AFTER MINIMALISM - TRANSFORMATIONS OF STATE BAR ASSOCIATIONS FROM MARKET DEPENDENCE TO STATE RELIANCE, 1918 TO 1950

Compared to conventional approaches, we conceptualize transformations in populations of organizations in terms of shifts in their relative e mbeddedness in markets and states. As organizations expand beyond mini malist conditions of existence, states and markets offer alternative s olutions to the core problems of persistence: obtaining resources, man aging competition, and constructing legitimacy. By analyzing the mover s and stayers in a population of state bar associations that split int o two co-existing forms of organization - one primarily reliant on the market and the other primarily dependent on the state - we demonstrat e that a two-stage transition to a new form can be explained by the co mplementary interplay of resource dependency and neo-institutional the ories. Organizations are more likely to move from reliance on the mark et to reliance on the state if (1) their market performance has been u nsuccessful, (2) states are willing and able to solve organizational p roblems, (3) organizations are younger and less established, and (4) c ompelling alternative models have been propagated by moral entrepreneu rs and adopted by influential states.