Showing papers on "Resource dependence theory published in 1988"

The Stability of American Markets

Abstract: Much of the evidence of coordination between corporations and their markets comes from cross-sectional conducted within portions of the American economy during the past two decades. We know, especially for manufacturing during the late 1960s, that certain structural qualities of markets predict profits and the organization of large firms. But this evidence is open to an uncomfortable empirical question: To what extent did the social-structural qualities determining resource dependence in American markets change during the 1960s and 1970s so as to limit the generalizability of cross-sectional evidence? The analysis here shows that markets were dramatically stable in he social structure of production relations known to predict the structure of large firms. Relying principally on Department of Commerce data, the article traces the American economy through the 1960s and 1970s in terms of 77 broadly defined markets, describing the stability of market boundaries and patterns of transactions with suppliers and c...

The Diffusion of Medical Innovations: An Applied Network Analysis

Abstract: This book has several objectives. Most basically it presents an approach to assessing interorganizational innovation diffusion. To do this we have tried to link contempo rary organizational theory with more person-centered diffusion theory. We have also combined contingency theory with the resource dependence perspective to explain why organizations might choose to initially consider an innovation, re define it to suit their particular environmental context, and then implement it. Another objective has been to examine how environmental constraints can limit the ways in which diffusion channels form, and can determine when diffusion can be truly organizational and when it will depend upon individuals. In doing so, we have tried to indicate how organizational structures emerge to manage re sources in ways that are consistent with those environmental constraints. We have borrowed the notion of boundary management from resource dependence, and we have used it to examine how organizations use various boundary management strategies to preserve their autonomy in exchange relationships with other organi zations. We have done this both at the network level and at the level of individual organizations."

Composition of board of directors of major media corporations

Abstract: This article examines major determinants of interlocking directorates of media companies by applying resource dependency theory. The study found that firms with greater dependence upon advertisers and financial institutions have more representatives of those interests on their boards. Diversified media companies were found to have more attorneys and interlocking directorships with competing firms.

Suicide: Beyond the Regulation of Emotion

Abstract: This paper adresses two issues: (a) the utility of applying the coping paradigm to the study of suicide and other forms of self-damaging behavior and (b) the outline for a resource theory of the regulation of emotion.