Variations in Organization Science

Bill McKelvey received his Ph.D. from MIT in 1967 and is currently Professor of Strategic Organizing and Complexity Science at the UCLA. His book, Organizational Systematics (1982) remains the definitive treatment of organizational evolution and taxonomy. In 1997 he became Director of the Center for Rescuing Strategy and Organization Science (SOS). He was a founder of UCLA's Center for Human Complex Systems & Computational Social Science. Recently McKelvey co-edited Variations in Organization Science (1999) and a special issue of the journal, Emergence. Forthcoming book is: Complexity Dynamics in Organizations: Applications of Order-Creation Science (Cambridge University Press).

Foreword - Barbara Frankel Campbell Donald T Campbell's Evolving Influence on Organization Science - Bill McKelvey and Joel A C Baum PART ONE: BLIND-VARIATION-SELECTION-AND-RETENTION The Accidental Entrepreneur - Howard E Aldrich and Amy L Kenworthy Campbellian Antinomies and Organizational Foundings Interorganizational Imitation - Anne S Miner and Sri V Raghavan A Hidden Engine of Selection Types of Variation in Organizational Populations - Hayagreeva Rao and Jitendra V Singh The Speciation of New Organizational Forms Blind (but not Unconditioned) Variation - Elaine Romanelli Problems of Copying in Sociocultural Evolution Selection Processes inside Organizations - Danny Miller The Self-Reinforcing Consequences of Success PART TWO: MULTILEVEL COEVOLUTION Whole-Part Coevolutionary Competition in Organizations - Joel A C Baum Venture Capital Dynamics and the Creation of Variation through Entrepreneurship - Philip Anderson Suborganizational Evolution in the US Pharmaceutical Industry - Paul Ingram and Peter W Roberts On the Complexity of Technological Evolution - Lori Rosenkopf and Atul Nerkar Exploring Coevolution Within and Across Hierarchical Levels in Optical Disc Technology Evolution in a Nested Hierarchy - Andrew H Van de Ven and David N Grazman A Geneology of Twin Cities Health Care Organizations 1853-1995 PART THREE: PROCESS LEVEL ANALYSIS AND MODELING Static and Dynamic Variation and Firm Outcomes - Tammy L Madsen, Elaine Mosakowski and Srilata Zaheer Organizations as Networks of Actions - Brian T Pentland Evolutionary Models of Local Interaction - Alessandro Lomi and Erik R Larsen A Computational Perspective Self-Organization, Complexity Catastrophe and Microstate Models at the Edge of Chaos - Bill McKelvey PART FOUR: METHODOLOGY AND EPISTEMOLOGY Donald T Campbell's Methodological Contributions to Organization Science - Martin G Evans What Can Management Researchers Learn from Donald T Campbell, the Philosopher? An Exercise in Hermeneutics - Margaretha Hendrickx Toward a Campbellian Realist Organization Science - Bill McKelvey