We characterize organizational research as a process driven by researcher’s adaptations to institutional pressures and resource constraints. Drawing on observations on the evolution of several research paradigms in management, organizational studies, and other disciplines, we argue that constraints on the set of legitimate research questions posed within a given theory, institutionalized research methods, and available/collectable data lead to a scarcity in opportunities for publishable contributions, and eventually to the decline of a research paradigm. We direct researchers’ attention to a number of symptoms of paradigm maturation and suggest strategies that are sometimes used to extend paradigm life. We also suggest that not all types of researchers working within a paradigm are equally affected by its maturation, and describe some implications of overly strict constraints on methods, theories, and data for the evolution of research paradigms and for careers of individual researchers.
AbrahamsonE.RosenkopfL. (1993). Institutional and competitive bandwagons: Using mathematical modeling as a tool to explore innovation diffusion. Academy of Management Review, 18, 487-517.
5.
AldrichH. E.FiolC. M. (1994). Fools rush in? The institutional context of industry creation. Academy of Management Review, 19, 645-670.
6.
AlvessonM.SandbergJ. (2013). Has management studies lost its way? Ideas for more imaginative and innovative research. Journal of Management Studies, 50, 128-152.
7.
AmburgeyT. L.RaoH. (1996). Organizational ecology: Past, present, and future directions. Academy of Management Journal, 39, 1265-1286.
8.
AntiaM.PatzalisC.ParkJ. (2010). CEO decision horizon and firm performance. Journal of Corporate Finance, 16, 288-301.
9.
AschS. E. (1956). Studies of independence and conformity. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
10.
AstleyW. G. (1985). Administrative science as socially constructed truth. Administrative Science Quarterly, 30, 497-513.
11.
BalmerJ. M. T.StotvigS. (1997). Corporate identity and private banking: A review and case study. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 15, 169-186.
BitektineA. (2009). What makes us faddish? Resource space constraints and the “garbage can” model of social science research. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 25, 217-220.
14.
BloodR. (2004). Revealing the corporation: Perspectives on identity, image, reputation, corporate branding and corporate-level marketing. Journal of Communication Management, 8, 414-416.
15.
BourdieuP. (1988). Homo academicus. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.
16.
BoydB. K.GoveS.HittM. A. (2005a). Consequences of measurement problems in strategic management research: The case of Amihud and Lev. Strategic Management Journal, 26, 367-375.
17.
BoydB. K.GoveS.HittM. A. (2005b). Construct measurement in strategic management research: Illusion or reality?Strategic Management Journal, 26, 239-257.
18.
BromleyD. B. (2001). Relationships between personal and corporate reputation. European Journal of Marketing, 35, 316-334.
19.
BrownK. W.RyanR. M. (2003). The benefits of being present: Mindfulness and its role in psychological well-being. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84, 822-848.
20.
BurnsT.StalkerG. M. (1961). The management of innovation. London, UK: Tavistock.
21.
BurrisV. (2004). The academic caste system: Prestige hierarchies in PhD exchange networks. American Sociological Review, 69, 239-264.
22.
CampbellD. T.FiskeD. W. (1959). Convergent and discriminant validation by the multitrait-multimethod matrix. Psychological Bulletin, 56, 81-105.
23.
CarpenterM. A.GeletkanyczM. A.SandersW. G. (2004). Upper echelons research revisited: Antecedents, elements, and consequences of top management team composition. Journal of Management, 30, 749-778.
24.
ChenM.-J. (1996). Competitor analysis and interfirm rivalry: Toward a theoretical integration. Academy of Management Review, 21, 100-134.
25.
ChenM.-J.MillerD. (1994). Competitive attack, retaliation and performance: An expectancy-valence framework. Strategic Management Journal, 15, 85-102.
26.
CohenM. D.MarchJ. G.OlsenJ. P. (1972). A garbage can model of organizational choice. Administrative Science Quarterly, 17, 1-25.
27.
DavidR. J.BitektineA. B. (2009). The deinstitutionalization of institutional theory? Exploring divergent agendas in institutional research. In BuchananD.BrymanA. (Eds.), Handbook of organizational research methods (pp. 160-175). London, England: Sage.
28.
DavidR. J.HanS.-K. (2004). A systematic assessment of the empirical support for transaction cost economics. Strategic Management Journal, 25, 39-58.
29.
DavisG. F. (2010). Do theories of organizations progress?Organizational Research Methods, 13, 690-709.
30.
DeciE. L. (1971). Effects of externally mediated rewards on intrinsic motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 18, 105-115.
31.
DeciE. L.RyanR. M. (Eds.). (2002). Handbook of self-determination research. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press.
32.
DieryckxI.CoolK. (1991). Assets stock accumulation and sustainability of competitive advantage. Management Science, 35, 1504-1511.
33.
DiMaggioP. (1988). Interest and agency in institutional theory. In ZuckerL. G. (Ed.), Institutional patterns and organizations: Culture and environment (pp. 3-22). Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.
34.
DowlingJ.PfefferJ. (1975). Organizational legitimacy: Social values and organizational behavior. Pacific Sociological Review, 18, 122-136.
35.
DukerichJ. M.CarterS. M. (2000). Scaling the Tower of Babel: Relational differences between identity, image, and culture in organizations. In SchultzM.HatchM. J.LarsenM. H. (Eds.), Distorted images and reputation repair (pp. 97-112). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
36.
DuttonJ. E.DukerichJ. M.HarquailC. V. (1994). Organizational images and member identification. Administrative Science Quarterly, 39, 239-263.
37.
EdwardsJ. R. (2010). Reconsidering theoretical progress in organizational and management research. Organizational Research Methods, 13, 615-619.
38.
EdwardsJ. R.BerryJ. W. (2010). The presence of something or the absence of nothing: Increasing theoretical precision in management research. Organizational Research Methods, 13, 668-689.
39.
ElsbachK. D.KramerR. M. (1996). Members’ responses to organizational identity threats: Encountering and countering the Business Week rankings. Administrative Science Quarterly, 41, 442-476.
40.
ErbH.-P.BohnerG.HewstoneM.WerthL.ReinhardM.-A. (2006). Large minorities and small majorities: Interactive effects of inferred and explicit consensus on attitudes. Basic and Applied Social Psychology, 28, 221-231.
41.
FissP. (2007). A set-theoretic approach to organizational configurations. Academy of Management Review, 32, 1180-1198.
42.
FugelsangJ. A.SteinC. B.GreenA. E.DunbarK. N. (2004). Theory and data interactions of the scientific mind: Evidence from the molecular and the cognitive laboratory. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, 58, 86-95.
43.
GadamerH.-G. (1982). Truth and method (WeinsheimerJ.MarshallD. G., Trans.). New York, NY: Crossword.
44.
GergenK. J. (1973). Social psychology as history. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 26, 309-320.
45.
GioiaD. A.SchultzM.CorleyK. G. (2000). Organizational identity, image, and adaptive instability. Academy of Management Review, 25, 63-81.
46.
GioiaD. A.ThomasJ. B. (1996). Identity, image, and issue interpretation: Sensemaking during strategic change in academia. Administrative Science Quarterly, 41, 370-403.
47.
GouldR. V. (2002). The origins of status hierarchies: A formal theory and empirical test. The American Journal of Sociology, 107, 1143-1179.
48.
GrayP.CooperW. (2010). Pursuing failure. Organizational Research Methods, 13, 620-643.
49.
GreenS. E. (2004). A rhetorical theory of diffusion. Academy of Management Review, 29, 653-669.
50.
GreenwoodR.HiningsC. R. (1988). Organizational design types, tracks and the dynamics of strategic change. Organization Studies, 9, 293-316.
51.
GreenwoodR.SuddabyR. (2006). Institutional entrepreneurship in mature fields: The big five accounting firms. Academy of Management Journal, 49, 27-48.
52.
HallB. H.JaffeA.TrajtenbergM. (2005). Market value and patent citations. The Rand Journal of Economics, 36, 16-38.
53.
HambrickD. C. (2007). The field of management’s devotion to theory: Too much of a good thing?Academy of Management Journal, 50, 1346-1352.
54.
HannanM. T. (1986). Competitive and institutional processes in organizational ecology (Technical Report No. 86-13). Ithaca, NY: Department of Sociology, Cornell University.
55.
HannanM. T.PolosL.CarrollG. R. (2003). The fog of change: Opacity and asperity in organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 48, 399-432.
56.
HarquailC. V. (2004). Corporate organizational identity: Integrating strategy, marketing, communication and organizational perspectives. Administrative Science Quarterly, 49, 141-145.
57.
HatchM. J.SchultzM. (1997). Relations between organizational culture, identity and image. European Journal of Marketing, 31, 356-365.
58.
HatchM. J.SchultzM. (2000). Scaling the Tower of Babel: Relational differences between identity, image, and culture in organizations. In SchultzM.HatchM. J.LarsenM. H. (Eds.), The expressive organization: Linking identity, reputation and the corporate brand (pp. 11-35). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
59.
HatchM. J.SchultzM. (2002). The dynamics of organizational identity. Human Relations, 55, 989-1018.
60.
HatchM. J.SchultzM. (2003). Bringing the corporation into corporate branding. European Journal of Marketing, 37, 1041-1064.
HicksonD. J.HiningsC. R.LeeC. A.SchneckR. E.PenningsJ. M. (1971). A strategic contingencies’ theory of intraorganizational power. Administrative Science Quarterly, 16, 216-229.
63.
HirschP. M.LevinD. Z. (1999). Umbrella advocates versus validity police: A life-cycle model. Organization Science, 10, 199-212.
64.
JadadA. R. (1998). Randomised controlled trials: A user’s guide. London, England: BMJ Books.
65.
JohnsonG.LangleyA.MelinL.WhittingtonR. (2007). Strategy as practice: Research directions and resources. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
66.
JonssonS.GreveH. R.Fujiwara-GreveT. (2009). Undeserved loss: The spread of legitimacy loss to innocent organizations in response to reported corporate deviance. Administrative Science Quarterly, 54, 195-228.
67.
JudgeT. A.CableD. M.ColbertA. E. (2007). What causes a management article to be cited—Article, author, or journal?Academy of Management Journal, 50, 491-506.
68.
KhandwallaP. (1977). The design of organizations. Jovanovich, NY: Harcourt Brace.
69.
KhessinaO.CarrollG. (2008). Product demography of de novo and de alio firms in the optical disk drive industry, 1983-1999. Organization Science, 19, 25-40.
70.
KuhnT. S. (1996). The structure of scientific revolutions (3rd ed.). Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
71.
KuranT. (1995). Private truths, public lies: The social consequences of preference falsification. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
72.
LanceC. E.VandenbergR. J. (2009). Introduction. In LanceC. E.VandenbergR. J. (Eds.), Statistical and methodological myths and urban legends: Doctrine, verity and fable in the organizational and social sciences (pp. 1-4). New York, NY: Routledge.
73.
LawrenceP. R.LorschJ. W. (1967). Organization and environment: Managing differentiation and integration. Boston, MA: Division of Research, Graduate School of Business Administration, Harvard University Press.
74.
LawrenceT. B. (1999). Institutional strategy. Journal of Management, 25, 161-187.
75.
LeavittK.MitchellT.PetersonJ. (2010). Theory pruning: Strategies to reduce our dense theoretical landscape. Organizational Research Methods, 13, 644-667.
76.
LepperM. K.GreeneD.NisbettR. (1973). Undermining children’s intrinsic interest with extrinsic reward: A test of the “overjustification” hypothesis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 28, 129-137.
77.
LonginoH. E. (2002). The fate of knowledge. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
78.
MaguireS.HardyC. (2009). Discourse and deinstitutionalization: The decline of DDT. Academy of Management Journal, 52, 148-178.
79.
MaguireS.HardyC.LawrenceT. B. (2004). Institutional entrepreneurship in emerging fields: HIV/AIDS treatment advocacy in Canada. Academy of Management Journal, 47, 657-679.
80.
MartinJ. (1981). A garbage can model of the psychological research process. American Behavioral Scientist, 25, 131-152.
81.
MastermanM. (1970). The nature of a paradigm. In LakatosI.MusgraveA. (Eds.), Criticism and the growth of knowledge (pp. 59-89). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
82.
McKelveyB. (1982). Organizational systematics: Taxonomy, evolution, classification. Berkeley: University of California Press.
83.
McKinleyW. (2010). Organizational theory development: Displacement of ends?Organization Studies, 31, 47-68.
84.
McKinleyW.MoneM. A.MoonG. (1999). Determinants and development of schools in organization theory. Academy of Management Review, 24, 634-648.
85.
MertonR. K. (1968). The Matthew effect in science. Science, 159, 56-63.
86.
MeyerM. W.ZuckerL. G. (1989). Permanently failing organizations. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
87.
MilgramS. S. (1974). Obedience to authority: An experimental view. New York, NY: Harper & Row.
88.
MillerD. (1981). Toward a new contingency approach: the search for organizational gestalts. Journal of Management Studies, 18, 1-26.
MillerD. (2009). The social ecology of research fads: A commentary on Starbuck’s “the constant causes of never-ending faddishness in the behavioral and social sciences.”Scandinavian Journal of Management, 25, 117-118.
91.
MillerD.DrogeC. (1986). Psychological and traditional determinants of structure. Administrative Science Quarterly, 31, 539-560.
OrrR. J.ScottW. R. (2008). Institutional exceptions on global projects: A process model. Journal of International Business Studies, 39, 562-588.
101.
PfefferJ. (1993). Barriers to the advance of organizational science: Paradigm development as a dependent variable. Academy of Management Review, 18, 599-620.
102.
PodsakoffP. M.MacKenzieS. B.PodsakoffN. P.BachrachD. G. (2008). Scholarly influence in the field of management: A bibliometric analysis of the determinants of university and author impact in the management literature in the past quarter century. Journal of Management, 34, 641-720.
103.
PorterM. E. (1980). Competitive strategy. New York, NY: Free Press.
104.
PorterM. E. (1985). Competitive advantage: Creating and sustaining superior performance. New York, NY: Free Press.
105.
PorterM. E. (1990). The competitive advantage of nations. New York, NY: Free Press.
106.
PritchardR.CampbellK.CampbellD. (1977). Effects of extrinsic financial rewards on intrinsic motivation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 62, 9-15.
107.
PughD. S.HicksonD. J.HiningsC. R.TurnerC. (1969). The context of organization structures. Administrative Science Quarterly, 14, 91-114.
108.
RodríguezM. J. P.BascoR. (2011). The cognitive legitimacy of the family business field. Family Business Review, 24, 322-342.
109.
RogersE. M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations (5th ed.). New York, NY: Free Press.
110.
RoyJ.-P.OliverC. (2009). International joint venture partner selection: The role of the host-country legal environment. Journal of International Business Studies, 40, 779-801.
111.
RynesS. L.GulikT. L.BrownK. G. (2007). The very separate worlds of academic and practitioner periodicals in human resource management: Implications for evidence-based management. Academy of Management Journal, 50, 987-1008.
112.
ShleiferA.VishnyR. W. (1997). A survey of corporate governance. Journal of Finance, 52, 737-783.
113.
SpreitzerG. M. (1995). Social structural characteristics of psychological empowerment. Academy of Management Journal, 39, 483-504.
114.
SpreitzerG. M.KizilosM. A.NasonS. W. (1997). A dimensional analysis of the relationship between psychological empowerment and effectiveness, satisfaction, and strain. Journal of Management, 23, 679-704.
115.
StarbuckW. H. (1981). A trip to view the elephants and rattlesnakes in the garden of Aston. Perspectives on Organization Design and Behavior, 167-198.
116.
StarbuckW. H. (1983). Organizations as action generators. American Sociological Review, 91-102.
117.
StarbuckW. H. (2009). The constant causes of never-ending faddishness in the behavioral and social sciences. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 25, 108-116.
118.
SuchmanM. C. (1995). Managing legitimacy: Strategic and institutional approaches. Academy of Management Review, 20, 571-610.
TolbertP. S.ZuckerL. G. (1983). Institutional sources of change in the formal structure of organizations: The diffusion of civil service reform, 1880-1935. Administrative Science Quarterly, 28, 22-39.
121.
TostL. P. (2011). An integrative model of legitimacy judgments. Academy of Management Review, 36, 686-710.
122.
VallerandR. J.ReidG. (1984). On the causal effects of perceived competence on intrinsic motivation: A test of cognitive evaluation theory. Journal of Sport Psychology, 6, 94-102.
123.
Van de VenA. H.FerryD. L. (Eds.). (1981). Measuring and assessing organizations. New York, NY: Wiley.
124.
Van RekomJ.CorleyK.RavasiD. (2008). Extending and advancing theories of organizational identity. Corporate Reputation Review, 11, 183-188.
125.
WalkerH. A.RogersL.ZelditchM. (1988). Legitimacy and collective action: A research note. Social Forces, 67, 216-228.
126.
WeberM. (1968). Economy and society: An outline of interpretive sociology. New York, NY: Bedminster Press.
127.
WhitleyR. (1984). The scientific status of management research as a practically-oriented social science. Journal of Management Studies, 21, 369-390.
128.
YoungR. C. (1988). Is population ecology a useful paradigm for the study of organizations?The American Journal of Sociology, 94, 1-23.
