Organizations Evolving

Howard E. Aldrich received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and is Kenan Professor of Sociology, Chair of the Sociology Department, Adjunct Professor of Business at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and Faculty Research Associate at the Department of Strategy & Entrepreneurship, Fuqua School of Business, Duke University.  His book, Organizations Evolving (Sage, 1999), won the George Terry Award from the Academy of Management and was co-winner of the Max Weber Award from the OOW section of the American Sociological Association.  In 2000, he won the Swedish Foundation on Small Business Award for his research on entrepreneurship.  In 2002, he won the J. Carlyle Sitterson Award for Excellent in Freshman Teaching at UNC-CH.  In 2011, the graduate students in sociology at UNC-CH gave him their "Best Instructor" award. His most recent book is An Evolutionary Approach to Entrepreneurship: Selected Essays (Elgar, 2012). While formal organizations (and the institutions that support them) are key features of the contemporary social landscape, sociologists have only recently developed empirical descriptions of the processes that lead to their emergence. My research considers the social context of entrepreneurship from both a contemporary and historical perspective. Large-scale surveys of entrepreneurs in the United States permit me to explore team formation, innovation, exchange processes, and boundary maintenance in nascent startups. My historical analyses address entrepreneurial activity leading to the founding of U.S. medical schools since the 18th century and the organizational transformation of Southern agriculture and industry in the post-bellum period.

• Introduction and ThemesThe Evolutionary ApproachHow the Evolutionary Approach Relates to Other ApproachesEntrepreneurs and the Emergence of New OrganizationsOrganizational BoundariesOrganizational FormsOrganizational TransformationOrganizations and Social ChangeEmergence of New Populations of OrganizationsReproducing PopulationsFoundings and DisbandingsCommunity Evolution

This is an excellent book that provides a conceptual framework for organizational theory. It includes study questions and excercises at the end of the chapters, so it could well assist a course on organizational theory.