FOLLOW THE LEADER - MIMETIC ISOMORPHISM AND ENTRY INTO NEW MARKETS

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: HAVEMAN, HA
• 刊物名称: ADMINISTRATIVE SCIENCE QUARTERLY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0001-8392
• DOI: 10.2307/2393338
• 发表日期: 1993
• 页码: 593-627
• 关键词: DENSITY DEPENDENCE; Brewing industry; ORGANIZATIONS; EVOLUTION; DYNAMICS; MODEL

摘要

This paper combines organizational ecology and neoinstitutional theory to explain the process of diversification, specifically, how the structure of markets affects rates of market entry. I extend the density-dependence model of competition and legitimation, which has been used to study organizational founding and failure, to the process of organizational change through entry into new markets. I argue that the number of organizations operating in a particular market will have an inverted-U-shaped relationship with the rate of entry into that market. I also examine propositions, drawn from neoinstitutional theory, that organizations will follow similar and successful organizations into new markets. I assess the link between entry into new markets and (1) the number of organizations operating in those markets similar to a potential entrant and (2) the number of successful organizations in those markets. I also explore whether these two mimetic processes act in concert by examining whether successful potential entrants to a market are influenced by the presence of other successful organizations. I test these hypotheses on a population of savings and loan associations. I find that these firms imitate large and profitable organizations, but I find only limited evidence of imitation of similarly sized organizations, as large organizations copy the actions of other large organizations.