SUCCESS AND FAILURE IN INSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT - A NETWORK APPROACH

This article employs a network approach to analyze two competing persp ectives on success and failure patterns in organizational development: Michels's oligarchy thesis, which predicts that successful organizati ons are characterized by an elite that dominates marginal members, and Olson's free rider thesis, which posits that success depends on the e xtent to which marginal participants can benefit from public goods pro vided by a small group of highly active members. Using blockmodel anal ysis, we explore both perspectives in the context of interorganization al networks among private development organizations in Africa and exam ine underlying motivations of participation, In an effort to understan d contextual effects, we add qualitative observations of both networks . Although overall our results support Michels's oligarchy thesis, we find that contextual factors and path dependencies can override intero rganizational dynamics that would otherwise lead to either success or failure. Thus our results support key aspects of neoinstitutionalism i n organizational studies.