Romanelli, Elaine, And Fiol, C. Marlene
Academy of Management Proceedings, p, 1-6

The evolution of new organizational forms has attracted growing theoretical and empirical attention, but little research has considered the micro-social processes that promote the emergence of quasi-similar organizations that may evolve over time into organizational forms with distinctive identities that are both claimed and granted. Drawing on social psychological theories of identity formation within and among organizational groups, we develop a model of identification and identity development for organizational forms that underpins arguments from ecological and institutional theory.