"[Padgett and Powell] see the 'percolation of perturbations' through complex networks as the next research frontier in the program of study that they propose, and they hope their initial forays in The Emergence of Organizations and Markets will inspire readers across the sciences to pick up the torch. If that happens, this theoretically innovative contribution to social science will have ... Read morecatalyzed the regeneration of historical applications of complexity science."
Michael Macy, Science "This important book ... combines insights from biochemical origins of life and social network analysis to study the emergence of organizational forms that have been important in the development of market societies. This unusual synthesis provides original perspectives to the fourteen case studies in the book. These studies make sense of detailed relational data through models of biological evolution. In addition to being informative on some of the major turning points in economic history, the case studies suggest new explanations for the background and origins of major organizational innovations."
Ozge Dilaver Kalkan, JASSS "Combining biochemical insights about the origin of life with innovative and historically oriented social net-work analyses, John Padgett and Walter Powell develop a theory about the emergence of organizational market, and biographical novelty from the coevolution of multiple social networks."
World Book Industry "Padgett and Powell have put together an imposing positive theoretical and empirical account of organizational novelty that bears even the potential to inspire the natural sciences in return, irrespective of any remaining qualms on the part of less naturalistic social scientists."
Guido Mollering, Economic Sociology European Newsletter "The Emergence of Organizations and Markets will unquestionably change how scholars think about innovation and the economy, highlighting the importance of coevolution across multiple network domains and the duality between actors and social relations."
James N. Baron, American Journal of Sociology Show Less