Session Summary

Session Number:723
Session ID:S212
Session Title:Competition Among Organizations as Industries Evolve
Short Title:Competition in industries
Session Type:Division Symposium
Hotel:Hyatt East
Floor:LL2
Room:Columbus G
Time:Tuesday, August 10, 1999 8:30 AM - 10:10 AM

Sponsors

OMT  (Joseph Porac)j-porac@staff.uiuc.edu (217) 244-7969 

General People

Chair Barnett, William P. Stanford U. Barnett_William@gsb.stanford.edu 650 723 1421 
Organizer Swanson, Aimee-Noelle  Stanford U. aimnoe@leland.Stanford.edu (650) 723-3854 
Discussant Amburgey, Terry  U. of Kentucky xanth@pop.uky.edu (606) 257-7726 

Submissions

Competition Among Organizations As Industries Evolve 
Presenter Swanson, Aimee-Noelle  Stanford U. aimnoe@leland.Stanford.edu (650) 723-3854 
Presenter Barnett, William P. Stanford U. Barnett_William@gsb.stanford.edu 650 723 1421 
Market Resource Disribution and the Partitioning of Dutch Newspaper Organizations 
Presenter Boone, Christophe  Maastricht U. C.Boone@mw.unimaas.ni 31.43.883880 
Presenter Carroll, Glenn R. U. of California, Berkeley carroll@haas.berkeley.edu 510-642-0829 
Presenter van Witteloostuijn, Arjen  U. of Maastricht A.vanWitteloostuyn@mw.unimaas.nl (43) 88 38 06 
Adaptation and Selection in the Evolution of the Early US Magazine Industry 
Presenter Haveman, Heather A. Cornell U./Columbia U. hah6@cornell.edu (607)-255-8512 
Aging, Obsolescence and Organizational Innovation 
Presenter Sorensen, Jesper B. U. of Chicago jesper.sorensen@gsb.uchicago.edu 773-834-0450 
Presenter Stuart, Toby E. U. of Chicago toby.stuart@gsb.uchicago.edu (773) 702-3967 
The Geography of Competition 
Presenter Sorenson, Olav  U. of Chicago olav.sorenson@gsb.uchicago.edu (773)-834-1809 

Abstract

As industries evolve, organizations are increasingly faced with circumstances that are unlike those of their beginnings. Technological knowledge advances, the institutional setting changes, resources are plentiful or limited and organizations within an industry come and go. Researchers in strategy and organizations with a focus on evolutionary processes examine how the environment determines the form and structure of the organizations that come to characterize it. In turn, organizational responses to environmental changes are explained using primarily adaptationist and/or selectionist perspectives. Adaptationist theories hold that organizations can change in response to their environment rapidly and with ease. Selectionist theories, on the other hand, view organizations as more rigid and less adept at changing according to environmental demands. Each of the participants in this symposium will present research that examines the impact of competitive interaction and industry evolution on the character and nature of firms within an industry, while at the same time deriving new theoretical and empirical implications of evolutionary perspectives in organizational theory.