The ability of societies to respond to social problems may hinge crucially on the diversity of organizational forms, and in the long run, in a dynamic environment, diversity can be maintained or increased by the rise of new forms. Moreover, new forms are vital engines of organizational evolution. Indeed, an important component of organizational change, at the macro level, consists of the selection and replacement of existing organizational forms by new organizational forms. Furthermore, since new organizational forms are structural incarnations of technologies, beliefs, values, and norms, they emerge in tandem with social movements, new institutions, and new technologies and help to foster and reflect cultural and technical change in societies. For these reasons, where new organizational forms come from is a central question for organization theorists.

New organizational forms are novel recombinations of goals, authority relations (including governance structures), technologies and client markets. The evolution of a new organizational form involves a complex interplay between ecological and historical (ie, genealogical) processes. A new form’s emergence and character are shaped both by opportunities to