The Interorganizational Network as a Resource: A Comparative Case Study on Organizational Genesis

Abstract

We are grateful to Janet Abu-Lughod, Howard Becker, John Kretzmann, Janice Weiss, Gerald Salancik, and anonymous ASQ reviewers for their comments on various drafts and sections of this article. Based on a comparative case study analysis, this paper suggests how preexisting organizations within an environment constitute resources for the genesis of new, similar organizations and how this process may expand the level of resources available from the wider environment, while the absence of similar organizations may hinder organizational genesis. As a result of the three central processes of resource exchange, legitimation, and domain definition, the emergence of new organizations can be facilitated rather than hindered by the presence of a greater number of preexisting similar organizations in the organizational field. The article raises significant questions about the conceptualization of resources and environments and contributes to the specification of the liability of newness hypothesis.,