E pluribus unum:: Framing, matching, and form emergence in US television broadcasting, 1940-1960

• 成果类型: Article; Proceedings Paper
• 署名作者: Perretti, Fabrizio; Negro, Giacomo; Lomi, Alessandro
• 署名单位: Bocconi University; Durham University; Universita della Svizzera Italiana; University of Bologna
• 刊物名称: ORGANIZATION SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1047-7039
• DOI: 10.1287/orsc.1070.0319
• 发表日期: 2008
• 页码: 533-547
• 关键词: organizational form; ORGANIZATIONAL IDENTITY; de novo/de alio; U. S. television industry

摘要

Recent research holds that new organizational forms emerge from the identity of candidate organizations that enter a domain. In this study we argue that emergence of a new form, which is ultimately based on validation by external audiences, depends on two mechanisms: identity framing, i. e., how audiences perceive and frame the identity of an emerging organizational domain, and identity matching, i. e., the match between the identity of the domain and the identity of candidates. Accordingly, form emergence is best characterized as contextual rather than as an inherent attribute of the categories of candidate organizations. Using data on the U. S. commercial television industry from 1940 to 1960, we explore how entry rates of TV stations were affected by audiences' expectations about the identity of the nascent domain and by the densities of organizations with different origins. We find evidence that focused expectations expressed through public discourse about media, and the number of stations coming from radio broadcasting increased entry rates. We reconcile our findings with existing theory on the emergence of organizational forms by pointing to the joint relevance of domain-related and candidate-related identities.