Corporate Elite Networks and Governance Changes in the 1980s
Abstract
Changes in corporate governance practices can be analyzed by linking the adaptations of individual firms to the structures of the networks in which firms' decision makers are embedded. Network structures determine the speed of adaptation and ultimate patterns of prevalence of governance practices by exposing a firm to particular role models and standards of appropriateness. The authors compare the spreads of two governance innovations adopted in response to the 1980s takeover wave: poison pills (which spread rapidly through a board‐to‐board diffusion process) and golden parachutes (which spread slowly through geographic proximity). The study closes with a discussion of networks as links between individual adaptation and collective structures.
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Innovations diffuse based not so much on evidence as on 'theorization'.
“We have arrived at this situation because, as institutionalists have been arguing, innovations diffuse based not so much on evidence as on 'theorization' (Davis and Greve, 1997;Johnson et al., 2006;Strang, 2010;Strang and Meyer. 1993).”
From Are Diversity Programs Merely Ceremonial? Evidence-Free Institutionalization (2017) · cites this paper as Davis and Greve, 1997
Cites
Managing Legitimacy: Strategic and Institutional Approaches
Suchman, M. C. (1995) · The Academy of Management Review · doi:10.2307/258788 · Cited by 19,903 · see citing works
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Effects of missing data in social networks
Kossinets, G. (2006) · Social Networks · doi:10.1016/j.socnet.2005.07.002 · Cited by 926 · see citing works
Briscoe, F., & Safford, S. (2008) · Administrative Science Quarterly · doi:10.2189/asqu.53.3.460 · Cited by 335 · see citing works
Platform diffusion at temporary gatherings: Social coordination and ecosystem emergence
Fang, T. P., Wu, A., & Clough, D. R. (2021) · Strategic Management Journal · doi:10.1002/smj.3230 · Cited by 85 · see citing works
Are Diversity Programs Merely Ceremonial? Evidence-Free Institutionalization
Dobbin, F., & Kalev, A. (2017) · The SAGE Handbook of Organizational Institutionalism · doi:10.4135/9781446280669.n32 · Cited by 56 · see citing works
- Authors
- Davis, G. F., & Greve, H. R.
- Affiliations
- Columbia University (US)
- University of Tsukuba (JP)
- Venue
- American Journal of Sociology
- Publisher
- University of Chicago Press
- Published
- 1997-07
- Volume
- 103
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 1-37
- ISSN
- 0002-9602 (ISSN-L)
- 1537-5390
- OpenAlex
- W2151062063
- Cited by
- 1,237
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 25 · 2024: 40 · 2023: 39 · 2022: 21 · 2021: 84 · 2020: 48 · 2019: 63 · 2018: 66 · 2017: 83 · 2016: 52 · 2015: 56 · 2014: 49 · 2013: 62 · 2012: 58
- FWCI
- 20.76
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- American Journal of Sociology (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management › Management and Organizational Studies
- Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Accounting › Corporate Finance and Governance
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Elite Sociology and Global Capitalism
- Keywords
- corporate governance, network structure, poison pills, golden parachutes, geographic proximity, corporate decision-makers, 1980s
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