Synthesizing and Extending Resource Dependence Theory
通过元分析整合157项研究，证实资源依赖理论的核心预测，并扩展理论：揭示不同组织安排对自主性和合法性的差异化机制，发现自主性而非合法性中介绩效，以及竞争法促使企业从并购转向联盟等替代安排。
Resource dependence theory (RDT) has long been a premier framework for understanding organization-environmental relations, but an empirical synthesis of its predictions is still lacking. Using meta-analysis, we consolidate 157 tests of RDT and corroborate its main predictions: organizations respond to resource dependencies by forming interorganizational arrangements like interlocks, alliances, joint ventures, in-sourcing arrangements, and mergers and acquisitions. In turn, these arrangements make them more autonomous and more legitimate. We also extend RDT in three ways. First, we “unpack” the theory by showing that the mechanisms linking arrangement formation to organizational autonomy and legitimacy differ across arrangements. Second, we address the question whether RDT is also a theory of organizational performance. We find that whereas autonomy positively mediates the relationship between arrangement formation and performance, legitimacy does not. This suggests that RDT can also explain organizational actions that have societal acceptance rather than economic performance as an ulterior motive. Third, we assess whether competition law is a boundary condition to RDT’s prescriptions. Specifically, we show that the adoption of the Horizontal Merger Guidelines in the U.S. has caused organizations to “flee” from mergers to less regulated arrangements like alliances and joint ventures, and has hurt the profitability of the remaining mergers.