Studying differences between organizations : comparative approaches to organizational research / edited by Brayden G. King, Teppo Felin, David A. Whetten.

Includes bibliographical references.

Print version record.

Front cover; Studying Differences between Organizations: Comparative Approaches to Organizational Research; Copyright page; Contents; List of contributors; Part I. Conceptualizing Comparative Organizational Analysis; Comparative organizational analysis: An introduction; Comparative organizational analysis and its demise; The value of a comparative approach; About this volume; Going forward; References; Chapter 1. Lost in space, out of time: Why and how we should study organizations comparatively; The original critique of McKelvey and Aldrich; Conclusion; Acknowledgments; References.

Chapter 2. Comparing organizations: Empirical and theoretical issuesChanges in the empirical world of organizations; Changes in theoretical lenses; Implications for comparative organization research; Note; Acknowledgments; References; Chapter 3. Organizational comparative analysis: Investigating similaritIES AND DIFFERENCES among organizations; The intellectual roots of comparative analysis; The organization as both a level of analysis and a collective social actor; Conclusion; Acknowledgment; References; Part II. Applying Comparative Organizational Analysis.

Chapter 4. Comparative organizational analysis across multiple levels: a set-theoretic approachMultilevel versus comparative research on organizations; Rethinking comparative multilevel research; Concluding thoughts and a look ahead; Note; References; Chapter 5. The comparative analysis of organizational forms: Considering field and ecological approaches; 1. Introduction: Comparison goes underground; 2. Fields and worlds as the basic unit of analysis; 3. Field theory versus ecological account of form-segregation; 4. Audiences and oppositional standards of evaluation.

5. Producers, appeal, and consumer dynamicsConclusion; Notes; References; Chapter 6. Negotiating actor-environment relations: A framework for comparative research; 1. Introduction; 2. The move toward the middle ground; 3. Negotiating context: A comparative framework to expand the middle ground; 4. Implications for comparative research; 5. Conclusion; Notes; References; Chapter 7. Differentiating organizational boundaries; Introduction; Creating organizations; Differentiating organizations; Comparative methods; Findings; Discussion; Notes; Acknowledgment; References.

Chapter 8. Technology, structure, and heterogeneity among American antiwar organizationsIntroduction; Political environment and historical era as contingency factors; Organizations and the big time; Path dependency and selective technological change; The context: Movement organizations, structures, and technologies; The case of the antiwar movement; Data; Historical era and national environment; National environment, internal structure, and technical configuration; Adoption of new technology; Discussion; Concluding remarks; Acknowledgments; References.

This volume is motivated by key questions and challenges associated with reviving and developing a comparative perspective. One organizing theme of the volume is to present comparative analysis as a means to explain and describe organizational heterogeneity, at varying levels and contexts. While much empirical work looks for the sources of homogeneity within fields, industries, etc., we believe that one advantage of doing comparative analysis is to make assessments of the observed differences between organizations. Thus, we have asked all of the authors to consider how their style of comparati.

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