Research in the Sociology of Organizations

Research in the Sociology of Organizations: Overview

Research in the Sociology of Organizations is a long-running peer-reviewed annual book series published by Emerald Publishing Limited in the United Kingdom, carrying the International Standard Serial Number ISSN 0733-558X. Each year the series publishes one or more themed edited volumes devoted to the sociological study of organizations — their structures, cultures, fields, and transformations. Since its inception, it has grown into one of the central publication venues for organizational sociology and institutional theory, a place where the field's most influential ideas are debated, extended, and periodically reinvented.

The series is edited by Professor Michael Lounsbury, a leading scholar of institutional theory and entrepreneurship. Under his editorship, the series has maintained an unusually ambitious intellectual programme: each volume takes up a major theoretical conversation — institutional logics, organizational paradox, routine dynamics, categorization, the sharing economy, digital transformation, societal grand challenges — and assembles leading scholars to push it forward. The result is a body of work that functions as a living archive of organization theory's evolution over several decades.

Structurally, the series works like its Emerald siblings: each volume is a self-contained edited book with its own guest editors, its own ISBNs, and its own Crossref DOIs, united under the series ISSN and the series editor's direction. Chapters are peer-reviewed and published on Emerald Insight. Because volumes are thematic, they often become landmark reference points — scholars cite not just individual chapters but entire volumes as statements of where a research conversation stands.

The series' reach extends well beyond sociology departments. Its contributors and readers include management scholars, organization theorists in business schools, political scientists, and scholars of science and technology studies. This interdisciplinary footprint reflects the subject matter: organizations — corporations, universities, hospitals, states, social movements — are studied across the social sciences, and the series has deliberately cultivated conversations across those disciplinary boundaries.

With more than eighty numbered volumes published, Research in the Sociology of Organizations is among the most voluminous and enduring series in its field. Its catalogue reads as a history of organization theory itself: from early volumes on organizational transformation and elites, through the institutionalist turn, to contemporary engagements with digitalization, entrepreneurship, inequality, and grand challenges.

Aims and Scope

The series aims to publish theoretically ambitious, empirically grounded research on organizations and organizing. Its scope centres on the sociology of organizations but extends to organization theory broadly conceived, including work from management, political science, and science and technology studies that speaks to sociological concerns. Core topics include institutional theory, organizational fields, organizational culture and identity, networks, routines, entrepreneurship, social movements and organizations, professions, markets, and the state.

A distinctive feature of the series is its commitment to theory development. Many volumes are explicitly organized around advancing a theoretical perspective or resolving a theoretical debate. Volume 58, Agents, Actors, Actorhood: Institutional Perspectives on the Nature of Agency, Action, and Authority, tackled one of institutional theory's foundational questions. Volumes 65A and 65B, Microfoundations of Institutions, and Volume 68, Macrofoundations, pursued the micro–macro link from both directions. Volumes 70 and 71, On Practice and Institution, bridged practice theory and institutionalism. This theoretical density makes the series essential reading for scholars positioning their own work within organization theory.

At the same time, the series is empirically pluralist. Volumes draw on ethnography, historical-comparative analysis, quantitative studies of organizational populations, network analysis, and computational methods. The series has been an important venue for methodological innovation as well: Volume 53, Structure, Content and Meaning of Organizational Networks, extended network thinking, and Volume 61, Routine Dynamics in Action, showcased the emerging routines perspective.

The series also engages contemporary transformations of organizational life. Volumes on the sharing economy (Volume 66), digital transformation and institutional theory (Volume 83), multinational corporations (Volume 49), and societal grand challenges (Volume 79) show an editorial willingness to bring organization theory to bear on pressing real-world developments. Recent volumes on race and organizations (Volume 60), organizational wrongdoing (Volume 84), and entrepreneurialism and society (Volumes 81–82) reflect the field's growing engagement with inequality, ethics, and social responsibility.

Geographically and institutionally, the series is international. Contributors come from universities across North America, Europe, and increasingly Asia and other regions, and volumes frequently include comparative and cross-national research. The series' association with Emerald, a global publisher, supports this international reach.

Publication Details

Research in the Sociology of Organizations is published by Emerald Publishing Limited, Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley, West Yorkshire, BD16 1WA, United Kingdom. The series carries print ISSN 0733-558X, and each volume is issued with its own print and electronic ISBNs.

The series appears on an annual cycle, typically producing one to three volumes per year; in some years paired volumes (A and B) address a single large theme across two books, as with Volumes 48A/48B, 54A/54B, 65A/65B, and 73A/73B. The numbering is continuous, and the catalogue runs from the early volumes through Volume 84 and beyond, representing several decades of continuous publication.

Chapters are published online on Emerald Insight with individual Crossref DOIs, full citation metadata, abstracts, and reference lists. Institutional subscribers access the full text; individual chapters are available for purchase. Print editions are distributed through standard academic book channels.

As an edited book series, the publication does not use an article processing charge model. There are no author-facing fees for contributing chapters. Copyright is held by Emerald Publishing Limited, with chapters published under exclusive licence. The publisher's permissions service handles reproduction requests, and each chapter page offers citation exports in formats including RIS, EndNote, BibTeX, and major reference managers.

Editorial Leadership

The series editor is Professor Michael Lounsbury, a prominent scholar of institutional theory, entrepreneurship, and organization studies. His editorship has been marked by a deliberate strategy of identifying generative theoretical conversations and commissioning volumes that advance them, often pairing established figures with emerging scholars.

Each volume is guided by guest volume editors who are specialists in the volume's theme. The list of volume editors constitutes a remarkable cross-section of organization theory: scholars associated with institutionalism, the Carnegie school, routine dynamics, paradox theory, categorization research, and entrepreneurship studies have all shaped volumes. Guest editors develop the volume's concept, recruit contributors, manage peer review, and author the framing introduction.

Chapters undergo peer review coordinated by the volume editors, typically involving external reviewers with domain expertise alongside editorial evaluation. The standard is that of a leading scholarly press: contributions must be original, theoretically significant, and methodologically credible. Because volumes are curated, editors also exercise judgment about how chapters speak to one another, and many volumes include integrative introductions and concluding reflections.

The series' editorial model has proven durable precisely because it distributes intellectual leadership: the series editor provides continuity and quality control, while rotating guest editors keep the series responsive to new ideas and new generations of scholars.

Landmark Volumes and Their Contributions

Several volumes illustrate the series' role in shaping organization theory. Volumes 48A and 48B, How Institutions Matter!, arrived as institutional theory was consolidating its dominance, offering a state-of-the-art statement. Volume 50, Emergence, engaged complexity and process perspectives. Volume 51, Categories, Categorization and Categorizing, helped establish category studies as a recognized research programme at the intersection of sociology, organizations, and strategy.

The microfoundations project — Volumes 65A and 65B, Microfoundations of Institutions, followed by Volume 68, Macrofoundations — addressed one of the most persistent challenges in institutional theory: connecting macro-level institutional patterns with micro-level action. These volumes are widely cited in contemporary institutional research. Similarly, Volumes 70 and 71, On Practice and Institution, forged connections between practice theory and institutionalism that continue to generate research.

Volumes engaging social issues have broadened the series' audience. Volume 60, Race, Organizations, and the Organizing Process, brought critical race perspectives into sustained dialogue with organization theory. Volume 74, Worlds of Rankings, examined quantification and evaluation across organizational fields. Volume 79, Organizing for Societal Grand Challenges, and Volume 84, Organizational Wrongdoing as the "Foundational" Grand Challenge, positioned organization theory as relevant to climate change, inequality, and corporate misconduct.

Earlier volumes laid groundwork that scholars still build on: Volume 42 on organizational transformation and universities, Volume 44 on Philip Selznick's legacy, Volume 46 The University Under Pressure, and Volume 49 on multinational corporations. The cumulative effect is a series that functions as both archive and agenda-setter for its field.

Indexing, Abstracting, and Discovery

As a book series, Research in the Sociology of Organizations is indexed through book and chapter-level channels. Chapters carry Crossref DOIs and are harvested by Google Scholar and other discovery services that index Emerald Insight metadata. Libraries catalogue volumes under their ISBNs and the series ISSN 0733-558X.

The series is covered in Scopus, Elsevier's abstract and citation database, which tracks the series as a serial publication with coverage spanning from 2000 through recent years. Scopus coverage means the series' citation performance is visible in one of the world's most widely used research evaluation databases, and it underpins the third-party metrics sometimes reported for the series.

Like other book series, it does not receive a Journal Impact Factor from Clarivate's Journal Citation Reports, which covers journals. Authors and evaluators should therefore assess the series on the strength of its editorial leadership, its contributors, its review standards, and its visibility in the field — all of which are considerable — rather than on journal-style metrics alone.

Metrics and Standing

The publisher does not advertise an official impact factor or CiteScore for Research in the Sociology of Organizations, since these indicators are designed for journals rather than book series. Third-party bibliographic services do compute citation-based indicators from Scopus data; such figures fluctuate across databases and years and should be treated as approximate signals of visibility rather than official measures.

What matters more for the series' standing is its position within organization theory. It is routinely described as a premier venue for institutional and organizational research, its volumes are assigned in doctoral seminars worldwide, and its chapters accumulate citations across sociology, management, and related fields. The series' longevity — more than eighty volumes over several decades — itself testifies to sustained scholarly demand.

For tenure, promotion, and hiring committees, chapters in the series are generally regarded as equivalent in prestige to articles in leading specialty journals, particularly when the volume addresses a central theoretical debate. Early-career scholars should note, however, that evaluation norms vary by institution and country, and some systems weight journal articles more heavily than book chapters regardless of venue prestige.

Submitting to the Series: Guidance for Authors

Contributions are organized around forthcoming themed volumes. Guest editors circulate calls for chapters through professional associations — including the American Sociological Association's organizations section, the Academy of Management, and the European Group for Organizational Studies — as well as through mailing lists and academic social networks. Each call specifies the theme, the editors' vision, deadlines, and submission instructions.

Prospective contributors typically submit a proposal or extended abstract first, followed by a full chapter draft if the proposal is accepted. Volume editors may also directly invite scholars whose work fits the volume's aims. Because volumes are curated conversations, fit with the theme and with the other planned chapters matters greatly; a strong proposal explains not only the chapter's own contribution but how it advances the volume's collective argument.

Manuscripts should follow Emerald's author guidelines for book chapters, including the Harvard referencing style, formatting requirements, and policies on permissions, ethics, and originality. Chapters are typically substantial pieces of 7,000–10,000 words, allowing for full theoretical development and detailed empirical analysis.

Authors should plan for an extended timeline: from call to publication, edited volumes commonly take eighteen months to two years or more. There are no publication fees. Copyright is assigned to the publisher under exclusive licence, with authors retaining rights for teaching and repository deposit as specified in Emerald's policies.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Research in the Sociology of Organizations a journal?
No. It is an annual edited book series publishing themed volumes of peer-reviewed chapters, not a periodical journal.

Who is the series editor?
Professor Michael Lounsbury. Individual volumes are guest-edited by specialists in each volume's theme.

What is the ISSN?
0733-558X. Each volume also has its own print and electronic ISBNs.

How many volumes have been published?
More than eighty numbered volumes, with new volumes continuing to appear annually.

Is the series indexed in Scopus?
Yes — third-party bibliographic sources report Scopus coverage of the series spanning from 2000 through recent years.

How do I contribute?
Respond to a call for chapters for a forthcoming themed volume, or contact volume editors with a proposal that fits their theme.

Are chapters peer-reviewed?
Yes, through review coordinated by the volume editors, typically involving external experts.

Are there publication fees?
No. The series does not charge authors article or chapter processing fees.

The Series in Context: Organization Theory's Institutional Turn

To appreciate what Research in the Sociology of Organizations has accomplished, it helps to recall the intellectual landscape it helped shape. When the series was getting underway, organization studies was absorbing the new institutionalism — the argument, associated with scholars such as John Meyer, Brian Rowan, Paul DiMaggio, and Walter Powell, that organizations are profoundly shaped by their institutional environments: by norms, cultural scripts, and legitimacy pressures as much as by efficiency. The series became one of the primary venues where this perspective was elaborated, debated, and extended.

Volume 44, Institutions and Ideals: Philip Selznick's Legacy for Organizational Studies, is emblematic. Selznick's "old" institutionalism — with its attention to values, leadership, and organizational character — had been partly eclipsed by the new institutionalism's emphasis on isomorphism and decoupling. By revisiting Selznick, the volume reopened questions about agency, values, and distinctiveness that the field is still working through. This pattern — the series returning to foundational thinkers to unlock new research — recurs across its catalogue.

The Carnegie school tradition also finds a home in the series. Volume 76, Carnegie Goes to California: Advancing and Celebrating the Work of James G. March, honoured one of organization theory's most creative minds, whose work on decision-making, learning, and ambiguity shaped generations of scholars. Volumes on routine dynamics (Volume 61) and organizational learning extend this lineage, showing how ideas born at Carnegie Mellon continue to evolve.

Another thread is the series' engagement with French pragmatist sociology — Volume 52, Justification, Evaluation and Critique in the Study of Organizations — which introduced Anglophone organization scholars to the economies-of-worth framework and its distinctive approach to moral evaluation in organizational life. Few other venues would have given such sustained space to this cross-fertilization, and the volume is credited with broadening the theoretical repertoire available to organization researchers.

The series has also been alert to new empirical phenomena. Its volumes on multinational corporations, the sharing economy, digital transformation, and rankings show organization theory being brought to bear on globalization, platform capitalism, and audit culture — not as afterthoughts but as central theoretical challenges. Volume 74, Worlds of Rankings, for instance, treats quantification itself as an organizational phenomenon, connecting the sociology of organizations to science and technology studies and the sociology of quantification.

What unifies these diverse contributions is an editorial conviction that theory matters — that the point of studying organizations is not only to describe them but to build generalizable understanding of how collective action is structured, legitimated, and transformed. For doctoral students entering the field, working through the series' back catalogue is among the most efficient ways to acquire that theoretical literacy.

For libraries and research centres, subscribing to the series is a cost-effective way to maintain comprehensive coverage of organization theory: a single annual standing order delivers the field's most important collective statements each year, in print and electronic formats, with perpetual access to back volumes supporting longitudinal research and doctoral training.

How should I cite a chapter?
Use the chapter DOI and full citation metadata from Emerald Insight: chapter authors, chapter title, volume editors, volume title, series name, publisher, year, and DOI.