Organizational Interdependence and Organizational Mortality in the Cooperative Sector: A Community Ecology Perspective

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Abstract
This study examines the effects of organizational population growth on organizational mortality rates in three populations of cooperative sector organizations in Maritime Canada for the period from 1900 to 1987. The findings reveal a partly asymmetric pattern of density dependence. At times, cooperatives cooperated with one another and benefitted from mutualist relations, consistent with the conventional view of the cooperative sector as an integrated community of mutually supportive organizations. But they also competed with one another and failed to achieve a united movement, increasing the chances of organizational dissolution. The empirical findings are interpreted within a community ecology perspective.