Title: Imprinting (organizational theory) - Wikipedia
Headings: Imprinting (organizational theory)
Imprinting (organizational theory)
Contents
Organizational research on imprinting
Imprinting at other levels of analysis
See also
References

Content: a process whereby the focal entity comes to reflect elements of its environment during a sensitive period; and
the persistence of imprints despite subsequent environmental changes. Contents
1 Organizational research on imprinting
2 Imprinting at other levels of analysis
3 See also
4 References
Organizational research on imprinting
The use of the imprinting concept (although not the term itself) in organizational theory dates back to Arthur Stinchcombe’s 1965 paper entitled "Social Structure and Organizations." This essay focused on understanding why organizations and industries that were founded in the same period were so similar even today. According to this essay, external environmental forces powerfully shaped firms’ initial structures during the founding period, and these structures persisted in the long run, well beyond the time of founding. For example, as most university fraternities emerged in three different waves, their current organizational features still reflect the imprint of one of these three periods. The first wave of foundings reflected the secularization of Northern liberal arts colleges in the 1840s; the second wave began in the South in the latter half of the 1860s; and the third wave came between 1900 and 1920, when marginalized populations of Black, Catholic, and Jewish students established fraternities emphasizing anti-discrimination goals. In subsequent periods, each of these three different types carried the legacy of their founding environment.