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Compares applied economic models and an institutional model in an empirical study of financial reporting practice at the Fortune 200 between 1962 and 1984. Findings indicate that the institutional model adds significant explanatory power over and above the models currently dominating the applied economics literature. Includes 47 references. (MLH)

This study examines the impact of localized competition on rates of failure in the Manhattan hotel industry from 1898 to 1990. The study investigates whether the organizations in a population with more similar resource requirements compete more intensely. This approach builds on existing density-based models of interorganizational competition by including variation at the organizational level directly in both the model and measures of competition. A dynamic analysis shows that hotels located in densely populated regions of the distributions of organizational size, geographic location, and price experienced significantly higher failure rates. The findings show how an ecological approach to competition that incorporates intrapopulation variation can provide a more detailed understanding of the competitive dynamics and evolution of organizational populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Established firms face the challenge of managing entrepreneurial strategies in order to respond effectively to major environmental changes. This paper uses a simulation methodology to explore the effectiveness of several entrepreneurial strategies in established organizations when they are faced with a fundamental restructuring of their environment. The simulated organizations are characterized by high and low levels of entrepreneurial activity and three types of entrepreneurial strategies: fixed, imitative, and adaptive. The behavior of these organizations is guided by the assumptions of an organizational learning model. The results of the simulation indicate that, given the assumptions of a learning model, there are several lessons that established organizations should consider in managing entrepreneurial strategy. First, there are important organizational implications under different levels of ambiguity. Second, lessons learned from past experience can often result in learning traps when the environment changes. Finally, conceptualizing organizations as characterized by different entrepreneurial strategies and different levels of entrepreneurship provides a theoretically useful description of differential outcomes in terms of performance, growth, and the probability of failure. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This analysis starts with models of the diffusion of due process protections in organizations that emphasize the role of the state, especially those from the institutional perspective. The case of equal pay for work of comparable value is used to develop propositions concerning important additions to current models of the expansion of due process protections in the workplace. First, we suggest that models of the nation-state should include an explicit recognition that the progressiveness of public policy varies over time. Second, we suggest that models of the nation-state should include explicit recognition of the fact that state authority is fragmented by the separation of powers and the partition of federal and local authority. Implications for future theory and empirical study that follow from these additions to current models are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]