This article seeks to provide its readers with useful insights about what key factors towards survival (or failure) can be associated with different stages of the organisational life cycle. In particular, the article aims to explain how the empirical developments from ‘organisational adaptation’ literature can be useful, especially to the practice of management, for gaining fruitful recommendations about the investigated research question. The article has been specifically designed to fit the audience of the Journal of General Management. In fact, it mostly focuses on the managerial implications demonstrated by a number of real world examples (e.g. Ryanair, Zalando, Gucci and Google) currently associated with the discussed literature.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AbatecolaG. (2009), ‘Bridging adaptation perspectives to explore corporate crisis determinants. Evidence from Fiat’, International Journal of Business & Economics, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 163–184.
2.
AbatecolaG. (2012a), ‘Organizational adaptation. An update’, International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 274–293.
3.
AbatecolaG. (2012b), ‘Interpreting corporate crises: towards a co-evolutionary approach’, Futures, Vol. 44, pp. 860–869.
4.
AbatecolaG.CafferataR. and PoggesiS. (2012), ‘Arthur Stinchcombe's “liability of newness”. Contribution and impact of the construct’, Journal of Management History, Vol. 18, No. 4, pp. 402–418.
5.
AbatecolaG.FarinaV. and GordiniN. (2013), ‘Boards of directors in troubled waters! Enhancing the survival chances of distressed firms’, in: CarrettaA. and MattarocciG. (eds.), Financial Systems in Troubled Waters. Information, Strategies, and Governance to Enhance Performances in Risky Times, London, UK: Routledge, pp. 9–18.
6.
AbatecolaG.MandarelliG. and PoggesiS. (2011), ‘The personality factor: how top management teams make decisions. A literature review’, Journal of Management and Governance, DOI: 10.1007/s10997–011–9189–y.
7.
AldrichH. E. and AusterE. R. (1986), ‘Even dwarfs started small: liabilities of age and size and their strategic implications’, Research in Organizational Behaviour, Vol. 8, No. 2, pp. 165–198.
8.
ArmstrongS. J.CoolsE. and Sadler-SmithE. (2012), ‘Role of cognitive styles in business and management: reviewing 40 years of research’, International Journal of Management Reviews, Vol. 14, No. 3, pp. 238–262.
9.
BaronJ. N.BurtonM. D. and HannanM. T. (1996), ‘The road taken: origins and early evolution of employment systems in emerging companies’, Industrial and Corporate Change, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 239–275.
10.
BaronJ. N.BurtonM. D. and HannanM. T. (1999a), ‘Engineering bureaucracy: the genesis of formal policies, positions, and structures in high-technology firms’Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Vol. 15, No. 1, pp. 1–41.
11.
BaronJ. N.HannanM. T. and BurtonM. D. (1999b), ‘Building the iron cage: determinants of managerial intensity in the early years of organizations’, American Sociological Review, Vol. 64, No. 4, pp. 527–547.
12.
BarrickM. R.MountM. K. and LiN. (2013), ‘The theory of purposeful work behavior: the role of personality, higher-order goals, and job characteristics’, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 38, No. 1, pp. 132–153.
13.
BarronD. N.WestE. and HannanM. T. (1994), ‘A time to grow and a time to die: growth and mortality of credit unions in New York city: 1914 1990’, American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 100, No. 2, pp. 381–421.
14.
BaumJ. A. C. (1999), ‘Organizational ecology’, in CleggS. R. and Hardy,C. (Eds), Studying Organization. Theory and Method, London: Sage, pp. 71–108.
15.
BeckmanC. M. (2006), ‘The influence of founding team company affiliations on firm behaviour’, Academy of Management Journal, Vol. 49, No. 4, pp. 741–758.
16.
BeckmanC. M.BurtonM. D. and O'ReillyC. (2007), ‘Early teams: the impact of team demography of VC financing going public’, Journal of Business Venturing, Vol. 22, pp. 147–173.
17.
BreslinD. (2011a), ‘Reviewing a generalized Darwinist approach to studying socio-economic change’, International Journal of Management Reviews, Vol. 13, No. 2, pp. 218–235.
18.
BreslinD. (2011b), ‘Interpreting futures through the multi-level co-evolution of organizational practices’, Futures, Vol. 43, pp. 1020–1028.
19.
BruceE. P. (2008), ‘Managing strategy in turbulent environments’, Journal of General Management, Vol. 33, No. 3, pp. 21–30.
20.
BurkeA.FitzRoyF. R. and NolanM. (2008), ‘What makes a die-hard entrepreneur? Beyond the employee or entrepreneur dichotomy’, Small Business Economics, Vol. 31, No. 2, pp. 93–115.
21.
BurtonM. D. (2001), ‘The company they keep: founders’ models for organizing new firms’, in: SchoonhovenC. B. and Romanelli,E. (eds.), The Entrepreneurship Dynamic: Origins of Entrepreneurship and the Evolution of Industries, Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, pp. 13–39.
22.
CafferataR. (2009), Management in Adattamento. Tra Razionalità Economica e Imperfezione dei Sistemi, Bologna: Il Mulino.
23.
CafferataR. (2010), ‘L'impresa che diventa sistema: una lettura nel duecentenario darwiniano’, Sinergie, Vol. 81, pp. 51–76.
24.
CafferataR.AbatecolaG. and PoggesiS. (2009), ‘Revisiting Stinchcombe's liability of newness: a systematic literature review’, International Journal of Globalisation and Small Business, Vol. 8, No. 3, pp. 374–392.
25.
CarmeliA. and MarkmanG. D. (2011), ‘Capture, governance and resilience: strategy implications from the history of Rome’, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 32, No. 3, pp. 322–341.
26.
CarpenterM. A.GeletkanyczM. A. and SandersW. G. (2004), ‘Upper echelons research revisited: antecedents, elements, and consequences of top management team composition’, Journal of Management, Vol. 30, No. 6, pp. 749–778.
27.
CarpenterM. A. (ed.) (2011), The Handbook of Research on Top Management Teams, Cambridge, MA: Edward Elgar.
28.
ChatterjeeA. and HambrickD. C. (2011), ‘CEO personality, capability cues, and risk-taking: how narcissists react to their successes and stumbles’, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 56, No. 2, pp. 202–237.
29.
ChildJ. (1972), ‘Organizational structure, environment and performance: the role of strategic choice’, Sociology, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 1–22.
30.
ChildJ.TseK. and RodriguesS. B. (2013), The Dynamics of Corporate Co-evolution, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
31.
CyertR. M. and MarchJ. G. (1963), A Behavioural Theory of the Firm, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.
32.
DarwinC. R. (1859), On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life, London: John Murray.
33.
De RondM. and ThietartR. A. (2007), ‘Choice, chance and inevitability in strategy’, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 28, No. 5, pp. 535–551.
34.
DessG. G. and BeardD. W. (1984), ‘Dimensions of organizational task environments’, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 29, No. 1, pp. 52–73.
35.
DobsonS.BreslinD.SuckleyL.BartonR. and RodriguezL. (2013), ‘Small firm survival and innovation: an evolutionary approach’International Journal of Entrepreneurship & Innovation, Vol. 14, No. 2, pp. 69–80.
36.
EmeryF. and TristR. L. (1965), ‘The causal texture of organizational environments’, Human Relations, Vol. 18, No. 1, pp. 21–32.
37.
FarjounM. (2010), ‘Beyond dualism: stability and change as a duality’, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 35, No. 2, pp. 202–225.
38.
FichmanM. and LevinthalD. A. (1991), ‘Honeymoons and the liability of adolescence: a new perspective on duration dependence in social and organizational relationships’, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 16, No. 2, pp. 442–468.
39.
FilatotchevI. (ed.) (2010), Corporate Governance and the Business Life Cycle, Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar.
40.
FinkelsteinS.HambrickD. C. and CannellaA. A. (2008), Strategic Leadership: Theory and Research on Executives, Top Management Teams, and Boards, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
41.
FortuneA. and MitchellW. (2012), ‘Unpacking firm exit at the firm and industry levels: the adaptation and selection of firm capabilities’, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 33, No. 7, pp. 794–819.
42.
FreemanJ. H.CarrollG. R. and HannanM. T. (1983), ‘The liability of newness: age dependence in organizational death rates’, American Sociological Review, Vol. 48, No. 5, pp. 692–710.
43.
HambrickD. C. (2007), ‘Upper echelons theory: an update’, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 32, No. 2, pp. 334–343.
44.
HambrickD. C. and MasonP. A. (1984), ‘Upper echelons: the organization as a reflection of its top managers’, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 9, No. 2, pp. 193–206.
45.
HannanM. T.BurtonM. D. and BaronJ. N. (1996), ‘Inertia and change in the early years: employment relations in young, high technology firms’, Industrial and Corporate Change, Vol. 5, No. 2, pp. 503–536.
46.
HannanM. T. and FreemanJ. H. (1977), ‘The population ecology of organizations’, American Journal of Sociology, Vol. 82, No. 5, pp. 929–964.
47.
HannanM. T. and FreemanJ. H. (1984), ‘Structural inertia and organizational change’, American Sociological Review, Vol. 49, No. 2, pp. 149–164.
48.
HannanM. T.PolosL. and CarrollG. R. (2007), Logics of Organization Theory. Audiences, Codes, and Ecologies, Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
49.
HendersonA. D. (1999), ‘Firm strategy and age dependence: a contingent view of the liabilities of newness, adolescence and obsolescence’, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 44, No. 2, pp. 281–314.
50.
HodgsonG. M. and KnudsenT. (2010), Darwin's Conjecture: The Search for General Principles of Social and Economic Evolution, Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
51.
HsuG.HannanM. T. and KocakO. (2009), ‘Multiple category memberships in markets: an integrative theory and two empirical tests’, American Sociological Review, Vol. 74, pp. 150–169.
52.
HuseM. (2007), Boards, Governance and Value Creation: The Human Side of Corporate Governance, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
53.
KastF. E. and RosenzweigJ. E. (1988), Organization and Management. A Systems and Contingency Approach, McGraw-Hill, Singapore.
54.
KatzD. and KahnR. L. (1966), The Social Psychology of Organizations, Wiley: New York.
55.
KozaM. P.TallmanS. and AtaayA. (2011), ‘The strategic assembly of global firms: a microstructural analysis of local learning and global adaptation’, Global Strategy Journal, Vol. 1, No. 1–2, pp. 27–46.
56.
LewinA. Y. and VolberdaH. K. (2005), ‘The future of organization studies: beyond the selection-adaptation debate’, in: TsoukasH. and Knudsen,C. (eds.) The Oxford Handbook of Organization Theory, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 568–595.
57.
LewinA. Y. and VolberdaH. K. (2011), ‘Co-evolution of global sourcing: the need to understand the underlying mechanisms of firm-decisions to offshore’, International Business Review, Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 241–251.
58.
LordA. (2012), ‘Reviving organizational memetics through cultural Linneanism’, International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 349–370.
59.
MasonR. B. (2008), ‘Management actions, attitudes to change and perceptions of the external environment: a complexity theory approach’, Journal of General Management, Vol. 34, No. 1, pp. 37–53.
60.
McCarthyI. P.LawrenceT. B.WixtedB. and GordonB. (2010), ‘A multidimensional conceptualization of environmental velocity’, Academy of Management Review, Vol. 35, No. 4, pp. 604–626.
61.
MellahiK. and WilkinsonA. (2004), ‘Organizational failure: a critique of recent research and a proposed integrative framework’, International Journal of Management Reviews, Vol. 5–6, No. 1, pp. 21–41.
62.
MoranP.SimoniM. and VagnaniG. (2011), ‘Becoming the best: by beating or ignoring the best? Toward an expanded view of the role of managerial selection in complex and turbulent environments’, Journal of Management and Governance, Vol. 15, No. 3, pp. 447–481.
63.
MurmannJ. P. (2013), ‘The coevolution of industries and important features of their environments’, Organization Science, Vol. 24, No. 1, pp. 58–78.
64.
NguyenH. L. and KockS. (2011), ‘Managing SMEs' survival from financial crisis in a transition economy: a Chaos Theory approach’, Journal of General Management, Vol. 37, No. 1, pp. 31–45.
65.
PhelpsR.AdamsR. and BessantJ. (2007), ‘Life cycles of growing organizations: a review with implications for knowledge and learning’, International Journal of Management Reviews, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 1–30.
66.
PowellW.LovalloD. and FoxC. R. (2011), ‘Behavioral strategy’, Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 32, No. 13, pp. 1369–1386.
67.
PriceI. (2012), ‘The selfish signifier: meaning, virulence and transmissibility in a management fashion’, International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Vol. 20, No. 3, pp. 337–348.
68.
Ranger-MooreJ. (1997), ‘Bigger may be better, but is older wiser? Organizational age and size in the New York life insurance industry’, American Sociological Review, Vol. 62, No. 6, pp. 903–920.
69.
SimonH. A. (1947), Administrative Behaviour, New York: MacMillan.
70.
StinchcombeA. L. (1965), ‘Social structure and organizations’, in: MarchJ. (ed.), Handbook of Organizations, Chicago: Rand McNally, pp. 142–193.
71.
StoelhorstJ. W. (2008), ‘Why is management not an evolutionary science? Evolutionary theory in strategy and organization’, Journal of Management Studies, Vol. 45, No. 5, pp. 1008–1023.
72.
UliV. (2012), ‘Countervailing the liability of newness through organizational routines. Evidence from the well-being industry’, Current Progress Journal, Vol. 1, No. 2, pp. 4–11.
73.
Van de VenA. H. and PooleM. S. (2005), ‘Alternative approaches for studying organizational change’, Organization Studies, Vol. 26, No. 9, pp. 1377–1404
