Industrial Organization and Organizational Ecology: The Potentials for Cross-fertilization

The population of organization studies that has become known under such names as population ecology and organizational ecology (OE), is entering the stage of maturity. It is argued here that this branch of organization studies can increase the carrying capacity of its niche by seeking cross-fertilization with the century-old field of industrial organization and the economically inspired sub-field of strategic management. Doing so would enrich the study of the long-run evolution of organizational populations by adding a focus on differ ences between and within industries to OE's emphasis on universal similarities. The argument is illustrated by investigating the long-run development of the German and U.S. brewing industries on the one hand and the Dutch audit industry on the other.