ORGANIZATIONAL NICHES AND THE DYNAMICS OF ORGANIZATIONAL MORTALITY

Departing from the population-level emphasis of density dependence res earch in organizational ecology, the authors examine how organizationa l niches within populations influence patterns of competition and muta lism. Organizational niches characterize intrapopulation variation in productive capacities and resource requirements and are operationalize d for a population of day care centers (DCCs) based on the ages of chi ldren they are licensed to enroll. The authors find competitive effect s of overlap density, the aggregate overlap of a DCC's organizational niche with those of all others, and mutualistic effects of nonoverlap density, the aggregate nonoverlap, which are strongest among neighbori ng DCCs. The authors discuss the implications of their findings for st udying organizational population dynamics.