Organizational Ecology Success Factors in the Business: A Case Study at Fingerhut Inc.

Abstract

The proliferation, growth, decline, and re-growth of the high tech industry during the past several decades has allowed for the creation of new organizational concepts. One of these concepts finds its theoretical underpinnings in the areas of ecology and biology. This paper attempts to apply organizational ecology, particularly the well-known Verhulst-Pearl (VP) ecological logistic growth model, to the life cycle of e-commerce enterprises using Fingerhut Inc. as an example noting its successes and failures.

Keywords:

• E-business
• e-commerce
• ecology
• ecosystems
• competitive advantage
• order fulfillment

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The authors would like to thank many former and current Fingerhut employees, managers, and Petters Group for allowing interviews and data collection for this study.