The essays in this book are examples of current scholarship on four aspects of organizaitonal failure: Organizational, Political, Cognitive, and Structural, written by twenty-four diverse academic authors.

PART ONE: INTRODUCTION Organizational Failures, Breakdowns and Bankruptcies - Helmut K Anheier and Lynne Moulton An Introduction PART TWO: ORGANIZATIONS AND FAILURE Costly Information - Lynne G Zucker and Michael R Darby Firm Transformation, Exit, or Persistent Failure Decision Overreach as a Reason for Failure - David Wilson, David J Hickson and Susan J Miller How Organisations Can Overbalance "Tales from the Grave" - Mark Hager et al Organizations′ Accounts of Their Own Demise Organizational Coping, Failure, and Success - Renate Mayntz Academies of Sciences in Central and Eastern Europe PART THREE: THE POLITICAL ECONOMY OF FAILURE AND BANKRUPTCY Successful Failure - Wolfgang Seibel An Alternative View of Organizational Coping Veiled Politics - Kevin J Delaney Bankruptcy as a Structured Organizational Field The Politics of Blame Avoidance - Mark Bovens et al Defensive Tactics in a Dutch Crime-Fighting Fiasco Creating the Agents of Corporate Rescue - Terence C Halliday and Bruce G Carruthers Professionalization of Insolvency PART FOUR: THE COGNITIVE CONSTRUCTION OF FAILURE Prosaic Organizational Failure - Lee Clarke and Charles Perrow Permanent Failure and the Failure of Organizational Performance - Marshall W Meyer PART FIVE: STRUCTURAL FAILURES Success and Failure in Institutional Development - Frank P Romo and Helmut K Anheier A Network Approach Stalemate - Helmut K Anheier and Frank P Romo A Structural Analysis of Organizational Failure PART SIX: CONCLUSION Studying Organizational Failures - Helmut K Anheier and Lynne Moulton