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Organizational Ecology Theory
Organizational ecology theory examines how organizational populations change and develop over time through stages of founding, growth, transformation, decline, and death (Hannan & Freeman, 1977, 1989). The theory addresses the forces of social, political, and economic systems that (1) increase organizational diversity, for example, creating new organizational forms, and (2) decrease organizational diversity, for example, driving away certain organizational forms via competition. The theory also looks at the dynamics within organizational populations (Hannan & Freeman, 1989).
Aldrich and Ruef (2006) reported that there are literally hundreds of thousands of organizations in the world, varying in size from tiny ...
