ORGANIZATIONAL EVOLUTION IN A MULTINATIONAL CONTEXT - ENTRIES OF AUTOMOBILE MANUFACTURERS IN BELGIUM, BRITAIN, FRANCE, GERMANY, AND ITALY

We examine the entries of firms into the automobile manufacturing indu stry in Europe from 1886 through 1981. We replicate and compare estima tes of the basic model of density-dependent legitimation and competiti on for Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, and Italy, The predictions o f the model hold for each country. We also seek to clarify processes o f legitimation and competition by considering multiple levels of analy sis and links between countries. Our main hypothesis is that legitimat ion operates more broadly than competition. In particular, legitimatio n is driven by the density of all European automobile producers, while competition is determined by a country's own density of producers. Th is hypothesis is supported for the four continental countries bur not for Britain.