THE MAKING OF AN INDUSTRY - ORGANIZATIONAL BIRTHS IN NEW-YORK LIFE-INSURANCE INDUSTRY, 1842-1904

This study draws on, and advances, four key theories in explaining life insurance carrier births in New York from 1842 to 1904. It advances institutions theory by introducing two new institutional variables, public trust in carrier management and the Insurance Incorporation Law, whose effects are significant. This research also clarifies ecological theory with analyses indicating that only legitimation processes governed density dependence effects when this insurance industry was young; and that births were more sensitive to size-based competition (industry concentration and entry-barriers) than density-based competition when the industry was older. New-firms theory benefits from the finding that numbers of large carriers spurred carriers entrepreneurship, due to the operation of entrepreneurial spin-off processes. Finally, the results show that key economic forces had significant effects. I conclude that theoretical integration must occur in order to comprehend fully organizational birth processes.