The Collective Strategy Framework: An Application to Competing Predictions of Isomorphism

Abstract

The author gratefully acknowledges the comments of Hugh Arnold, Martin Evans, Bob House, Marshall Meyer, and Jitendra Singh. The author also wishes to express her appreciation to Agnes Meinhard and David Tucker for their support in using the data contained in this study and to the ASO editors and anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments. This paper investigates empirically the competing predictions of three perspectives on the determinants of organizational isomorphism-population ecology, institutionalization, and strategic choice-through a collective strategy framework, which categorizes organizations in an interorganizational field by their relationships with one another. The methodological approach, based on a network analysis of multiple organizational relations in a population of voluntary social service organizations, operationalizes the collective strategy typology and links homogeneity among organizations to their location in the organizational field. The results of the investigation offer strongest support for a strategic choice perspective and suggest that the environment is not highly deterministic in shaping organizational characteristics.'