15.968 | Spring 2005 | Graduate

The Sociology of Strategy

Readings

Lec # TOPICS READINGS
1 An Overview of Strategic Management and its Links to Sociology

Required

Barney, Jay B. “Strategic Factor Markets: Expectations, Luck, and Business Strategy.” Management Science 32 (1986): 1231-1241.

Carroll, Glenn R. “A Sociological View on Why Firms Differ.” Strategic Management Journal 14 (1993): 237-249.

Porter, Michael E. “What is Strategy?” Harvard Business Review 74 (1996): 61-78.

Sorensen, Aage B. “The Structural Basis of Social Inequality.” American Journal of Sociology 101 (1996): 1333-1365.

Teece, David J., Gary Pisano, and Amy Shuen. “Dynamic capabilities and strategic management.” Strategic Management Journal 18, no. 7 (1997): 509-533.

Supplementary

Dierickx, Ingemar, and Karel Cool. “Asset Stock Accumulation and Sustainability of Competitive Advantage.” Management Science 35, no. 12 (December 1989): 1504-1511.

Barney, Jay B. “Asset Stocks and Sustained Competitive Advantage: A Comment.” Management Science 35, no. 12 (December 1989): 1511-1513.

McGee, John, and Howard Thomas. “Strategic Groups: Theory, Research and Taxonomy.” Strategic Management Journal 7, no. 2 (March - April 1986): 141-160.

Porter, Michael E. Competitive Strategy. New York, NY: Free Press, 1996. 
Spanos, Yiannis E., and Lioukas, Spyros. “An examination into the causal logic of rent generation: contrasting Porter’s competitive strategy framework and the resource-based perspective.” Strategic Management Journal 22 (2001): 907-924.

Saloner, Garth, Andrea Shepard, and Joel M. Podolny. Strategic Management. New York, NY: John Wiley, 2001.

Wernerfelt, Birger. “A Resource-Based View of the Firm.” Strategic Management Journal 5 (1984): 171-180.

———. “The Resource-Based View of the Firm: Ten Years After.” Strategic Management Journal 16 (1995): 171-175.

2 Networks I: Theories Relating Brokerage to Success

Required

Burt, Ronald S. Chapters 1-3 in Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992. ISBN: 0674843711.

Fernandez, Roberto M., and Roger V. Gould. “A Dilemma of State Power: Brokerage and Influence in the National Health Policy Domain.” American Journal of Sociology 99 (1994): 1455-1491.

Granovetter, Mark S. “The Strength of Weak Ties.” American Journal of Sociology 78 (1973): 1360-1380.

Coleman, James S. “Social Capital in the Creation of Human Capital.” American Journal of Sociology 94 (1988): S95-S120.

Case

Caro, Robert A. Chapters 31 and 32 in The Years of Lyndon Johnson: The Path to Power. New York, NY: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982. ISBN: 0679729453.

Supplementary

Burt, Ronald S. Towards a Structural Theory of Action. New York, NY: Academic Press, 1982. ISBN: 0121471500.

———. “Range.” In Applied Network Analysis. Edited by Ronald S. Burt, and Michael J. Minor. 1983. ISBN: 0803919077.

———. “Bridge Decay.” In Social Networks. 2002. Forthcoming. (PDF)

———. “Structural Holes vs. Network Closure as Social Capital.” In Social Capital: Theory and Research. Edited by Nan Lin, Karen S. Cook, and R. S. Burt. 2001. Aldine de Gruyter. (PDF)

Cook, Karen S., Richard M. Emerson, Mary R. Gillmore, and Toshio Yamagishi. “The distribution of power in exchange networks: theory and experimental results.” American Journal of Sociology 89 (1983): 275-305.

Freeman, Linton C. “A Set of Measures of Centrality Based on Betweeness.” Sociometry 40: 35-41.

Gargiulo, Martin. “Two-Step Leverage: Managing Constraint in Organizational Politics.” Administrative Science Quarterly 38, no. 1 (March 1993): 1-19.

Hansen, Morten T. “The Search-Transfer Problem: The Role of Weak Ties in Sharing Knowledge across Organization Subunits.” Administrative Science Quarterly 44, no. 1 (March 1999): 82-111.

Marsden, Peter V. “Restricted Access in Networks and Models of Power.” American Journal of Sociology 88, no. 4 (January 1983): 686-717.

McEvily, Bill, and Akbar Zaheer. “Bridging Ties: A Source of Firm Heterogeneity in Competitive Capabilities.” Strategic Management Journal 20 (1999): 1133-1156.

Pfeffer, Jeffrey, and Gerald Salancik. The External Control of Organizations: A Resource Dependence Perspective. New York, NY: Harper and Row, 1978. ISBN: 080474789X.

Podolny, Joel M., and James N. Baron. “Resources and Relationships: Social Networks and Mobility in the Workplace.” American Sociological Review 62 (1997): 673-693.

Reagans, Ray E., Ezra W. Zuckerman, and Bill McEvily. “How to Make the Team: Social Networks vs. Demography as Criteria for Designing Effective Projects in a Contract R&D Firm.” Administrative Science Quarterly 49 (2004): 101-133.

———. “Two Holes in One? Information and Control in the Analysis of Structural Advantage.” Working Paper, MIT Sloan School of Management.

Simmel, Georg. “Quantitative Aspects of the Group.” In The Sociology of Georg Simmel. New York, NY: Free Press, 1964, pp. 122-36, and 145-69. ISBN: 0029289203.

3 Networks II: Networks as Competitive Advantage

Required

Ingram, Paul, and Peter W. Roberts. “Friendships among Competitors in the Sydney Hotel Industry.” American Journal of Sociology 106 (2000): 387-423.

Powell, Walter W., Kenneth W. Koput, and Laurel Smith-Doerr. “Interorganizational Collaboration and the Locus of Innovation: Networks of Learning in Biotechnology.” Administrative Science Quarterly 41 (1996): 116-145.

Uzzi, Brian. “Social Structure and Competition in Interfirm Networks: The Paradox of Embeddedness.” Administrative Science Quarterly 42 (1997): 35-67.

Lincoln, James R., Michael L. Gerlach, and Christina L. Ahmadjian. “Keiretsu Networks and Corporate Performance in Japan.” American Sociological Review (1996): 67-88.

Case

Badaracco, Joseph. “Mark Twain Bancshares, Inc.” Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Case. HBS # 9-385-178. October 19, 1984.

Supplementary

Azoulay, Pierre. “Agents of Embeddedness.” Working Paper, Columbia University Graduate School of Business. 2004.

Baker, Wayne E. “The Social Structure of a National Securities Market.” American Journal of Sociology 89, no. 4 (1984): 775-833.

———. “Market Networks and Corporate Behavior.” American Journal of Sociology 96, no. 3 (1990): 589-625.

Granovetter, Mark. “Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness.” American Journal of Sociology 91 (1985): 481-510.

———. “Business Groups.” In Handbook of Economic Sociology. Edited by Neil J. Smelser, and Richard Swedberg. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1995, pp. 453-465. ISBN: 0691034486.

Gulati, Ranjay, and Martin Gargiulo. “Where Do Interorganizational Networks Come From?

American Journal of Sociology 104, no. 5 (March 1999): 1439-1493.

Keister, Lisa A. “Engineering Growth: Business Group Structure and Firm Performance in China’s Transition Economy.” American Journal of Sociology 104 (1998): 404-440.

Mizruchi, Mark S. “What Do Interlocks Do? An Analysis, Critique, and Assessment of Research on Interlocking Directorates.” Annual Review of Sociology 22 (1996): 271-298.

Page, Karen L., and Joel M. Podolny. “Network Forms of Organization.” Annual Review of Sociology 24: 57-76.

Polanyi, Karl. The Great Transformation. New York, NY: Farrar & Rinehart, 1944.

Powell, Walter W. “Neither Market nor Hierarchy: Network Forms of Organization.” Research in Organizational Behavior 12 (1990): 295-396.

Robinson, David T., and Toby E. Stuart. “Just How Incomplete Are Incomplete Contracts? Evidence from Biotech Strategic Alliances.” Unpublished manuscript, University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, 2002.

Sorenson, Olav, and Toby E. Stuart. “Syndication Networks and the Spatial Distribution of Venture Capital Investments.” American Journal of Sociology 106 (2001): 1546-1588.

Uzzi, Brian. “The Sources and Consequences of Embeddedness for the Economic Performance of Organizations: The Network Effect.” American Sociological Review 61 (1996): 674-698.

———. “Embeddedness in the Making of Financial Capital: How Social Relations and Networks Benefit Firms Seeking Financing.” American Sociological Review 64, no. 4 (August 1999): 481-505.

Zuckerman, Ezra W. “On Networks and Markets.” Edited by Rauch, and Casella. Journal of Economic Literature 46 (2003): 545-565.

4 Models of Competition I: Ecological

Required

Abbott, Andrew. Chapters 1-4 in The System of Professions. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1988. ISBN: 0226000699.

Baum, Joel A. C., and Jitendra V. Singh. “Organizational Niches and the Dynamics of Organizational Mortality.” American Journal of Sociology 100, no. 2 (1994): 346-380.

Popielarz, Pamela A., and J. Miller McPherson. “On the Edge or In Between: Niche Position, Niche Overlap, and the Duration of Voluntary Association Memberships.” American Journal of Sociology 101 (1995): 698-720.

Podolny, Joel M., Toby E. Stuart, and Michael T. Hannan. “Networks, Knowledge, and Niches: Competition in the Worldwide Semiconductor Industry, 1984-1991.” American Journal of Sociology 102 (1996): 659-689.

Supplementary

Barnett, William P. “The Dynamics of Competitive Intensity.” Administrative Science Quarterly 42 (1997): 128-160.

Burt, Ronald S. Structural Holes: The Social Structure of Competition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992, pp. 208-227. ISBN: 067484372X.

DiMaggio, Paul J. “Structural Analysis of Organizational Fields: A Blockmodel Approach.” In Research in Organizational Behavior 8
(1986): 335-370.

Dobrev, Stanislav D., Tai-Young Kim, and Glenn R. Carroll. “The evolution of organizational niches: US automobile manufacturers, 1885-1981.” Administrative Science Quarterly 47, no. 2 (2002): 233-264.

Freeman, John, and Michael T. Hannan. “Niche Width and the Dynamics of Organizational Populations.” American Journal of Sociology 88, no. 6 (May 1983): 1116-1145.

Hilgartner, Stephen, and Charles L. Bosk. “The Rise and Fall of Social Problems: A Public Arenas Model.” American Journal of Sociology 94, no. 1 (July 1988): 53-78.

McPherson, Miller. “An Ecology of Affiliation.” American Sociological Review 48, no. 4 (August 1983): 519-532.

McPherson, J. Miller, Pamela A. Popielarz, and Sonja Drobnic. “Social Networks and Organizational Dynamics.” American Sociological Review 57, no. 2 (April 1992): 153-170.

Podolny, Joel M., and Toby E. Stuart. “A Role-Based Ecology of Technological Change.” American Journal of Sociology 100, no. 5 (1995): 1224-1260.

Sørensen, Jesper B. “Recruitment-Based Competition between Industries: a Community Ecology.” Industrial and Corporate Change 13 (2004): 149-170.

5 Models of Competition II: Status-based

Required

Abbott, Andrew. “Status and Status Strain in the Professions.” American Journal of Sociology 86, no. 4 (January 1981): 819-835.

Benjamin, Beth A., and Joel M. Podolny. “Social Order and Status in the California Wine Industry.” Administrative Science Quarterly 44 (1999): 563-589.

Gould, Roger V. “The Origins of Status Hierarchies: A Formal Theory and Empirical Test.” American Journal of Sociology 107 (2002): 1143-1178.

Gusfield, Joseph R. Symbolic Crusade: Status Politics and the American Temperance Movement. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1963, pp. 1-29. ISBN: 0252013123.

Heinz, John P., and Edward O. Laumann. Chapter 4 in Chicago Lawyers: The Social Structure of the Bar. Revised edition. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1994 [1982]. ISBN: 0810111896.

Podolny, Joel M. “A Status-Based Model of Market Competition.” American Journal of Sociology 98 (1993): 829-872.

Supplementary

Berger, Joseph, Robert Z. Norman, James W. Balkwell, and Roy F. Smith. “Status Inconsistency in Task Situations: A Test of Four Status Processing Principles.” American Sociological Review 57, no. 6 (December 1992): 843-855.

Carter, Richard, and Steven Manaster. “Initial Public Offerings and Underwriter Reputation.” The Journal of Finance 45, no. 4 (1990): 1045-1067.

Chung, Seungwha (Andy), Harbir Singh, and Kyungmook Lee. “Complementarity, status similarity and social capital as drivers of alliance formation.” Strategic Management Journal 21 (2000): 1-22.

Dumont, Louis. Homo Hierarchicus: The Caste System and its Implications. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1970. ISBN: 0226169634.

Frank, Robert H. Choosing The Right Pond: Human Behavior and the Quest for Status. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1985. ISBN: 0195049454.

Frank, Robert H., and Philip J. Cook. The Winner-Take-All Society. New York, NY: Penguin USA, 1995. ISBN: 0140259953.

Goode, William J. The Celebration of Heroes. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1979, pp. 1-15, 16-21, and 66-97. ISBN: 0520038118.

Han, Shin-Kap. “Mimetic Isomorphism and Its Effect on the Audit Services Market.” Social Forces 73 (1994): 637-63.

Hirsch, Fred. Social Limits to Growth. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1976. ISBN: 1583485996.

Lang, Gladys Engel, and Kurt Lang. “Recognition and Renown: The Survival of Artistic Reputation.” American Journal of Sociology 94, no. 1 (July 1988): 79-109.

Laumann, Edward O., and Richard Senter. “Subjective Social Distance, Occupational Stratification, and Forms of Status and Class Consciousness: A Cross-national Replication and Extension.” American Journal of Sociology 81, no. 6 (May 1976): 1304-1338.

Merton, Robert K. “The Matthew Effect in Science.” Science 159 (January, 1968): 56-63.

Podolny, Joel M., and Fiona M. Scott Morton. “Social Status, Entry and Predation: The Case of British Shipping Cartels 1879-1929.” Journal of Industrial Economics 47, no. 1 (1999): 41-67.

Podolny, Joel M. “Market Uncertainty and the Social Character of Economic Exchange.” Administrative Science Quarterly 39, no. 3: 458-83.

Podolny, Joel M., and Damon J. Phillips. “The Dynamics of Organizational Status.” Industrial and Corporate Change 5 (1996): 453-472.

Roberts, Peter W., and Grahame R. Dowling. “Corporate reputation and sustained superior financial performance.” Strategic Management Journal 23 (2002): 1077-1093.

Schwartz, Barry. Vertical Classification: A Study in Structuralism and the Sociology of Knowledge. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1981. ISBN: 0226742083.

Shils, Edward. “Charisma, Order, and Status.” American Sociological Review 30 (1965): 199-213.

Sorensen, Aage B. “The Basic Concepts of Stratification Research: Class, Status, and Power.” In Social Stratification. Edited by David B. Grusky. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2001, pp. 287-300. ISBN: 0813310652.

Weber, Max. “Class, Status, Party.” In From Max Weber. Edited by Hans Gerth, and C. Wright Mills. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 1958, pp. 180-195. ISBN: 0195004620.

———. “Status Groups and Classes.” In Social Stratification. Edited by David B. Grusky. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2001, pp. 122-126. ISBN: 0813310652.

6 Models of Competition III: Role and Category-based

Required

Padgett, John F., and Christopher K. Ansell. “Robust Action and the Rise of the Medici, 1400-1434.” American Journal of Sociology 98, no. 6 (May 1993): 1259-1319.

Carroll, Glenn R., and Anand Swaminathan. “Why the Microbrewery Movement? Organizational Dynamics of Resource Partitioning in the American Brewery Industry after Prohibition.” American Journal of Sociology 106 (2000): 715-762.

Peterson, Richard A., and David G. Berger. “Cycles in Cultural Production: The Case of Popular Music.” American Sociological Review 40 (1975): 158-73.

Zuckerman, Ezra W. “The Categorical Imperative: Securities Analysts and the Illegitimacy Discount.” American Journal of Sociology 104 (1999): 1398-1438.

Zuckerman, Ezra W., Tai-Young Kim, Kalinda Ukanwa, and James von Rittmann. “Robust Identities or Non-Entities? Typecasting in the Feature Film Labor Market.” American Journal of Sociology 108 (2003): 1018-1075.

Supplementary

Baker, Wayne E., and Robert R. Faulkner. “Role as Resource in the Hollywood Film Industry.” American Journal of Sociology 97 (1991): 279-309.

Becker, Howard S. “Labelling Theory Reconsidered.” In Outsiders: Studies in the Sociology of Deviance. Edited by Howard S. Becker. 2nd ed. New York, NY: The Free Press, 1973, pp. 177-208. ISBN: 0684836351.

Caplow, Theodore. “Christmas Gifts and Kin Networks.” American Sociological Review 47, no. 3 (June 1982): 383-392.

Carroll, Glenn R. “Concentration and Specialization: Dynamics of Niche Width in Populations of Organizations.” American Journal of Sociology 90 (1985): 1262-1283.

DiMaggio, Paul M. “Classification in Art.” American Sociological Review 52 (1987): 440-455.

Douglas, Mary. Chapter 2 in Purity and Danger: An Analysis of the Concepts of Pollution and Taboo. London, UK: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1966. ISBN: 0415289955.

Faulkner, Robert R. Chapter 3 in Music on Demand: Composers and Careers in the Hollywood Film Industry. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction, 1983. ISBN: 0878554033.

Friedman, Raymond A., and Joel M. Podolny. “Differentiation of Boundary Spanning Roles: Labor Negotiations and Implications for Role Conflict.” Administrative Science Quarterly 37 (1992): 28-47.

Goffman, Erving. “Role Distance.” In Encounters: Two Studies in the Sociology of Interaction. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill, 1961. ISBN: 0023445602.

———. “On Cooling the Mark Out.” Psychiatry 15 (1952): 451-463.

———. “The Moral Career of the Mental Patient.” Psychiatry 22 (1959): 23-42.

Goode, William J. “Norm Commitment and Conformity to Role-Status Obligations.” American Journal of Sociology 66, no. 3 (1960): 246-258.

———. “A Theory of Role Strain.” American Sociological Review 25, no. 4 (August 1960): 483-496.

Leifer, Eric M. “Interaction Preludes to Role Setting: Exploratory Local Action.” American Sociological Review 53 (1988): 865-878.

Lopes, Paul D. “Innovation and Diversity in the Popular Music Industry, 1969-1990.” American Sociological Review 57 (1992): 56-71.

Merton, Robert K. “Continuities in the Theory of Reference Groups and Social Structure.” Chapter XI in Social Theory and Social Structure. New York, NY: Free Press, 1968. ISBN: 0029211301.

———. “The Role-Set: Problems in Sociological Theory.” British Journal of Sociology 8 (1957): 106-120.

Polos, Lazlo, Michael T. Hannan, and Glenn R. Carroll. “Foundations of a Theory of Social Forms.” Industrial and Corporate Change 11, no. 1 (February 2002): 85-115.

Rosa, Jose A., Joseph F. Porac, Jelena Runser-Spanjol, and Michael Scott Saxon. “Sociocognitive Dynamics in a Product Market.” Journal of Marketing 63, Special Issue (1999): 64-77.

Slater, Philip E. “Role Differentiation in Small Groups.” American Sociological Review 20, no. 3 (June 1955): 300-310.

Stryker, Sheldon, and Anne Statham Macke. “Status Inconsistency and Role Conflict.” Annual Review of Sociology 4 (1978): 57-90.

Turner, Ralph H. “Role: Sociological Aspects.” International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences 13 (1968): 552-7. New York, NY: Macmillian and Free Press. ISBN: 0828882320.

White, Harrison C. “Where Do Markets Come From?” American Journal of Sociology 87 (1981): 517-47.

———. Markets from Networks: Socioeconomic Models of Production. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002. ISBN: 0691120382.

Zerubavel, Eviatar. “Lumping and Splitting: Notes on Social Classification.” Sociological Forum 11, no. 3, Special Issue: Lumping and Splitting (1996): 421-433.

Zuckerman, Ezra W. “Focusing the Corporate Product: Securities Analysts and De-diversification.” Administrative Science Quarterly 45 (2000): 591-619.

———. “Structural Incoherence and Stock Market Activity.” Unpublished manuscript, MIT Sloan School of Management, 2003.

Zuckerman, Ezra W., and Tai-Young Kim. “The Identity Trade-Off: Market Mediation and Success in the Film Industry.” Industrial and Corporate Change (2003). Forthcoming.

Zuckerman, Ezra W. “Structural Incoherence and Stock Market Activity.” American Sociological Review 69 (2004): 405-432.

7 Origins I: The Founding of New Firms

Required

Carroll, Glenn R., and Michael T. Hannan. “Density Dependence in the Evolution of Populations of Newspaper Organizations.” American Sociological Review 54 (1989): 524-541.

Phillips, Damon J. “A Genealogical Approach to Organizational Life Chances: The Parent-Progeny Transfer among Silicon Valley Law Firms, 1946-1996.” Administrative Science Quarterly (June 2002 issue).

Sorenson, Olav, and Pino G. Audia. “The Social Structure of Entrepreneurial Activity: Geographic Concentration of Footwear Production in the United States, 1940-1989.” American Journal of Sociology 106 (2000): 424-462.

Burton, M. Diane, Jesper Sørensen, and Christine Beckman. “Coming from Good Stock: Career Histories and New Venture Formation.” Research in the Sociology of Organizations 19 (2002): 229-262.

Frank, Dobbin, and Timothy J. Dowd. “How policy shapes competition: Early railroad foundings in Massachusetts.” Administrative Science Quarterly 42 (1997): 501-529.

Supplementary

Baum, Joel A. C., and Walter W. Powell. “Cultivating an Institutional Ecology of Organizations: Comment on Hannan, Carroll, Dundon, and Torres.” American Sociological Review 60 (1995): 529-538.

Hannan, Michael T., and Glenn R. Carroll. “Theory Building and Cheap Talk About Legitimation: Reply to Baum and Powell.” American Sociological Review 60 (1995): 539-544.

———. “On Using Institutional Theory in Studying Organizational Populations.” American Sociological Review 54, no. 4 (August 1989): 545-548.

Rao, Hayagreeva. “The Social Construction of Reputation: Certification Contests, Legitimation, and the Survival of Organizations in the American Automobile Industry: 1895-1912.” Strategic Management Journal 15 (1994): 29-44.

Stuart, Toby E., and Olav Sorenson. “Liquidity Events and the Geographic Distribution of Entrepreneurial Activity.” Administrative Science Quarterly 48 (2003): 175-201.

Stuart, Toby, Ha Hoang, and Ralph Hybels. “Interorganizational Endorsements and the Performance of Entrepreneurial Ventures.” Administrative Science Quarterly 43 (1999): 668-698.

Sorenson, Olav, and Toby E. Stuart. “Syndication Networks and the Spatial Distribution of Venture Capital Investments.” American Journal of Sociology 106 (2001): 1546-1588. (AJS)

Zucker, Lynne G. “Combining Institutional Theory and Population Ecology: No Legitimacy, No History.” American Sociological Review 54, no. 4 (August 1989): 542-545.

8 Origins II: The Founding of New Forms

Required

Ruef, Martin. “The Emergence of Organizational Forms: A Community Ecology Approach.” American Journal of Sociology 106 (2000): 658-714.

Rao, Hayagreeva. “Caveat Emptor: The Construction of Nonprofit Consumer Watchdog Organizations.” American Journal of Sociology 103 (1998): 912-961.

McKendrick, David G., Jonathan J. Jaffee, Glenn R. Carroll, and Olga M. Khessina. “In the bud? Disk array producers as a (possibly) emergent organizational form.” Administrative Science Quarterly 48 (2003): 60-93.

Padgett, John F. “Organizational genesis, identity, and control: the transformation of banking in Renaissance Florence.” In Networks and Markets. Edited by James E. Rauch, and Alessandra Casella. New York, NY: Russell Sage, 2001. ISBN: 0871547007.

Ingram, Paul, and Hayagreeva Rao. “Store Wars: The Enactment and Repeal of Anti-Chain-Store Legislation in America.” American Journal of Sociology 110 (2004): 446-487.

Supplementary

DiMaggio, Paul. “Cultural Entrepreneurship in 19th-Century Boston: The Creation Of An Organizational Base For High Culture In America.” Media Culture & Society 4, no. 1 (1982): 33-50.

———. “Cultural Entrepreneurship In 19th-Century Boston. 2: The Classification and Framing Of American-Art.” Media Culture & Society 4, no. 4 (1982): 303-322.

Frank, Dobbin, and Timothy J. Dowd. “The market that antitrust built: Public policy, private coercion, and railroad acquisitions, 1825 to 1922.” American Sociological Review 65 (2000): 631-657.

Stinchcombe, Arthur L. “Social Structure and Organizations.” In Handbook of Organizations. Edited by James G. March. Chicago, IL: Rand McNally, 1965, pp. 142-93. ISBN: 082408215X.

White, Harrison C., and Cynthia A. White. Canvases and Careers: Institutional Change in the French Painting World. New York, NY: Wiley, 1965. ISBN: 0226894878.

9 Strategic Change

Required

Jensen, Michael. “The Role of Network Resources in Market Entry: Commercial Banks’ Entry into Investment Banking, 1991-1997.” Administrative Science Quarterly 48 (2003): 466-497.

Phillips, Damon J., and Ezra W. Zuckerman. “Middle Status Conformity: Theoretical Restatement and Empirical Demonstration in Two Markets.” American Journal of Sociology 107 (2001): 379-429.

Podolny, Joel M. “Networks as Pipes and Prisms of the Market.” American Journal of Sociology 107 (2001): 33-60.

Haveman, Heather A. “Follow The Leader - Mimetic Isomorphism And Entry Into New Markets.” Administrative Science Quarterly 38, no. 4 (1993): 593-627.

Greve, Henrich R. “Performance, aspirations, and risky organizational change.” Administrative Science Quarterly 43 (1998): 58-86.

Supplementary

Baum, Joel A. C., and Heather A. “Love thy neighbor? Differentiation and agglomeration in the Manhattan hotel industry, 1898-1990.” Administrative Science Quarterly 42 (1997): 304-338

Deephouse, D. L. “To be different, or to be the same? It’s a question (and theory) of strategic balance.” Strategic Management Journal 20, no. 2 (1999): 147-166.

Denrell, Jerker, and James G. March. “Adaptation as Information Restriction: The Hot Stove Effect.” Organization Science 12, no. 5 (2001): 523-538.

Greve, Henrich R., and Alva Taylor. “Innovations as catalysts for organizational change: Shifts in organizational cognition and search.” Administrative Science Quarterly 45 (2000): 54-80.

Greve, Henrich R. “Jumping Ship: The Diffusion of Strategy Abandonment.” Administrative Science Quarterly 40 (1995): 444-473.

Hannan, Michael T., and John Freeman. “Structural Inertia and Organizational Change.” American Sociological Review 49, no. 2 (1984): 149-164.

Hannan, Michael T., Lazlo Polos, and Glenn R Carroll. “The Fog of Change: Opacity and Asperity in Organizations.” Administrative Science Quarterly 48 (2003): 399-432.

Henderson, Rebecca M., and Kim B. Clark. “Architectural Innovation: The Reconfiguration Of Existing Product Technologies and the Failure of Existing Firms.” Administrative Science Quarterly 35 (1990): 9-30.

Nickerson, Jack A., and Brian S. Silverman. “Why Firms Want to Organize Efficiently and What Keeps Them from Doing So: Inappropriate Governance, Performance, and Adaptation in a Deregulated Industry.” Administrative Science Quarterly 48 (2003): 433.

10 Organizational Capabilities

Required

Baron, James N., and Michael T. Hannan. “Labor Pains: Change in Organizational Models and Employee Turnover in Young, High-Tech Firms.” American Journal of Sociology 106 (2001): 960-1012.

Barnett, William P., and Olav Sorenson. “The Red Queen in organizational creation and development.” Industrial and Corporate Change 11 (2002): 289-325.

Sorensen, Jesper B., and Toby E. Stuart. “Aging, obsolescence, and organizational innovation.” Administrative Science Quarterly 45 (2000): 81-112.

Sorensen, Jesper B. “The strength of corporate culture and the reliability of firm performance.” Administrative Science Quarterly 47 (2002): 70-91.

Haveman, Heather A. “Between A Rock and A Hard Place - Organizational-Change And Performance Under Conditions Of Fundamental Environmental Transformation.” Administrative Science Quarterly 37 (1992): 48-75.

Supplementary

Grant, Robert M. “Toward a Knowledge-Based Theory of the Firm.” Strategic Management Journal 17, Special Issue: Knowledge and the Firm (1996): 109-122.

Henderson, Rebecca, and Iain Cockburn. “Measuring Competence? Exploring Firm Effects in Pharmaceutical Research.” Strategic Management Journal 15, Special Issue: Competitive Organizational Behavior (1994): 63-84.

Kogut, Bruce, and Udo Zander. “What Firms Do? Coordination, Identity, and Learning.” Organization Science 7 (1996): 502-518.

Milgrom, Paul, and John Roberts. “Complementarities and fit strategy, structure, and organizational change in manufacturing.” Journal of Accounting and Economics 19 (1995): 179-208.

Nonaka, Ikujiro. “A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation.” Organization Science 5 (1994): 14-37

Liebeskind, Julia Porter. “Knowledge, Strategy, and the Theory of the Firm.” Strategic Management Journal 17 (1996): 93-107.

Penrose, Edith Tilton. The Theory of the Growth of the Firm. New York, NY: Wiley, 1959. ISBN: 0198289774.

Peteraf, Margaret A. “The Cornerstones of Competitive Advantage: A Resource-Based View.” Strategic Management Journal 14 (1993): 179-191.

Rivkin, Jan W. “Imitation of complex strategies.” Management Science 46 (2000): 824-844.

———. “Reproducing knowledge: Replication without imitation at moderate complexity.” Organization Science 12 (2001): 274.

Selznick, Philip. Leadership in Administration: A Sociological Interpretation. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1957. ISBN: 0520049942.

Siggelkow, Nicolaj. “Change in the presence of fit: The rise, the fall, and the renaissance of Liz Claiborne.” Academy of Management Journal 44 (2001): 838-857.

Winter, Sidney G. “Understanding dynamic capabilities.” Strategic Management Journal 24 (2003): 991-1011.

Winter, Sidney G., and Gabriel Szulanski. “Replication as strategy.” Organization Science 12 (2001): 730-735.

11 Diffusion and Learning I: Process

Required

Abrahamson, Eric and Gregory Fairchild. “Management Fashion: Lifecycles, Triggers, and Collective Learning Processes.” Administrative Science Quarterly 44 (1999): 708-740.

Strang, David, and Sarah A. Soule. “Diffusion in Organizations and Social Movements: From Hybrid Corn to Poison Pills.” Annual Review of Sociology 24 (1998): 265-290.

Westphal, James D., Ranjay Gulati, and Stephen M. Shortell. “Customization or Conformity? An Institutional and Network Perspective on the Content and Consequences of TQM Adoption.” Administrative Science Quarterly 42 (1997): 366-394.

Zbaracki, Mark J. “The Rhetoric and Reality of Total Quality Management.” Administrative Science Quarterly 43 (1998): 602-636.

Strang, David, and Michael W. Macy. “In Search of Excellence: Fads, Success Stories, and Adaptive Emulation.” American Journal of Sociology 107 (2001): 147-182.

Supplementary

Baum, Joel A. C., and Paul Ingram. “Survival-Enhancing Learning in the Manhattan Hotel Industry, 1898-1980” Management Science 44 (1998): 996-1017.

Beckman, Christine M., and Pamela R. Haunschild. “Network learning: The effects of partners’ heterogeneity of experience on corporate acquisitions.” Administrative Science Quarterly 47 (2002): 92-124.

Bothner, Matthew S. “Competition and Social Influence: The Diffusion of the Sixth-Generation Processor in the Global Computer Industry.” American Journal of Sociology 108 (2003): 1175-1210.

Carroll, Glenn R. J., and Richard Harrison. “On the Historical Efficiency of Competition Between Organizational Populations.” American Journal of Sociology 100, no. 3 (November 1994): 720-749.

Cohen, Wesley M., and Daniel A. Levinthal. “Absorptive Capacity: A New Perspective On Learning And Innovation.” Administrative Science Quarterly 35 (1990): 128-153.

Darr, Eric D., Linda Argote, and Dennis Epple. “The Acquisition, Transfer, and Depreciation of Knowledge in Service Organizations: Productivity in Franchises.” Management Science 41 (1995): 1750-1763.

Jerker, Denrell. “Vicarious Learning, Undersampling of Failure, and the Myths of Management.” Organization Science 14 (2003): 227-243.

Levinthal, Daniel A., and James G. March. “The Myopia of Learning.” Strategic Management Journal 14, Special Issue: Organizations, Decision Making and Strategy (1993): 95-112.

Levitt, Barbara, and James G. March. “Organizational Learning.” Annual Review of Sociology 14 (1988): 319-340.

March, James G. “Exploration and Exploitation in Organizational Learning.” Organization Science 2, Special Issue: Organizational Learning: Papers in Honor of (and by) James G. March (1991): 71-87.

Rao, Hayagreeva, Henrich R. Greve, and Gerald F. Davis. “Fool’s Gold: Social Proof in the Initiation and Abandonment of Coverage by Wall Street Analysts.” Administrative Science Quarterly 46 (2001): 502-526.

Saxenian, Annalee. Regional Advantage. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994. ISBN: 0674753402.

Sorenson, Olav, and Jesper B. Sorensen. “Finding the Right Mix: Franchising, Organizational Learning, and Chain Performance.” Strategic Management Journal 22 (2001): 713-724.

Sorenson, Olav. “Interdependence and adaptability: Organizational learning and the long-term effect of integration.” Management Science 49, no. 4 (2003): 446-463.

Tolbert, Pamela S., and Lynne G. Zucker. “Institutional Sources of Change in the Formal Structure of Organizations: The Diffusion of Civil Service Reform, 1880-1935.” Administrative Science Quarterly 28 (1983): 22-39.

Zajac, Edward J., and James D. Westphal. “The Social Construction of Market Value: Institutionalization and Learning Perspectives on Stock Market Reactions.” American Sociological Review 69 (2004): 433-457.

———. “Should Sociological Theories Venture into ‘Economic Territory?’ Yes!” American Sociological Review 69 (2004): 466-471.

Erratum for Zajac, Edward J., and James D. Westphal. “The Social Construction of Market Value: Institutionalization and Learning Perspectives on Stock Market Reactions.” American Sociological Review 69 (2004): 748-749.

Zuckerman, Ezra W. Towards the Social Reconstruction of an Interdisciplinary Turf War: Comment on Zajac and Westphal, ASR, June 2004.” American Sociological Review 69 (2004): 458-465.

Zuckerman, Ezra W., and Hayagreeva Rao. “Shrewd, Crude, or Simply Deluded? Comovement and the Internet Stock Phenomenon.” Industrial and Corporate Change 13 (2004): 171-213.

12 Diffusion and Learning II: Channels

Required

Appleyard, Melissa M. “How Does Knowledge Flow? Interfirm Patterns in the Semiconductor industry.” Strategic Management Journal 17, Special Issue: Knowledge and the Firm (1996): 137-154.

Hayek, Friedrich. “The Use of Knowledge in Society.” American Economic Review 35 (1945): 519-30.

Zollo, Maurizio, and Sidney G Winter. “Deliberate learning and the evolution of dynamic capabilities.” Organization Science 13 (2002): 339-352.

Sgourev, Stoyan, and Ezra W. Zuckerman. “Peer Capitalism.” Unpublished manuscript, MIT Sloan School of Management.

Winter, Sidney G. “Competition and Selection.” In The New Palgrave. Edited by J. Eatwell, J. Milgate, and P. Newman. Palgrave Macmillan, 1998, ISBN: 9780333740408.

Supplementary

Dyer, Jeffrey H., and Kentaro Nobeoka. “Creating and Managing a High-Performance Knowledge-Sharing Network: The Toyota case.” Strategic Management Journal 21 (2000): 345-367.

Schrader, Stephan. “Informal Technology-transfer Between Firms: Cooperation Through Information Trading.” Research Policy 20 (1991): 153-170.

Hippel, Eric Von. “Cooperation Between Rivals: Informal Know-How Trading.” Research Policy 16 (1987): 291-302.

Course Info

As Taught In
Spring 2005
Level