Variations in Organization Science
In Honor of Donald T Campbell
- Joel A. C. Baum - University of Toronto, Canada
- Bill McKelvey - UCLA, USA
May 1999 | 464 pages | SAGE Publications, Inc
"In my judgment this book in honor of Donald T. Campbell will be very influential and highly cited. . . . It will become a must read for Ph.D. students and scholars in strategy and organization theory."
—Arie Lewin, Duke University
"The topics in this volume are cutting edge, and the contributors are first-rate. The book is well anchored—Donald T. Campbell has had a profound influence on the field. Moreover, the book is well-conceptualized—socio-cultural evolution, co-evolution, methods modeling, and epistemology are key issues in organization science right now.
—Michael Tushman, Harvard University
If he were an assistant professor today, what would social science giant Donald T. Campbell be pursuing in the field of organization science? Joel A. C. Baum and Bill McKelvey explore this question in Variations in Organization Science. This volume reveals and celebrates Campbell's many contributions to organization science by presenting new variations that stem directly from his work. Rather than analyze Campbell's theories, the authors present ideas that Campbell might have pursued if he were currently a doctoral student.
This volume is unique in its focus on coevolution and multilevel coevolutionary analysis, as well as in its range of subject matter from empirical studies to leading-edge epistemological discourses. Each of the book's four main sections focuses on a major aspect of Campbell's legacy: blind variation, selection, and retention; multilevel coevolution; process level analysis and modeling; and epistemology and methodology. In addition, the volume includes a Foreward by Barbara Frankel Campbell and an unusual Appendix: Donald Campbell's complete curriculum vitae.
Variations in Organization Science should be on the top of the reading list for any organization scientist interested in organizational evolution, change, and competitiveness. This volume will also appeal to any scholar interested in the human and social capital base of firms and how organizational knowledge and learning work to provide the basis of competitive advantage.
Barbara Frankel Campbell
Foreword
Bill McKelvey and Joel A C Baum
Donald T Campbell's Evolving Influence on Organization Science
PART ONE: BLIND-VARIATION-SELECTION-AND-RETENTION
Howard E Aldrich and Amy L Kenworthy
The Accidental Entrepreneur
Anne S Miner and Sri V Raghavan
Interorganizational Imitation
Hayagreeva Rao and Jitendra V Singh
Types of Variation in Organizational Populations
Elaine Romanelli
Blind (but not Unconditioned) Variation
Danny Miller
Selection Processes inside Organizations
PART TWO: MULTILEVEL COEVOLUTION
Joel A C Baum
Whole-Part Coevolutionary Competition in Organizations
Philip Anderson
Venture Capital Dynamics and the Creation of Variation through Entrepreneurship
Paul Ingram and Peter W Roberts
Suborganizational Evolution in the US Pharmaceutical Industry
Lori Rosenkopf and Atul Nerkar
On the Complexity of Technological Evolution
Andrew H Van de Ven and David N Grazman
Evolution in a Nested Hierarchy
PART THREE: PROCESS LEVEL ANALYSIS AND MODELING
Tammy L Madsen, Elaine Mosakowski and Srilata Zaheer
Static and Dynamic Variation and Firm Outcomes
Brian T Pentland
Organizations as Networks of Actions
Alessandro Lomi and Erik R Larsen
Evolutionary Models of Local Interaction
Bill McKelvey
Self-Organization, Complexity Catastrophe and Microstate Models at the Edge of Chaos
PART FOUR: METHODOLOGY AND EPISTEMOLOGY
Martin G Evans
Donald T Campbell's Methodological Contributions to Organization Science
Margaretha Hendrickx
What Can Management Researchers Learn from Donald T Campbell, the Philosopher? An Exercise in Hermeneutics
Bill McKelvey
Toward a Campbellian Realist Organization Science