John H. Freeman

John H. Freeman (born July 21, 1944 in Rochester , † March 3, 2008 in Lafayette ) was a professor at the Graduate School of Management at Cornell University and the Business School of the University of California, Berkeley . His last chair was renamed Helzel Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation by a foundation from Leo Helzel during Freeman's tenure .

Life

With an AB from Washington and Lee University ( Lexington ) in 1966, Freeman moved to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he received his master's degree in 1970 and his Ph.D. attained. In 1975, Freeman took a junior professorship in the School of Business Administration at the University of California, Berkeley . From 1985 to 1993 Freeman was editor of the Administrative Science Quarterly at the Johnson School of Management at Cornell University . In addition to the ASQ, he was also on the editorial staff of the American Journal of Sociology and the American Sociological Review .

Freeman returned to Berkeley in 1993 and took over the reins of the Lester Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Berkeley's Business School, now known as the Walter A. Haas School of Business . In 1997 he founded the Berkeley Entrepreneurship Laboratory , an off-campus business incubator for university graduates.

John Freeman died on March 3, 2008 of complications from a heart attack at his home in Lafayette.

Work and research

Freeman's early research focused on organizational policy, particularly the relationship between management and other employees. It was here that Freeman discovered that organizations in decline had a noticeable imbalance in this ratio. The pattern came to be known as the Freeman effect and is part of the basic knowledge of organizational theory.

Freeman was best known for his research on organizational ecology , which he carried out with Michael T. Hannan , professor at Stanford University . According to this approach, organizations only adapt to the planned path to a limited extent. Instead, organizations go under that are no longer adequately adapted to the external environment. Changes tend to happen randomly under the pressure of environmental conditions and far beyond the control of management. From an organizational behavior as one is evolutionary approach and the population of organizations becomes the focus of attention.

Freeman maintained this tenor and, on the basis of the ecological approach, examined various topics, including the relationship between organizational age and mortality (comparable to the lifespan of species in their ecological niche), r / c strategies of reproduction , breadth of niches, Organizational forms, density dependencies (population density in a niche) and competitive behavior.

As a result of Freeman's work, among other things, organizational ecology has become an important field of research in organizational research, the effect of which extends into management theory, in particular that of strategic management.

For the last 20 years of his professional life, Freeman has focused on research into entrepreneurship.

Awards

In 1992 Freeman and Hannan were honored with the Max Weber Award for excellent research, which they received for the work on organization ecology published in 1989.

bibliography

Books

J. Freeman: Team teaching in Britain. Ward Lock Educational, London 1969.
MT Hannan, J. Freeman: Organizational Ecology. Harvard University Press, 1989.
J. Freeman: Administrative intensity in manufacturing organizations. Chapel Hill, 1972.

items

MT Hannan, J. Freeman: The Population Ecology of Organizations. In: American Journal of Sociology. Volume 82, 1977, pp. 929-964. (Reprinted In: DS Pugh (Ed.): Organization Theory. Penguin, 1997)
John H. Freeman, Jerome Engel: Models of Innovation: Startups and Mature Corporations. California Management Review, 2007.
John H. Freeman, Pino G. Audia: Community Ecology and the Sociology of Organizations. In: Annual Review of Sociology. Vol. 32, August 2006.

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j Kathleen Maclay: John H. Freeman, business professor and entrepreneurship pioneer, dies. In: Berkeley University News. Berkeley University, March 7, 2008, accessed May 23, 2018 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l John Freeman. Obituary for John Freeman on the website of the Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. College of Arts and Science - The Department of Sociology, accessed May 23, 2018 .
↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Derek S. Pugh , David J. Hickson : Writers on Organization . 5th edition. Penguin Books, London 1996, ISBN 0-14-102992-7 , pp. 82-87 .

personal data
SURNAME	Freeman, John H.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American sociologist and organizational researcher
DATE OF BIRTH	July 21, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH	Rochester
DATE OF DEATH	March 3, 2008
Place of death	Lafayette

[UKBerkeleyPR2008-03-07-1] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j Kathleen Maclay: John H. Freeman, business professor and entrepreneurship pioneer, dies. In: Berkeley University News. Berkeley University, March 7, 2008, accessed May 23, 2018 .

[UNCSocFreeman-2] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f ^g ^h ⁱ ^j ^k ^l John Freeman. Obituary for John Freeman on the website of the Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. College of Arts and Science - The Department of Sociology, accessed May 23, 2018 .

[PughHickson1996-3] ↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e ^f Derek S. Pugh , David J. Hickson : Writers on Organization . 5th edition. Penguin Books, London 1996, ISBN 0-14-102992-7 , pp. 82-87 .