ORGANIZATIONAL ECOLOGY: RELEVANCE AND IMPACT IN NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC PRODUCTION

Abstract

a) Purpose: The organizational ecological perspective (HANNAN; FREEMAN, 1977) has generated great excitement, controversy, and debate within the scientific community devoted to organizations and management theory (CLEMENTS; BAUM; CUMMING, 2016). This approach can add value by conducting a thorough analysis of environmental phenomena, especially in investigations involving future perspectives of the organization. Given this, the aim of the present study is to outline an overview of the scientific production on organizational ecology of national and international impact. b) Methodology: To this end, a bibliometric research was carried out through the Web of Science and Scopus database, whose final sample resulted in 856 articles from 1958 to 2020. c) Findings: The interests and focuses of research obtained relevant growth and emphasis of this theory for scientific knowledge. The production mapping showed a scenario largely related to economically developed countries. The articles of national origin still have low representativeness in comparison to the international level. It was shown that economically developed countries (United States, Canada, the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom) have greater interest in the subject and, consequently, greater contribution. d) Contributions: First, we connected the literature related to organizational ecology of national and international relevance. Second, we provide a quantitative view of the evolution of the theme since its emergence in the literature whose resulting indicators point to relevant institutions, scholars and journals that appear in the production of knowledge. Third, the potential of this theory is evidenced to support investigations in the face of the guidelines provided by the theory, allowing, in practice, organizational interventions as planned responses to environmental changes.