Logics of organization theory : audiences, codes, and ecologies

Building theories of organizations is challenging: theories are partial and "folk" categories are fuzzy. The commonly used tools--first-order logic and its foundational set theory--are ill-suited for handling these complications. Here, three leading authorities rethink organization theory. Logics of Organization Theory sets forth and applies a new language for theory building based on a nonmonotonic logic and fuzzy set theory. In doing so, not only does it mark a major advance in organizational theory, but it also draws lessons for theory building elsewhere in the social sciences.

Organizational research typically analyzes organizations in categories such as "bank," "hospital," or "university." These categories have been treated as crisp analytical constructs designed by researchers. But sociologists increasingly view categories as constructed by audiences. This book builds on cognitive psychology and anthropology to develop an audience-based theory of organizational categories. It applies this framework and the new language of theory building to organizational ecology. It reconstructs and integrates four central theory fragments, and in so doing reveals unexpected connections and new insights.

Author Notes

Michael T. Hannan is the Stratacom Professor of Management in the Graduate School of Business and professor of sociology at Stanford University. László Pólos is professor of organization theory at the Durham Business School in the United Kingdom. Glenn R. Carroll is the Laurence W. Lane Professor of Organizations in the Graduate School of Business and (by courtesy) professor of sociology at Stanford.

Preface xi
Chapter 1 Language Matters	p. 1
1.1 Languages for Theory Building	p. 1
1.2 Using Dynamic Logic	p. 5
1.3 Partial Memberships: Fuzziness	p. 12
1.4 Organizational Ecology	p. 18
1.5 Unification Projects p. 21
Part 1 Audiences, Producers, And Codes	p. 27
Chapter 2 Clusters and Labels	p. 29
2.1 Seeds for Categories and Forms	p. 32
2.2 Domains	p. 34
2.3 Similarity	p. 37
2.4 Similarity Clusters	p. 41
2.5 Labels	p. 47
2.6 Extensional Consensus	p. 52
2.7 Complex Labels	p. 56
Chapter 3 Types and Categories	p. 59
3.1 Schemata	p. 60
3.2 Types	p. 65
3.3 Intensional Semantic Consensus	p. 67
3.4 Categories	p. 69
3.5 Intrinsic Appeal and Category Valence	p. 71
Chapter 4 Forms and Populations	p. 78
4.1 Test Codes and Defaults	p. 79
4.2 Taken-for-Grantedness	p. 82
4.3 Legitimation and Forms	p. 84
4.4 Populations	p. 85
4.5 Density Dependence Revisited	p. 89
4.6 Delegitimation p. 96
Chapter 5 Identity and Audience	p. 100
5.1 Identity As Default	p. 101
5.2 Multiple Category Memberships	p. 107
5.3 Code Clash	p. 109
5.4 Identities and Populations	p. 110
5.5 Structure of the Audience	p. 111
Part 2 Nonmonotonic Reasoning: Age Dependence	p. 121
Chapter 6 A Nonmonotonic Logic	p. 123
6.1 Beyond First-Order Logic	p. 124
6.2 Generalizations	p. 127
6.3 Nonmonotonic Reasoning	p. 130
6.4 A Precis of the Formal Approach	p. 133
6.5 Chaining Probabilistic Arguments	p. 142
6.6 Closest-Possible-Worlds Construction	p. 143
6.7 Falsification	p. 145
Chapter 7 Integrating Theories of Age Dependence	p. 150
7.1 Capability and Endowment	p. 152
7.2 First Unification Attempt	p. 157
7.3 Obsolescence	p. 161
7.4 Second Unification Attempt	p. 163
Part 3 Ecological Niches	p. 169
Chapter 8 Niches and Audiences	p. 171
8.1 Tastes, Positions, and Offerings	p. 174
8.2 Category Niche	p. 177
8.3 Organizational Niche	p. 178
8.4 Fundamental Niche	p. 183
8.5 Implications of Category Membership	p. 186
8.6 Metric Audience Space	p. 187
Chapter 9 Niches and Competitors	p. 191
9.1 Fitness	p. 191
9.2 Realized Niche	p. 193
9.3 Niche Overlap	p. 194
9.4 Niche Width Revisited	p. 198
9.5 Convexity of the Niche	p. 203
9.6 Environmental Change	p. 206
Chapter 10 Resource Partitioning	p. 209
10.1 Scale Advantage	p. 210
10.2 Market Center	p. 214
10.3 Market Segments and Crowding	p. 215
10.4 Dynamics of Partitioning	p. 220
10.5 Implications of Category Membership	p. 226
Part 4 Organizational Change	p. 229
Chapter 11 Cascading Change	p. 231
11.1 Identity and Inertia	p. 232
11.2 Organizational Architecture	p. 235
11.3 Cascades	p. 236
11.4 Architecture and Cascades	p. 239
11.5 Intricacy and Viscosity	p. 246
11.6 Missed Opportunities	p. 248
11.7 Change and Mortality	p. 253
Chapter 12 Opacity and Asperity
12.1 Limited Foresight: Opacity	p. 256
12.2 Cultural Opposition: Asperity	p. 261
12.3 Opacity, Asperity, and Reorganization	p. 265
12.4 Change and Mortality	p. 268
Chapter 13 Niche Expansion	p. 271
13.1 Expanded Engagement	p. 271
13.2 Architectural and Cultural Context	p. 276
13.3 Age and Asperity	p. 278
13.4 Distant Expansion	p. 279
13.5 Expansion and Convexity	p. 281
Chapter 14 Conclusions	p. 286
14.1 Theoretical Unification	p. 287
14.2 Common Conceptual Core	p. 289
14.3 Inconsistencies Resolved	p. 291
14.4 Theoretical Progress	p. 293
14.5 Empirical Implications	p. 298
Appendix A Glossary of Theoretical Terms	p. 305
Appendix B Glossary of Symbols	p. 313
Appendix C Some Elementary First-Order Logic	p. 321
Appendix D Notation for Monotonic Functions	p. 331
Appendix E The Modal Language of Codes	p. 334
Bibliography	p. 339
Index	p. 355

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