Ecological Approaches to Organizations

Abstract

Our goal is to assess and consolidate the current state-of-the-art in organizational ecology. To accomplish this we review major theoretical statements, empirical studies, and arguments that are now being made. Although we attempt to survey ecological approaches to organizations comprehensively, because ecological research now constitutes a very large body of work, and because other extensive reviews are available (Aldrich & Wiedenmayer, 1993; Barnett & Carroll, 1995; Baum, 1996; Baum & Amburgey, 2002; Baum & Rao, 2004; Carroll, Dobrev & Swaminathan, 2002; Galunic & Weeks 2002; Rao, 2002; Singh & Lumsden, 1990), we emphasize recent work that challenges and extends established theory and highlight new and emerging directions for future research that appear promising. Our appraisal focuses on two main themes - demographic processes and ecological processes.