組織生態、寬裕資源與組織失敗：臺灣下市公司之實證分析

Organizational Ecology, Slack Resource, and Organizational Failure: Empirical Evidence of Taiwanese Delisted Firms

全球經濟劇烈波動下，組織失敗現象日益顯著，但在管理文獻中並未能獲得如組織績效課題般的同等重視。本研究採取組織生態與寬裕資源觀點，分別探討生態特徵及寬裕資源屬性如何影響組織失敗，同時驗證寬裕資源屬性如何調節不利生存的生態特徵對個別組織失敗的影響。本研究以2002 至2008 年期間台灣證券交易所掛牌公開交易的公司為研究對象，以因財務危機而下市、下櫃為組織失敗現象，針對橫跨38 個產業的1,195 家樣本公司進行實證研究。產業層級的研究結果顯示集群年齡及密度與整體失敗率之間，呈現先減後增的U 型曲線關係。公司層級的研究結果則證實具移動彈性的未吸附寬裕資源可降低組織失敗的發生機率，而已吸附寬裕資源雖不具此功效，但卻有助於減緩隨產業年齡演進與密度提升使得組織失敗機率上升的不利衝擊。本研究有別於過去研究在組織失敗議題上所採取的單一觀點，綜合考量組織外部環境生態與內部寬裕資源條件對組織存活的影響，研究結果具有重要理論意涵及實務意義。

The phenomenon of organizational failure has become more prevalent than ever as the global economy drastically fluctuated in the past decade. However, the issue of organizational failure has not received as much attention as that of organizational performance in the management literature. This study adopts the perspectives of organizational ecology and slack resource and investigates the influences of ecological factors and the characteristics of slack resources of the firms, as well as their interaction, on organizational failure. Using the data of 1,195 Taiwanese listed firms across 38 industries during the year of 2000-2008, this study examines the evidence of the delisted firms caused by financial crisis on both ecological level and firm level. Empirical results demonstrate a U-shaped curvilinear relationship between population age and density and the fatal rate of the industrial population. The firm-level evidence shows that the level of unabsorbed slack resource of a firm is negatively associated with the probability of delisting. While the absorbed slack resource does not directly decrease the probability of delisting, it significantly mitigates the impact of unfavorable ecological conditions on organizational survival. This study integrates the external perspective of ecology and the internal perspective of the resources of the firm, which distinguishes this current study from past literature. The findings of the study also bear important implications to both theory and practice.