This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Carroll, G. R. Articles by Wiedenmayer, G. Search for Related Content Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Brewery and Brauerei: The Organizational Ecology of Brewing

Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley, U.S.A.

Peter Preisendoerfer

Institute of Sociology, University of Munich, Germany

Anand Swaminathan

Haas School of Business, University of California at Berkeley, U.S.A.

Gabriele Wiedenmayer

Institute of Sociology, University of Munich, Germany

Germans and Americans differ in their beer drinking habits and customs. The organizational structures of their brewing industries also differ: Germany is notable for the highly fragmented nature of its industry, which contains many more breweries than the larger American industry. Yet the historical evolution of the two brewing industries is remarkably similar. In both Germany and the U.S., the number of breweries grew slowly for a long period, then expanded rapidly in the late 19th century, and finally declined severely for almost a century. Intrigued by this common pattern, we attempt to explain long-term organizational change in the two industries using the ecological perspective on organizations. We focus on the organizational ecology model of density-dependent legitimation and com petition. Our tests use life history data on all breweries known to have operated in the U.S. and Germany during the period 1861 to 1988. We estimate and report specific tests of the density model using stochastic rates of organizational founding and mortality. The findings are generally supportive of the model and suggest that the organizational evolution of both the German and American brewing industries was density dependent.

Organization Studies, Vol. 14, No. 2, 155-188 (1993)
DOI: 10.1177/017084069301400201


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?

This article has been cited by other articles:

				C. Boone and A. van Witteloostuijn Industrial Organization and Organizational Ecology: The Potentials for Cross-fertilization Organization Studies, January 1, 1995; 16(2): 265 - 298. [Abstract] [PDF]