Resource Partitioning and the Limits to Growth of Organizational Populations

The research project involves the conceptualization, construction, and validation of a series of dynamic simulation models. The main objective of the model building activity is to define a virtual laboratory that can be used to reach a more complete understanding of the processes that regulate the dynamic of concentration and specialization in industries and organizational populations. The simulation model is grounded in the organizational theory of resource partitioning. In its most general form, the theory postulates a link between processes of market concentration and the proliferation of smaller specialist organizations that is frequently observed in mature industries.