Organizational Ecology and the Power of Specialist Organizations

• In Event: Cooperation and Influence in lnternational Regime Complexes

Abstract

Theories of organizational ecology have attracted growing interests in the study of global governance in recent years. Organizational ecology helps us explain why certain forms of organizations emerge and become legitimate. However, organizational ecology does not offer much insight into the feedback effects of organizational choices on the political environment. Focusing on the agenda setting role of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs), I theorize how organizational choice between specialism or generalism can explain changes in political environments, namely issue salience in the Global North. I exploit the unique features of wildlife conservation in order to devise empirical tests for specialist NGO influence. My quantitative analysis shows that specialist NGOs better explain issue salience than leading, generalist NGOs. I then explore the mechanisms of influence in the case studies of pangolin, whale, and elephant conservation. Based on in-depth interviews with conservation NGOs, I illustrate a variety of organizational strategies for specialization. The results challenge the conventional wisdom of NGO advocacy that small NGOs are free-riders of leading NGOs' advocacy resources. As a corrective to ecological theories in IR, my argument invites scholars to pay more attention to the consequences of agentic actions in global governance.

Author

• Takumi Shibaike, European University Institute