This study aims to broaden the general understanding of change in organizational populations by examining the dynamics of numbers of organizations in populations. The authors examine labour unions, newspapers, publishing, brewing firms, life insurance companies and banks.

1: Introduction 2: Theoretical Approach 3: Models and Modeling Strategy 4: Density and Founding Rates 5: Interactions Between Subpopulations 6: Density and Organizational Mortality 7: Complications 8: Population Trajectories 9: Implications for Social Organization Appendix A: Designs of Empirical Studies Appendix B: Methods of Analysis Appendix C: Simulation Program

"What makes the book impressive is the systematic and comparative study of long-term histories of organizational populations in term of counts."--Organization Studies "This is a provocative, sometimes delicious, and sometimes puzzling book....It is a lively book that describes a body of sustained empirical work, raises important methodological questions, and, undoubtedly, will stimulate further research."--Academy of Management Review "Hannan and Carroll have written a first-rate piece of work. Their book should be required reading not only for organizational sociologists, but also for those interested more generally in the dynamics of social change."--Contemporary Sociology "Quite an interesting and ambitious project and a valuable contribution to the literature on the social ecology of organizations."--Choice "What makes the book impressive is the systematic and comparative study of long-term histories of organizational populations in term of counts."--Organization Studies "This is a provocative, sometimes delicious, and sometimes puzzling book....It is a lively book that describes a body of sustained empirical work, raises important methodological questions, and, undoubtedly, will stimulate further research."--Academy of Management Review "Hannan and Carroll have written a first-rate piece of work. Their book should be required reading not only for organizational sociologists, but also for those interested more generally in the dynamics of social change."--Contemporary Sociology "Quite an interesting and ambitious project and a valuable contribution to the literature on the social ecology of organizations."--Choice