본 연구에서는 조직을 다른 조직들의 행동에 의해 영향을 받는 사회적 행위자로 간주하는 신제도이론적 관점에서 조직생태학의 이슈인 니치변화를 설명하고, 이를 한국 시스템통합 기업들의 신규 니치 탐색에 관한 자료를 이용하여 실증 분석한다. 즉 본 연구는 조직이 불확실성이 높은 의사결정을 할 때 주변 조직들의 선택에서 어떤 옵션이 정당성을 가지는가에 대한 인지를 하고 이에 따라 행동할 것이라는 신제도이론의 관점을 신규 니치 탐색행동의 설명에 적용하여, 조직이 새로운 니치를 탐색하는 의사결정을 내리는데 기존 니치에 속해 있는 다른 조직들의 행동이 영향을 미칠 것이라고 예측한다. 이런 관점에서 본 연구에서는 조직들이 기존 니치의 정당성이 심각하게 저하되었다고 인식할 때 새로운 니치를 탐색할 것이라고 전제하고, 기존 니치의 정당성 인식에 영향을 미치는 니치 내 다른 조직들의 행동의 영향력을 검증하는 연구모형을 제시한다. 구체적으로 기존 니치 내 가시성 이 높은 선도기업들의 존재는 그 니치의 정당성 인식에 긍정적 영향을 미치므로 결과적으로 새로운 니치에 대한 탐색을 줄이게 될 것이고, 반대로 다른 조직들이 기존 니치를 이탈하는 밴드웨곤(bandwagon) 행동은 그 니치의 정당성을 저하시켜 새로운 니치 탐색을 촉진시키게 될 것으로 예측한다. 또한 본 연구에서는 다른 조직들의 니치 이탈에 의한 기존 니치의 정당성 저하가 신규 니치 탐색에 미치는 영향력은 각 기업의 조직 특성에 따라 달라질 것이라고 보고, 조직 규모와 제휴여부라는 두 가지 변수의 조절효과를 검증하였다. 2000년부터 2005년까지 우리나라 시스템통합 기업들의 신규 니치 탐색활동에 대한 음이항 회귀분석을 실시한 결과, 본 연구에서 제시한 가설들이 모두 지지되었다.
Recently, The current paper examines the dynamics of niche changes in which firms explore new niches beyond existing ones from a neo-institutional perspective that views organizations as social actors. We empirically test our argument about new niche exploration with a panel data-set of all Korean systems integration firms, 2000~2005. Most existing studies on the exploration of a new niche in the literatures of organization theory and strategic management have focused on the characteristics of the target niche, such as profitability or expected growth rate. As a consequence, the main purpose of those existing studies was to predict which new niches firms would enter. Unlike those existing studies, the current paper is interested in explaining when a firm would enter new niches, rather than staying within its existing niches. In other words, we are primarily interested not in which new niches a firm enters, but in from which existing niches it explores out. We suggest that in order to explain the dynamics of niche changes by a firm, the characteristics of its existing niches, rather than those of new target niches, should be the central focus of inquiry. Although there have been many studies of organizational niches, niche changes at the organization level have received scant attention in the organizational ecology literature which has focused mainly on the effects of niche characteristics on founding or mortality rates. Organizational ecology assumes that organizations are unable to successfully implement radical organizational changes, since they are subject to forces of structural inertia. Furthermore, most existing studies in the organizational ecology literature have paid little attention to strategic actions at the individual organization level, since their main unit of analysis is organizational population. Also recent ecological studies regarding niche changes so far have focused mostly on examining consequences of niche changes, rather than antecedents. That is, although the niche of an organization is a consequence of dynamic strategic actions by the organization, the conditions and motivations that induce the organization to implement such strategic actions have received scant attention in the organizational ecology literature. In contrast, this study underlines the dynamic aspects of an organizational actor by relaxing the assumption of structural inertia and by focusing on antecedents of organization-level niche changes. Since the characteristics of a niche are influenced significantly by other firms operating in it, the explanation of a firm’s exploration out of the existing niche requires the ecological analysis of the interactions between the focal firm and other firms operating within its existing niche. Unlike most ecological studies that treat an organization as a passive and inertial actor which is selected out when the environmental conditions of its existing niches worsen, we view an organization as a strategic and flexible actor which proactively explores new niches beyond the boundary of its existing niches, rather than passively staying to get disbanded in the worsened niches. Thus, this study aims to figure out whether, when, and how the characteristics of existing niches affect the exploration of new niches by firms. Since radical organizational change, such as niche change, incurs serious risks, if the carrying capacity of their existing niches is large enough to support the continued growth of organizations, firms would pursue growth within the boundaries of existing niches, rather than exploring out of them. Therefore, based on the assumption that a firm will explore new niches when its existing niches are expected to be deteriorating, we predict that the exploration of new niches by a firm will be influenced significantly by the perceived legitimacy of its existing niches. While the concept of legitimacy has been invoked usually to explain the institutionalization of organizational forms or practices in the existing neo-institutional theory literature, the current study applies it to the explanation of organizational niche which is the central concept of organizational ecology. That is, we explain the ecological issue of niche change by the neo-institutional concept of legitimacy. According to neo-institutional theory, an organizational choice is affected by the perceived legitimacy of an action which in turn is significantly influenced by other organizations’ choices. It is suggested in the neo-institutional theory literature that the effect of other organizations’ choices on the focal organization’s perception of legitimacy is especially strong when there is a high level of uncertainty. We apply the legitimacy argument of neo-institutional theory to the explanation of niche change. We argue that a firm’s entry into and exit from a particular niche are affected strongly by its perception of that particular niche’s legitimacy. In this respect, we predict that the exploration of new niches by the focal firm will be affected by the perceived legitimacy of its existing niches which in turn are significantly influenced by other firms’ choices within the existing niches. Among variables that may affect the perceived legitimacy of an existing niche, we focus on the presence of leading firms in the niche and the bandwagon-type exits of other firms from the niche. According to the results of our longitudinal analysis of all Korean systems integration firms over the six-year period from 2000 until 2005, our arguments were strongly supported. The findings of our study suggest that the perceived legitimacy of the focal firm’s existing niches measured by the presence of leading firms has a negative relationship, and its perceived illegitimacy measured by bandwagon-type exits has a positive relationship with the subsequent exploration of new niches by the focal firm. Moreover, the current study also found that the abundance of organizational resources, indicated by firm size and strategic alliances, reduces the effects of legitimacy-decreasing signal on the subsequent exploration of new niches.
