo of technological variation: Recombinant learning and exhaustion in technological evolution. Working paper, Stanford University Department of Industrial Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA.
31. Freeman, John, Michael T. Hannan. 1989. Technical innovation, inertia, and organizational failure. Working paper, Cornell University, New York.
32. Frost, Peter J., Carolyn P. Egri. 1991. The political process of innovation. Staw, Cummings, eds. Research in Organizational Behavior. 13 JAI Press, Greenwich, CT. 229-295.
33. Galbraith, John Kenneth. 1967. The New Industrial State. Houghton-Mifflin, Boston, MA.
34. Greve, Henrich. 1996. Patterns of competition: The diffusion of a market position in radio broadcasting. Admin. Sci. Quart. 41(1) 29-60.
35. Halliday, Terence C., Michael J. Powell, Mark Granfors. 1993. After minimalism: Transformations of state bar associations from market dependence to state reliance, 1918-1950. Amer. Sociological Rev. 58(4) 515-535.
36. Hannan Michael T., John Freeman. 1977. The population ecology of organizations. Amer. J. Sociology 82(5) 929-964.
37. _, _. 1984. Structural inertia and organizational change. Amer. Sociological Rev. 49 149-164.
38. _, _. 1989. Organizational Ecology. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA.
39. Hansen, Morten. 1996. Knowledge integration in organizations. Unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Stanford University Graduate School of Business, Stanford University, CA.
40. Haveman, Heather. 1992. Between a rock and a hard place: Organizational change and performance under conditions of fundamental environmental transformation. Admin. Sci. Quart. 37(1) 48-75.
41. _. 1993a. Organizational size and change: Diversification in the savings and loan industry after deregulation. Admin. Sci. Quart. 38(1) 20-50.
42. _. 1993b. Follow the leader: Mimetic isomorphism and entry into new markets. Admin. Sci. Quart. 38(4) 593-627.
43. Henderson, Rebecca. 1993. Underinvestment and incompetence as responses to radical innovation: Evidence from the photolithographic alignment equipment industry. RAND J. Econom. 24(2) 248-270.
44. Henderson, Rebecca, Kim B. Clark. 1990. Architectural innovation: The reconfiguration of existing product technologies and the failure of established firms. Admin. Sci. Quart. 35(1) 9-30.
45. Huber, George P., Kathleen M. Sutcliffe, C. Chet Miller, William H. Glick. 1993. Understanding and predicting organizational change. George P. Huber, William H. Glick, eds. Organizational Change and Redesign. Oxford University Press, New York. 215-254.
46. Iansiti, Marco. 1997. Managing technological transitions: Empirical evidence from the semiconductor industry. Working paper, Harvard Business School, Harvard University, MA.
47. _, Tarun Khanna. 1995. Technological evolution, system architecture and the obsolescence of firm capabilities. Indust. Corporate Change 4(2) 333-361.
48. Jelinek, Mariann, Claudia B. Schoonhoven. 1990. Innovation Marathon: Lessons from High Technology Firms. Blackwell, New Jersey.
49. Kanter, Rosabeth Moss. 1989. When Giants Learn to Dance. Simon and Schuster, New York.
50. Kelly, Dawn, Terry L. Amburgey. 1991. Organizational inertia and momentum: A dynamic model of strategic change. Acad. Management J. 34(3) 591-612.
51. Khanna, Tarun. 1995. Racing behavior: Technological evolution in the high-end computer industry. Res. Policy 24(6) 933-958.
52. Kimberly, John R. 1976. Organizational size and the structuralist perspective: A review, critique, and proposal. Admin. Sci. Quart. 21(4) 571-597.
53. Kreps, David M. 1996. Markets and hierarchies and (mathematical) economic theory. Indust. Corporate Change 5(2) 561-595.
54. Lieberman, Marvin, David Montgomery. 1988. First-mover advantages. Strategic Management J. 9(1) 41-58.
55. Levinthal, Daniel A., James G. March. 1993. The myopia of learning. Strategic Management J. 14(2) 95-112.
56. March, James G. 1981. Footnotes on organizational change. Admin. Sci. Quart. 26(4) 563-597.
57. _. 1988. Decisions and Organizations. Basil Blackwell, New York.
58. _. 1991. Exploration and exploitation in organizational learning. Organ. Sci. 2(1) 71-87.
59. McPherson, J. Miller. 1983. An ecology of affiliation. Amer. Sociological Rev. 48(4) 519-532.
60. _, L. Smith-Lovin. 1988. A comparative ecology of five nations: Testing a model of competition among voluntary organizations. Glenn R. Carroll, ed. Ecological Models of Organizations. Ballinger, Cambridge, MA. 85-110.
61. Merton, Robert K. 1936. The unanticipated consequences of purposive social action. Amer. Sociological Rev., 1(6) 894-904.
62. Milgrom, Paul, John Roberts. 1990. The economics of manufacturing: Technology, strategy, and organization. Amer. Econom. Rev. 80(3) 511-528.
63. _. 1995. Continuous adjustment and fundamental change in business strategy and organization. Horst Siebert, ed. Trends in Business Organization. J. C. B. Mohr, Tübingen
64. Miller, Danny, M. J. Chen. 1994. Sources and consequences of competitive inertia: A study of the U.S. airline industry. Admin. Sci. Quart. 39(1) 1-23.
65. _, Peter H. Friesen. 1984. Organizations: A Quantum View. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ.
66. Miner, Anne S., Terry L. Amburgey, Tim M. Stearns. 1990. Interorganizational linkages and population dynamics: Buffering and transformational shields. Admin. Sci. Quart. 35(4) 689-713.
67. Mitchell, Will. 1989. Whether and when: Probability and timing of incumbents' entry into emerging industrial subfields. Admin. Sci. Quart. 34(2) 208-230.
68. Nelson, Richard R., Sidney G. Winter. 1982. An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change. Harvard, Cambridge, MA.
69. Peli G., M. Masuch, J. Bruggeman, B. O. Nuallain. 1994. A logical approach to formalizing organizational ecology. Amer. Sociological Rev. 59(4) 571-593.
70. Podolny, Joel M., Toby E. Stuart, Michael T. Hannan. 1996. Networks, knowledge, and niches: Competition in the worldwide semiconductor industry, 1984-1991. Amer. J. Sociology 102(3) 659-689.
71. Rohwer, G. 1993. TDA (Transitional Data Analysis). European University Institute, Florence, Italy.
72. Romanelli, Elaine, Michael L. Tushman. 1994. Organizational transformation as punctuated equilibrium: An empirical test. Acad. Management J. 37(5) 1141-1166.
73. Rosenbloom, Richard S., Clayton M. Christensen. 1994. Technological discontinuities, organizational capabilities, and strategic commitments. Indust. Corporate Change 3(3) 655-685.
74. Schumpeter, Joseph A. 1934. The Theory of Economic Development. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.
75. Singh, Jitendra V., Robert J. House, David J. Tucker. 1986. Organizational change and organizational mortality. Admin. Sci. Quart. 31(4) 587-611.
76. _, David J. Tucker, A. G. Meinhard. 1991. Institutional change and ecological dynamics. Woody W. Powell, Paul J. DiMaggio, eds. The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis. University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL.
77. Sorenson, Olav. 1997. The complexity catastrophe: Interdependence and adaptability in organizational evolution. Unpublished manuscript, Stanford University Department of Sociology, Stanford University, CA.
78. Stinchcombe, Arthur L. 1965. Social structure and organizations. James G. March, ed. Handbook of Organizations. Rand McNally, Chicago, IL.
79. Stuart, Toby E., Joel M. Podolny. 1996. Local search and the evolution of technological capabilities. Strategic Management J. 17 21-38.
80. Sutton, John R., Frank Dobbin, John W. Meyer, W. Richard Scott. 1994. The legalization of the workplace. Amer. J. Sociology 99(4) 941-971.
81. Teece, David J., Gary Pisano. 1994. The dynamic capabilities of firms: An introduction. Indust. Corporate Change 3(3) 537-556.
82. Tuma, Nancy Brandon, Michael T. Hannan. 1984. Social Dynamics. Academic Press, Orlando, FL.
83. Tushman, Michael L., Philip Anderson. 1986. Technological discontinuities and organizational environments. Admin. Sci. Quart. 31(3) 439-465.
84. _, Elaine Romanelli. 1985. Organizational evolution: A metamorphosis model of convergence and reorientation. Lawrence L. Cummings, Barry M. Staw, eds. Research in Organizational Behavior. 7 JAI Press, Greenwich, CT. 171-222.
85. _, Charles A. O'Reilly. 1997. Winning Through Innovation: A Practical Guide to Leading Organizational Change and Renewal. Harvard Business School Press, Cambridge, MA.
86. Williamson, Oliver E. 1975. Markets and Hierarchies: Analysis and Antitrust Implications. Free Press, New York.
87. Zajac, Edward J., Steven M. Shortell. 1989. Changing generic strategies: Likelihood, direction, and performance implications. Strategic Management J. 10(4) 413-430.
88. Zucker, Lynn G. 1987. Normal change or risky business: Institutional effects on the "hazard" of change in hospital organizations, 1959-1979. J. Management Stud., 24(6) 671-700.