An Institutional Ecology of Law Firms in Silicon Valley

硅谷律师事务所的制度生态

• 批准号: 9702605
• 负责人: Mark Suchman
• 金额: $ 30.11万
• 依托单位: University of Wisconsin-Madison
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 1997
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1997-05-15 至 2003-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=9702605&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Institutional; Ecology; Law; Firms; Silicon

This is a study of law firms in California's Silicon Valley, supported under the Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Program. It links organizational sociology with the sociology of law to explore the role of law firms, as organizational and legal actors, in local development. The project integrates three objectives -- theoretical, empirical, and educational. Theoretically, the project will address ongoing debates over the characteristics of emerging organizational communities, over the interorganizational impact of the modern law firm, and over the role of formal contracts as economic governance mechanisms. Empirically, the project will construct and analyze two related data sets, one on the origins and effects of a key Silicon Valley legal device (the standardized venture capital financing contract, or "VCFC"), and the other on the structure and dynamics of the larger Silicon Valley legal community. The VCFC Study will allow multivariate statistical analysis of the emergence and diffusion of a novel contractual device within a new organizational field. The Legal Community Study will explore the dynamics of the heretofore largely unstudied population of professional organizations that promulgated this legal innovation. Educationally, the project will introduce a sequence of innovative, experiential courses in legal and organizational sociology, whereby undergraduate and graduate students will gain new insights into the socio-legal environment of entrepreneurship and into the structure of professional careers. The design incorporates three components -- two empirical and one instructional. To examine the emergence, diffusion and impact of the standardized VCFC, the project will compile data on approximately 300 first-round high-technology financings, occurring from 1975 to 1990. Data collection will link content-analytic information on the terms of each VCFC with (a) contextual data on the economic and institutional conditions surrounding the transaction and (b) outcome data on the subsequent fate of the start-up company. Data analyses will seek to identify distinct "financing archetypes," and to uncover the determinants and effects of choosing one such archetype over another. To examine the structure and dynamics of the Silicon Valley legal community, the project will compile longitudinal data on the population of law firms operating in the region -- and on the population of attorneys practicing within those firms -- from 1960 to 1990. Data analyses will examine whether the fates of these legal actors were shaped by the development of the surrounding organizational community and by the actors' own adoption or rejection of specific interorganizational roles. Finally, to integrate these empirical efforts into an ongoing program of teaching and research, the project will develop two new seminars, emphasizing experiential and collaborative learning techniques. The first seminar will focus on Law, Innovation and Entrepreneurship; the second, on the Sociology of the Legal Profession. The project will also enhance preexisting courses and launch a number of extramural outreach efforts. Silicon Valley offers a rare opportunity to examine the mechanics of entrepreneurship and community development, and to link these crucial organizational phenomena to the activities of concrete inter-organizational pollinators. Previous research suggests that Silicon Valley law firms often play this pollinator role, transmitting basic operating know-how between otherwise isolated start-ups. Over time, it is likely that such activities have transformed the local business community, giving rise to institutionalized practices that today's community members largely take for granted. At the same time, however, local law firms have, themselves, experienced numerous pressures emanating from the turbulent environment around them. Thus, these firms must be seen as both creations and creators of the shifting community order, simultaneously shaping and reflecting surrounding flows of resources and i nformation in an ongoing coevolutionary interchange. A fuller understanding of this complex process promises to shed light on critical issues regarding organizational innovation, regional development, and the role of the legal profession in economic change.

这是一项对加州硅谷律师事务所的研究，该研究得到了教师早期职业发展（CAREER）计划的支持。它将组织社会学与法律社会学联系起来，探讨律师事务所作为组织和法律的参与者在地方发展中的作用。 该项目综合了三个目标-理论、经验和教育。从理论上讲，该项目将解决正在进行的关于新兴组织社区的特点，现代律师事务所的组织间影响，以及正式合同作为经济治理机制的作用的辩论。从经验上讲，该项目将构建和分析两个相关的数据集，一个是关于硅谷关键法律的设备（标准化风险资本融资合同，或“VCFC”）的起源和影响，另一个是关于更大的硅谷法律的社区的结构和动态。VCFC研究将允许对新组织领域内新型合同器械的出现和扩散进行多变量统计分析。 法律的社区研究将探讨迄今为止基本上未被研究的专业组织人口的动态，这些组织颁布了这一法律的创新。在教育方面，该项目将推出一系列创新的经验课程，在法律的和组织社会学，使本科生和研究生将获得新的见解的社会法律的环境的创业和职业生涯的结构。 该设计包括三个组成部分-两个经验和一个教学。为了审查标准化自愿捐款的出现、传播和影响，该项目将汇编1975年至1990年期间大约300笔第一轮高技术融资的数据。数据收集将把关于每个自愿氟氯化碳条款的内容分析信息与（a）关于围绕交易的经济和体制条件的背景数据和（B）关于初创公司随后命运的结果数据联系起来。数据分析将力求确定不同的“融资原型”，并揭示选择一种原型而不是另一种原型的决定因素和影响。为了研究硅谷法律的界的结构和动态，该项目将汇编1960年至1990年在该地区经营的律师事务所的人口以及在这些事务所执业的律师的人口的纵向数据。数据分析将研究这些法律的行为者的命运是否受到周围组织社区的发展以及行为者自己对特定组织间角色的接受或拒绝的影响。最后，为了将这些经验性的努力整合到正在进行的教学和研究计划中，该项目将开发两个新的研讨会，强调体验和协作学习技术。第一个研讨会将侧重于法律，创新和创业精神;第二个研讨会将侧重于法律的职业社会学。该项目还将加强现有的课程，并开展一些校外外联活动。 硅谷提供了一个难得的机会来研究创业和社区发展的机制，并将这些关键的组织现象与具体的组织间授粉者的活动联系起来。以前的研究表明，硅谷的律师事务所经常扮演这种传播者的角色，在孤立的初创企业之间传播基本的运营知识。随着时间的推移，这些活动很可能改变了当地的商业界，产生了今天的社区成员基本上认为理所当然的制度化做法。然而，与此同时，当地律师事务所本身也经历了来自其周围动荡环境的许多压力。因此，这些公司必须被视为不断变化的社区秩序的创造者和创造者，同时塑造和反映周围的资源和信息流在一个持续的共同进化的交流。对这一复杂过程的更全面的理解有望揭示有关组织创新、区域发展以及法律的职业在经济变革中的作用等关键问题。