Abstract
This chapter aims to make resource dependence theory (RDT) more accessible for scholars of international organizations. It first outlines RDT’s origins and evolution, introduces its core assumptions, and discusses the theory’s shortcomings. RDT is currently experiencing a phase of theory revival, refinement, and empirical application. Secondly the chapter explores whether RDT can be applied to international organizations and considers works by International Relations (IR) scholars who have employed a resource dependence perspective. Increasing empirical evidence indicates that RDT has the potential to improve our understanding of cooperation among international organizations. Open questions remain about RDT’s scope and its compatibility with other organizational and IR theories. The chapter concludes by suggesting several avenues for future research.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsBibliography
Aldrich, H. E. (1976). Resource Dependence and Interorganizational Relations: Local Employment Services Offices and Social Services Sector Organizations. Administration & Society, 7(4), 419–454.
Aldrich, H. E., & Pfeffer, J. (1976). Environments of Organizations. Annual Review of Sociology, 2, 79–105.
Aldrich, H. E. (1979). Organizations and Environments. Englewood-Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
Aldrich, H. E., & Whetten, D. A. (1981). Organization-Sets, Action-Sets, and Networks: Making the Most of Simplicity. In P. C. Nystrom & W. H. Starbuck (Eds.), Handbook of Organizational Design (Vol. 1, pp. 385–408). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Barnett, M., & Coleman, L. (2005). Designing Police: Interpol and the Study of Change in International Organizations. International Studies Quarterly, 49(4), 593–619.
Barnett, M., & Duvall, R. (Eds.) (2005). Power in Global Governance. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Barrett, S. (2007). Why Cooperate? The Incentive to Supply Global Public Goods. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Barney, J. (1991). Firm Resources and Sustained Competitive Advantage. Journal of Management, 17(1), 99–120.
Benson, J. K. (1975). The Interorganizational Network as a Political Economy. Administrative Science Quarterly, 20(2), 229–249.
Biermann, R. (2008). Towards a Theory of Inter-Organizational Networking. The Euro-Atlantic Security Institutions Interacting. The Review of International Organizations, 3(2), 151–177.
Biermann, R. (2011). Inter-Organizational Relations: An Emerging Research Program. In B. Reinalda (Ed.), The Ashgate Research Companion to Non-State Actors (pp. 173–184). London: Ashgate.
Biermann, R. (2014). NATO’s Troubled Relations with Partner Organizations. A Resource Dependence Explanation. In S. Mayer (Ed.), NATO’s Post-Cold Bureaucracy and the Changing Provision of Security (pp. 215–234). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Blau, P. M. (1964). Exchange and Power in Social Life. New Brunswick: Transaction Publishers.
Brass, D. J. (2002). Intraorganizational Power and Dependence. In J. A. C. Baum (Ed.), The Blackwell Companion to Organizations (pp. 138–157). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Brechin, S. R., & Ness, G. D. (2013). Looking Back at the Gap: International Organizations as Organizations Twenty-Five Years Later. Journal of International Organization Studies, 4(2), 14–39.
Brosig, M. (2011). Overlap and Interplay between International Organisations: Theories and Approaches. South African Journal of International Affairs, 18(2), 147–167.
Brosig, M. (2015). Cooperative Peacekeeping in Africa: Exploring Regime Complexity. Abingdon: Routledge.
Casciaro, T., & Piskorski, M. J. (2005). Power Imbalance, Mutual Dependence, and Constraint Absorption: A Closer Look at Resource Dependence Theory. Administrative Science Quarterly, 50(2), 167–199.
Cook, K. S. (1977). Exchange and Power in Networks of Interorganizational Relations. The Sociological Quarterly, 18(1), 62–82.
Davis, G. F., & Cobb, J. A. (2010). Resource Dependence Theory: Past and Future. In C. B. Schoonhoven & F. Dobbin (Eds.), Stanford’s Organization Theory Renaissance 1970–2000 (pp. 21–42). Bingley: Emerald Group.
Dingwerth, K., Kerwer, D., & Nölke, A. (Eds.) (2009). Die Organisierte Welt. Internationale Beziehungen und Organisationsforschung. Baden-Baden: Nomos.
Dowling, J., & Pfeffer, J. (1975). Organizational Legitimacy. Social Values and Organizational Behavior. The Pacific Sociological Review, 18(1), 122–136.
Drees, J. M., & Heugens, P. P. (2013). Synthesizing and Extending Resource Dependence Theory: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Management, 20(10), 1–33.
Ellis, D. C. (2010). The Organizational Turn in International Organization Theory. Journal of International Organization Studies, 1(1), 11–28.
Emerson, R. M. (1962). Power-Dependence Relations. American Sociological Review, 27(1), 31–41.
Emerson, R. M. (1964). Power-Dependence Relations: Two Experiments. Sociometry, 27(3), 282–298.
Emerson, R. M. (1972a). Exchange Theory, Part I: A Psychological Basis for Social Exchange. In J. Berger, M. Zelditch Jr., & B. Anderson (Eds.), Sociological Theories in Progress (Vol. 2, pp. 38–57). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Emerson, R. M. (1972b). Exchange Theory, Part II: Exchange Relations and Network Structures. In J. Berger, M. Zelditch Jr., & B. Anderson (Eds.), Sociological Theories in Progress (Vol. 2, pp. 58–87). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Etzioni, A. (1960). New Directions in the Study of Organizations and Society. Social Research, 27(2), 223–228.
Gargiulo, M. (1993). Two-Step Leverage: Managing Constraint in Organizational Politics. Administrative Science Quarterly, 38(1), 1–19.
Galaskiewicz, J. (1985). Interorganizational Relations. Annual Review of Sociology, 11, 281–304.
Gest, N., & Grigorescu, A. (2010). Interactions among Intergovernmental Organizations in the Anti-Corruption Realm. The Review of International Organizations, 5(1), 53–72.
Granovetter, M. (1985). Economic Action and Social Structure: The Problem of Embeddedness. American Journal of Sociology, 91(3), 481–510.
Harsch, M. F. (2015). The Power of Dependence: NATO-UN Cooperation in Crisis Management. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Hatch, M. J. (1997). Organization Theory. Modern, Symbolic, and Postmodern Perspectives. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Heisbourg, F. (2000). European Defence. Making It Work, Chaillot Paper 42, Paris: EU Institute for Security Studies.
Hillman, A. J., Withers, M. C., & Collins, B. J. (2009). Resource Dependence Theory: A Review. Journal of Management, 35(6), 1404–1427.
Huxham, C., & Beech, N. (2010). Inter-Organizational Power. In S. Cropper, M. Ebers, C. Huxham, & P. Smith Ring (Eds.), Oxford Handbook of Inter-Organizational Relations (pp. 555–579). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Jacobs, D. (1974). Dependency and Vulnerability: An Exchange Approach to the Control of Organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 19(1), 45–59.
Katila, R., Rosenberger, J. D., & Eisenhardt, K. M. (2008). Swimming with Sharks: Technology Ventures, Defense Mechanisms, and Corporate Relationships. Administrative Science Quarterly, 53(2), 295–332.
Keohane, R. O., & Nye, J. S. (1977). Power and Interdependence: World Politics in Transition. Boston: Little Brown.
Khandwalla, R. N. (1981). Properties of Competing Organizations. In P. C. Nystrom & W. H. Starbuck (Eds.), Handbook of Organizational Design (Vol. 1, pp. 409–432). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Koch, M. (2006). Processes of Autonomization in/of International Organizations? The Case of the World Trade Organization (WTO), Working Paper Series, Bielefeld: Institut für Weltgesellschaft.
Levine, S., & White, P. E. (1961). Exchange as a Conceptual Framework for the Study of Interorganizational Relationships. Administrative Science Quarterly, 5(4), 583–601.
Liese, A. (2009). Die unterschiedlich starke Öffnung internationaler Organisationen gegenüber nichtstaatlichen Akteuren. Erklärungen der Institutionen- und Organisationstheorie. In K. Dingwerth, D. Kerwer, & A. Nölke (Eds.), Die Organisierte Welt. Internationale Beziehungen und Organisationsforschung (pp. 189–210). Baden-Baden: Nomos.
Liese, A. (2010). Explaining Varying Degrees of Openness in the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). In C. Jönsson & J. Tallberg (Eds.), Transnational Actors in Global Governance: Patterns, Explanations and Implications (pp. 88–108). Houndmills: Palgrave.
Lipson, M. (2011). A Resource Dependence Model of Peace Operations Coordination, Paper presented at the 6th European Consortium for Political Research General Conference, Reykjavík, 25-27 August.
March, J. G. (1966). The Power of Power. In D. Easton (Ed.), Varieties of Political Theory (pp. 39–60). Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall.
Mayntz, R. (2009). Prolog. In K. Dingwerth, D. Kerwer, & A. Nölke (Eds.), Die Organisierte Welt. Internationale Beziehungen und Organisationsforschung (pp. 9–11). Baden-Baden: Nomos.
Mizruchi, M. S., & Yoo, M. (2002). Interorganizational Power and Dependence. In J. A. C. Baum (Ed.), The Blackwell Companion to Organizations (pp. 599–620). Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Ness, G. D., & Brechin, S. R. (1988). Bridging the Gap: International Organizations as Organizations. International Organization, 42(2), 245–273.
Oliver, C. (1990). Determinants of Interorganizational Relationships: Integration and Future Directions. Academy of Management Review, 15(2), 241–265.
Oliver, C. (1991). Network Relations and Loss of Organizational Autonomy. Human Relations, 44(9), 943–961.
Paris, R. (2009). Understanding the “Coordination Problem” in Postwar Statebuilding. In R. Paris & T. D. Sisk (Eds.), The Dilemmas of Statebuilding: Confronting the Contradictions of Postwar Peace Operations (pp. 53–78). New York: Routledge.
Pfeffer, J. (2003). ‘Introduction to the Classic Edition’. In J. Pfeffer & G. R. Salancik (Eds.), The External Control of Organizations: A Resource Dependence Perspective (pp. xi–xxix). Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2nd ed.
Pfeffer, J., & Salancik, G. R. (1974). Organizational Decision Making as a Political Process: The Case of a University Budget. Administrative Science Quarterly, 19(2), 135–151.
Pfeffer, J., & Salancik, G. R. (2003). The External Control of Organizations. A Resource Dependence Perspective. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 2 online ed.
Podolny, J. M. (1993). A Status-Based Model of Market Competition. American Journal of Sociology, 98(4), 829–872.
Provan, K. G., Beyer, J. M., & Kruytbosch, C. (1980). Environmental Linkages and Power in Resource-Dependence Relations between Organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 25(2), 200–219.
Salancik, G. R., & Pfeffer, J. (1974). The Bases and Use of Power in Organizational Decision Making: The Case of a University. Administrative Science Quarterly, 19(4), 453–473.
Salancik, G. R., Pfeffer, J., & Kelley, J. P. (1978). A Contingency Model of Influence in Organizational Decision-Making. The Pacific Sociological Review, 21(2), 239–256.
Schäferhoff, M. (2009). Kooperation oder Konkurrenz? Zur Kooperationsbereitschaft internationaler Verwaltungsstäbe in transnationalen öffentlich-privaten Partnerschaften. In K. Dingwerth, D. Kerwer, & A. Nölke (Eds.), Die Organisierte Welt. Internationale Beziehungen und Organisationsforschung (pp. 208–228). Baden-Baden: Nomos.
Scott, W. R. (2003). Organizations. Rational, Natural, and Open Systems. Upper Saddle River: Pearson Education, 5th ed.
Selznick, P. (1949). TVA and the Grass Roots: A Study in the Sociology of Formal Organization. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Thompson, J. D. (1967). Organizations in Action. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Thompson, J. D., & McEwen, W. J. (1958). Organizational Goals and Environment: Goal-Setting as an Interaction Process. American Sociological Review, 23(1), 23–31.
Ulrich, D., & Barney, J. B. (1984). Perspectives in Organizations: Resource Dependence, Efficiency, and Population. Academy of Management Review, 9(3), 471–481.
Van de Ven, A. H. (1976). On the Nature, Formation, and Maintenance of Relations Among Organizations. Academy of Management Review, 1(4), 24–36.
Van de Ven, A. H., & Walker, G. (1984). The Dynamics of Interorganizational Coordination. Administrative Science Quarterly, 29(4), 598–621.
Yuchtman, E., & Seashore, S. E. (1967). A System Resource Approach to Organizational Effectiveness. American Sociological Review, 32(6), 891–903.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Biermann, R., Harsch, M. (2017). Resource Dependence Theory. In: Koops, J., Biermann, R. (eds) Palgrave Handbook of Inter-Organizational Relations in World Politics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-36039-7_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-36039-7_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-36038-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-36039-7
eBook Packages: Political Science and International StudiesPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)