Organizational decline: A yet largely neglected topic in organizational studies

Fernando Serra (), Martinho Ribeiro Almeida () and Manuel Ferreira ()
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Martinho Ribeiro Almeida: Universidade de São Paulo

No 88, Working Papers from globADVANTAGE, Polytechnic Institute of Leiria

Abstract: Well known and reputable corporations, not only the small entrepreneurial firms, also face organizational decline and failure. Albeit organizational decline is a reality, there is a notable scarcity of research on the topic. Organizational decline is more often studied in small companies and attributed to the liability of newness and a lack of a variety of physical, technological, financial and social resources. In this review paper we examine the extant research on organizational decline. Empirically, we conduct a bibliometric study involving citations and co-citations analyses to uncover the connections between authors and theories used. We conclude that evolutionary theories support a considerable number of works, namely on the effects of inertia, isomorphism and adaptation. Sociological approaches have examined the adjustment of the internal structures and actions to enhance positioning. Other research on decline has taken a learning and decision making perspective or focused on turnaround strategies. Noteworthy is also the scarcity of research using a resource-based view (RBV), perhaps because the emergence of the RBV in the 1990s coincided with strategy scholars? decreased interest on organizational decline. Notwithstanding, organizational decline is still one of the core areas of research for organizational ecologists.

Keywords: bibliometric study; organizational decline; turnaround; organizational failure (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M0 M1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012-02-07
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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