Hi Jonny,

I’m guessing that you already know about the seminal Hannan and Freeman article (“The Population Ecology of Organizations”) published in the American Journal of Sociology decades ago – if you don’t, look here: https://www2.bc.edu/candace-jones/mb851/Apr9/HannanFreeman_AJS_1977.pdf. I’m pretty sure a whole school of thought grew up around this in the sociology of organizations. I bet if you find the literature that this article spawned, there will be a lot there to mull over.

Cheers,
Nancy Latham