A Logical Approach to Formalizing Organizational Ecology

Theories should be consistent and coherent. Unfortunately, inconsistency, incoherence, and other defects in logic are difficult to detect when a theory is stated in natural language (e.g., English). Translation into a formal logical language makes the theory's structure more explicit, and better accessible for repair. Furthermore, new hypotheses are more easily derived in a logical language. We formalize Hannan and Freeman's theory of organizational inertia in first-order logic. We then examine the logical properties of the formalized theory, provide new theorems about organizational inertia, and discuss the implications of logical formalization for sociological theorizing.