Uses data on 682 day-care centers (DCCs) operating in metropolitan Toronto, 1971-89, to examine how DCCs alter their organizational niches, defined by productive capacities and targeted resources, in response to competition, and resulting influences on their survival. Finds that evolution of the DCC population was a joint function of adaptation…

Examination of foundings of four-year women's colleges in three states, 1855-1968, reveals that institutional forces (presence of elite women's colleges, development of Catholic women's colleges, and enactment of the suffrage amendment) increased the founding rate, but rising organizational density later decreased the rate. Argues that…