Gerald F Davis
Biographic Data
| ID | 252224 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Gerald F Davis |
| GIVEN NAMES | Gerald F |
| FAMILY NAME | Davis |
| SIGNATURE | DAVIS G F |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Michigan |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4846-8174 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 28 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 536 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 27 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1979 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 6 |
Resisting the Algorithmic Management of Science
This essay in honor of ASQ's 70th volume surveys how technology-driven changes in scholarly publishing have introduced algorithmic management to organizational research. The internet greatly reduced the cost of publishing journals and prompted an orders-of-magnitude increase in the number of journals and articles while also foregrounding quantitative metrics for scholarship. Given the academic incentive system of publish or perish, the new online…
Taming Corporate Power in the 21st Century
There is broad consensus across the political spectrum in the US that monopolistic corporations – particularly Big Tech companies -- have grown too powerful, and that we need to revive antitrust to take on the 'curse of bigness.' But both the diagnosis and the cure are rooted in an outdated understanding of how the American economy is organized. Information and communication technologies have fundamentally altered the markets for capital, labor, …
Can We Still Re-encapsulate Capitalism
Taming Platform Capitalism to Meet Human Needs
We are witnessing the emergence of an information and communication technology (ICT)-enabled platform capitalism in which traditional corporations are being displaced. Railing against traditional firms to rescue capitalism would, under these circumstances, seem like misdirected effort. The “working anarchies” (e.g. Uber, Wikipedia) and “pop-up firms” (e.g. Vizio) of this new world use “labor on demand.” Here too there is risk that platform owners…
How Institutions Create Income Inequality
Can an Economy Survive Without Corporations? Technology and Robust Organizational Alternatives
Shareholder-owned corporations were dominant for much of the 20th century in the United States, yet their numbers are substantially declining in the 21st. This article argues that we are observing a regime shift in the transaction costs of organizing that disfavors traditional corporations. Accompanying this shift is the emergence of low-cost, small-scale production technologies that will allow locally based universal fabrication facilities. In c…
Who Killed the Inner Circle? The Decline of the American Corporate Interlock Network
U.S. corporations have shared members of their boards of directors since the early 1900s, creating a dense interlock network in which nearly every major corporation was connected through short paths and elevating a handful of well-connected directors to an influential “inner circle.” This network remained highly connected throughout the 20th century, serving as a mechanism for the rapid diffusion of information and practices and promoting elite c…
Financialization of the US Economy
“Financialization” describes the increasing centrality of finance and financial considerations to the workings of the economy. This essay reviews the evidence that (i) creating shareholder value became a predominant concern for corporations since 1980, particularly in the United States, and (ii) the financial sector gained increasing prominence and power in the economy, with a number of consequences for the operations of corporations and the orga…
Stability and Change in Corporate Governance
Corporate governance describes the process that allocates power and resources within organizations and the societal institutions that shape how they look, how they make decisions, and how the proceeds from their activities are divided. Research and theory traditionally focused on the institutions that overcome the separation of ownership and control created by dispersed shareholdings. Critics noted that this problem was distinctively American, an…
Stockholders' Ownership and Control
Organization
Organizations and Organizing
This broad, balanced introduction to organizational studies enables the reader to compare and contrast different approaches to the study of organizations. This book is a valuable tool for the reader, as we are all intertwined with organizations in one form or another. Numerous other disciplines besides sociology are addressed in this book, including economics, political science, strategy and management theory. Topic areas discussed in this book a…
Financialization of the Economy
Financialization refers to the increasing importance of finance, financial markets, and financial institutions to the workings of the economy. This article reviews evidence on the causes and consequences of financialization in the United States and around the world, with particular attention to the spread of financial markets. Researchers have focused on two broad themes at the level of corporations and broader societies. First, an orientation to…
After the Corporation
Shareholder-owned corporations were the central pillars of the US economy in the twentieth century. Due to the success of the shareholder value movement and the widespread 'Nikefication' of production, however, public corporations have become less concentrated, less integrated, less interconnected at the top, shorter-lived, and less prevalent since the turn of the twenty-first century, and there is reason to expect that their significance will co…
Chapter 2 Resource dependence theory
This chapter reviews the origins and primary arguments of resource dependence theory and traces its influence on the subsequent literatures in multiple social science and professional disciplines, contrasting it with Emerson's power-dependence theory. Recent years have seen an upsurge in the theory's citations in the literature, which we attribute in part to Stanford's position of power in the network of academic exchange. We conclude with a revi…
Job design meets organizational sociology
The world of work has seen a vast transformation in the three decades since Hackman and Oldham published their foundational research on work redesign. At the broadest level, the US has nearly completed the transition from a manufacturing to a service economy foretold by Daniel By 2010, perhaps as little as 10 per cent of the American workforce will be employed in agriculture and manufacturing-growing food and making things. During the years of th…
Sociological Classics and the Canon in the Study of Organizations
This article states that a distinctive feature of many parts of sociology, including organizational sociology, is their impulse towards classicism, and their evident variations of the ancestors. The article summarizes the analysis that has been offered in this book. It concentrates on the influence of classic authors and asks questions about the contexts within which the classical texts came about and how such texts became known as ‘classics’. It…
Spatial and Social Networks in Organizational Innovation
Research on the enabling factors of innovation has focused on either the social component of organizations or on the spatial dimensions involved in the innovation process. But no one has examined the aggregate consequences of the link from spatial layout, to social networks, to innovation. This project enriches our understanding of how innovation works especially in highly innovative organizations by exploring the social dimensions of innovation …
Community isomorphism and corporate social action
We present a model of how institutional pressures at the community level shape corporate social action—behaviors and practices that extend beyond immediate profit maximization goals and are intended to increase social benefits or mitigate social problems for constituencies external to the firm—within the metropolitan area where firms are headquartered. We propose that community isomorphism influences the nature and level of corporate social actio…
Social Movements and Organization Theory
Although the fields of organization theory and social movement theory have long been viewed as belonging to different worlds, recent events have intervened, reminding us that organizations are becoming more movement-like - more volatile and politicized - while movements are more likely to borrow strategies from organizations. Organization theory and social movement theory are two of the most vibrant areas within the social sciences. This collecti…
New Directions in Corporate Governance
Corporate governance describes the structures, processes, and institutions within and around organizations that allocate power and resource control among participants. Law and economics scholars have developed a view of the public corporation as a nexus-of-contracts whose structure is driven by the requirements of financial markets, and thus features of the corporation and its surrounding institutions are theorized in terms of their function in d…
The Small World of the American Corporate Elite, 1982-2001
This paper examines the degree of stability in the structure of the corporate elite network in the US during the 1980s and 1990s. Several studies have documented that board-to-board ties serve as a mechanism for the diffusion of corporate practices, strategies, and structures; thus, the overall structure of the network can shape the nature and rate of aggregate corporate change. But upheavals in the nature of corporate governance and nearly compl…
Corporate Elite Networks and Governance Changes in the 1980s
Changes in corporate governance practices can be analyzed by linking the adaptations of individual firms to the structures of the networks in which firms' decision makers are embedded. Network structures determine the speed of adaptation and ultimate patterns of prevalence of governance practices by exposing a firm to particular role models and standards of appropriateness. The authors compare the spreads of two governance innovations adopted in …
Executive Defense
The Decline and Fall of the Conglomerate Firm in the 1980s
The Decline and Fall of the Conglomerate Firm in the 1980s
Financialization of the Economy
Financialization refers to the increasing importance of finance, financial markets, and financial institutions to the workings of the economy. This article reviews evidence on the causes and consequences of financialization in the United States and around the world, with particular attention to the spread of financial markets. Researchers have focused on two broad themes at the level of corporations and broader societies. First, an orientation to…
Corporate Elite Networks and Governance Changes in the 1980s
Changes in corporate governance practices can be analyzed by linking the adaptations of individual firms to the structures of the networks in which firms' decision makers are embedded. Network structures determine the speed of adaptation and ultimate patterns of prevalence of governance practices by exposing a firm to particular role models and standards of appropriateness. The authors compare the spreads of two governance innovations adopted in …
Who Killed the Inner Circle? The Decline of the American Corporate Interlock Network
U.S. corporations have shared members of their boards of directors since the early 1900s, creating a dense interlock network in which nearly every major corporation was connected through short paths and elevating a handful of well-connected directors to an influential “inner circle.” This network remained highly connected throughout the 20th century, serving as a mechanism for the rapid diffusion of information and practices and promoting elite c…
New Directions in Corporate Governance
Corporate governance describes the structures, processes, and institutions within and around organizations that allocate power and resource control among participants. Law and economics scholars have developed a view of the public corporation as a nexus-of-contracts whose structure is driven by the requirements of financial markets, and thus features of the corporation and its surrounding institutions are theorized in terms of their function in d…
After the Corporation
Shareholder-owned corporations were the central pillars of the US economy in the twentieth century. Due to the success of the shareholder value movement and the widespread 'Nikefication' of production, however, public corporations have become less concentrated, less integrated, less interconnected at the top, shorter-lived, and less prevalent since the turn of the twenty-first century, and there is reason to expect that their significance will co…
Job design meets organizational sociology
The world of work has seen a vast transformation in the three decades since Hackman and Oldham published their foundational research on work redesign. At the broadest level, the US has nearly completed the transition from a manufacturing to a service economy foretold by Daniel By 2010, perhaps as little as 10 per cent of the American workforce will be employed in agriculture and manufacturing-growing food and making things. During the years of th…
Die amerikanische Stabilitatspolitik seit 1946
How much is enough? Psychological components of "guns versus butter" decisions in a security dilemma
The present research investigates the role of cognitive processes in decisions regarding how much to spend on security in a laboratory simulation of an international security dilemma. Implications of these results for understanding real-world defense spending are discussed
The Economic Structure of Corporate Law
The corporate contract limited liability voting the fiduciary principle the business judgment rule, and the derivative suit corporate control transactions the appraisal remedy tender offers the incorporation debate and state antitakeover statutes close corporations trading on inside information mandatory disclosure optimal damages
Executive Defense
The Decline and Fall of the Conglomerate Firm in the 1980s
Corporate Elite Networks and Governance Changes in the 1980s
Changes in corporate governance practices can be analyzed by linking the adaptations of individual firms to the structures of the networks in which firms' decision makers are embedded. Network structures determine the speed of adaptation and ultimate patterns of prevalence of governance practices by exposing a firm to particular role models and standards of appropriateness. The authors compare the spreads of two governance innovations adopted in …
The Small World of the American Corporate Elite, 1982-2001
This paper examines the degree of stability in the structure of the corporate elite network in the US during the 1980s and 1990s. Several studies have documented that board-to-board ties serve as a mechanism for the diffusion of corporate practices, strategies, and structures; thus, the overall structure of the network can shape the nature and rate of aggregate corporate change. But upheavals in the nature of corporate governance and nearly compl…
Social Movements and Organization Theory
Although the fields of organization theory and social movement theory have long been viewed as belonging to different worlds, recent events have intervened, reminding us that organizations are becoming more movement-like - more volatile and politicized - while movements are more likely to borrow strategies from organizations. Organization theory and social movement theory are two of the most vibrant areas within the social sciences. This collecti…
New Directions in Corporate Governance
Corporate governance describes the structures, processes, and institutions within and around organizations that allocate power and resource control among participants. Law and economics scholars have developed a view of the public corporation as a nexus-of-contracts whose structure is driven by the requirements of financial markets, and thus features of the corporation and its surrounding institutions are theorized in terms of their function in d…
Community isomorphism and corporate social action
We present a model of how institutional pressures at the community level shape corporate social action—behaviors and practices that extend beyond immediate profit maximization goals and are intended to increase social benefits or mitigate social problems for constituencies external to the firm—within the metropolitan area where firms are headquartered. We propose that community isomorphism influences the nature and level of corporate social actio…
Sociological Classics and the Canon in the Study of Organizations
This article states that a distinctive feature of many parts of sociology, including organizational sociology, is their impulse towards classicism, and their evident variations of the ancestors. The article summarizes the analysis that has been offered in this book. It concentrates on the influence of classic authors and asks questions about the contexts within which the classical texts came about and how such texts became known as ‘classics’. It…
Spatial and Social Networks in Organizational Innovation
Research on the enabling factors of innovation has focused on either the social component of organizations or on the spatial dimensions involved in the innovation process. But no one has examined the aggregate consequences of the link from spatial layout, to social networks, to innovation. This project enriches our understanding of how innovation works especially in highly innovative organizations by exploring the social dimensions of innovation …
Chapter 2 Resource dependence theory
This chapter reviews the origins and primary arguments of resource dependence theory and traces its influence on the subsequent literatures in multiple social science and professional disciplines, contrasting it with Emerson's power-dependence theory. Recent years have seen an upsurge in the theory's citations in the literature, which we attribute in part to Stanford's position of power in the network of academic exchange. We conclude with a revi…
Job design meets organizational sociology
The world of work has seen a vast transformation in the three decades since Hackman and Oldham published their foundational research on work redesign. At the broadest level, the US has nearly completed the transition from a manufacturing to a service economy foretold by Daniel By 2010, perhaps as little as 10 per cent of the American workforce will be employed in agriculture and manufacturing-growing food and making things. During the years of th…
After the Corporation
Shareholder-owned corporations were the central pillars of the US economy in the twentieth century. Due to the success of the shareholder value movement and the widespread 'Nikefication' of production, however, public corporations have become less concentrated, less integrated, less interconnected at the top, shorter-lived, and less prevalent since the turn of the twenty-first century, and there is reason to expect that their significance will co…
Financialization of the US Economy
“Financialization” describes the increasing centrality of finance and financial considerations to the workings of the economy. This essay reviews the evidence that (i) creating shareholder value became a predominant concern for corporations since 1980, particularly in the United States, and (ii) the financial sector gained increasing prominence and power in the economy, with a number of consequences for the operations of corporations and the orga…
Stability and Change in Corporate Governance
Corporate governance describes the process that allocates power and resources within organizations and the societal institutions that shape how they look, how they make decisions, and how the proceeds from their activities are divided. Research and theory traditionally focused on the institutions that overcome the separation of ownership and control created by dispersed shareholdings. Critics noted that this problem was distinctively American, an…
Stockholders' Ownership and Control
Organization
Organizations and Organizing
This broad, balanced introduction to organizational studies enables the reader to compare and contrast different approaches to the study of organizations. This book is a valuable tool for the reader, as we are all intertwined with organizations in one form or another. Numerous other disciplines besides sociology are addressed in this book, including economics, political science, strategy and management theory. Topic areas discussed in this book a…
Financialization of the Economy
Financialization refers to the increasing importance of finance, financial markets, and financial institutions to the workings of the economy. This article reviews evidence on the causes and consequences of financialization in the United States and around the world, with particular attention to the spread of financial markets. Researchers have focused on two broad themes at the level of corporations and broader societies. First, an orientation to…
Can an Economy Survive Without Corporations? Technology and Robust Organizational Alternatives
Shareholder-owned corporations were dominant for much of the 20th century in the United States, yet their numbers are substantially declining in the 21st. This article argues that we are observing a regime shift in the transaction costs of organizing that disfavors traditional corporations. Accompanying this shift is the emergence of low-cost, small-scale production technologies that will allow locally based universal fabrication facilities. In c…
Who Killed the Inner Circle? The Decline of the American Corporate Interlock Network
U.S. corporations have shared members of their boards of directors since the early 1900s, creating a dense interlock network in which nearly every major corporation was connected through short paths and elevating a handful of well-connected directors to an influential “inner circle.” This network remained highly connected throughout the 20th century, serving as a mechanism for the rapid diffusion of information and practices and promoting elite c…
How Institutions Create Income Inequality
Taming Platform Capitalism to Meet Human Needs
We are witnessing the emergence of an information and communication technology (ICT)-enabled platform capitalism in which traditional corporations are being displaced. Railing against traditional firms to rescue capitalism would, under these circumstances, seem like misdirected effort. The “working anarchies” (e.g. Uber, Wikipedia) and “pop-up firms” (e.g. Vizio) of this new world use “labor on demand.” Here too there is risk that platform owners…
Economics (17 works) · Political science (16 works) · Business (15 works) · Management and Organizational Studies (10 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · Corporate governance (9 works) · Finance (9 works) · Law (9 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Management (8 works)