Abstract
Isomorphic pressures tend to force a population of organizations to converge in terms of their structure and strategic actions. Isomorphic pressure increases compliance to norms, increasing the institution's legitimacy and resulting in broader compliance or entry of new members. We argue that in tightly coupled populations, firms face increased isomorphic pressures, leading to onset of a positive feedback loop. Complexity literature has shown that tightly coupled systems can produce nonlinear dynamics that fit power-law distributions. Therefore we predict that power law curves will fit the distribution of firms belonging to tightly coupled population and not that of loosely coupled population. We test our proposition through four studies across different sectors - banks, medical practitioners, post offices, and public health centers and find support. We demonstrate that isomorphic pressure causes firms to produce population network that are similar for population of firms with strategic similarities.