Institutionalized ties and corporate social capital: The case of hospital mergers and closures

Rebecca Wells; Shoou-Yih Daniel Lee; Jeffrey A Alexander

doi:10.1016/S0733-558X(01)18003-1

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Research in the Sociology of Organizations

ISSN: 0733-558X
Series editor(s): Professor Michael Lounsbury

Subject Area: Organization Studies

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Institutionalized ties and corporate social capital: The case of hospital mergers and closures

Document Information:
Title:	Institutionalized ties and corporate social capital: The case of hospital mergers and closures
Author(s):	Rebecca Wells, Shoou-Yih Daniel Lee, Jeffrey A Alexander
Volume:	18 Editor(s): Shaul M. Gabbay, Roger Th. A. J. Leenders ISBN: 978-0-76230-770-8 eISBN: 978-1-84950-100-2
Citation:	Rebecca Wells, Shoou-Yih Daniel Lee, Jeffrey A Alexander (2001), Institutionalized ties and corporate social capital: The case of hospital mergers and closures, in Shaul M. Gabbay, Roger Th. A. J. Leenders (ed.) Social Capital of Organizations (Research in the Sociology of Organizations, Volume 18), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.59-82
DOI:	10.1016/S0733-558X(01)18003-1 (Permanent URL)
Publisher:	Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Article type:	Full length article
Abstract:	In this article the authors explore how institutionalized social ties may buffer organizations against threats to survival and then even at the brink of extinction enable them to merge instead of close. Drawing on social capital theory, we propose that legitimating and mutualistic ties both buffer and enable organizations. We examine this proposition by first testing how both types of social ties affect the likelihood of either merging into other organizations or closing entirely. We then test how the same ties affect the likelihood of merging relative to closing for organizations that undergo one of these two events. Results from the U.S. hospital industry provide little support for the hypothesized buffering roles of social ties but greater support for the enabling roles of such ties. It appears that certain social ties yield corporate social capital that reduces endangered organizations' losses but yield little or no social capital that protects against the threat to their survival in the first place.