LIFE AND DEATH ALONG GASOLINE ALLEY: DARWINIAN AND LAMARCKIAN PROCESSES IN A DIFFERENTIATING POPULATION.

Abstract

Despite the topic's centrality to theorizing in organizational ecology, no study has examined in detail how founding, failure, and transformation events combine over time to achieve population-level change. We examined Darwinian and Lamarckian processes of population reconfiguration within the gasoline retail industry at two nested levels of analysis, studying both individual outlets and parent companies. Our findings demonstrate how Darwinian processes at the unit (outlet) level may lead to Lamarckian adaptations at the organization (company) level through purposive replication of successful forms.