DENSITY DEPENDENCE IN THE ORGANIZATIONAL EVOLUTION OF THE AMERICAN BREWING INDUSTRY ACROSS DIFFERENT LEVELS OF ANALYSIS

Using life-history data on all U.S. breweries known to ever operate from 1800 to 1988, we investigate Hannan's (1986) theory of density-dependent organizational evolution. Models of both founding and mortality rates are estimated, using specifications of organizational density at the regional, state, and city levels. Although the findings generally support the theory at the regional and state levels, we do not find the predicted relationships at the city level of analysis. We do, however, identify a hierarchically interdependent relationship between urban and rural breweries, which suggests that these two organizational populations cohere to form an ecological community. © 1991.