GOING GLOBAL? CITY-BASED STATUS, MIMICRY, AND EXPANSION PATH IDIOSYNCRASY IN THE DIFFUSION OF A GLOBAL IDENTITY AMONG U.S. LAW FIRMS, 1980-2011

This paper investigates the determinants and contingencies of corporate law firm’s adoption of a global form. I find that the likelihood of a U.S. law firm to open a foreign branch office increased with its affiliated cities’ level of status up to a point and then decreased during the period of 1980-2011. To further assess whether some of the rush to go global is generated by contagion-driven competitive mimicry, I also examined the influence of structurally equivalent firms ? firms that are similar in overall geographic configurations. I find that a firm’ decision to open a foreign branch office is indeed susceptible to recent similar actions by its structurally equivalent peers but it is firms with less-prestigious location profiles that are most susceptible to such social influence. Additional results show that firms having historically pioneered their own unique expansion path were less affected by recent foreign branch openings of their peers. Together, this chapter illustrates how forces such as location-based status, competitive mimicry, and history interact in the complicated fashion in the diffusion of a global form in the legal industry.