Evolutionary Processes and Organizational Adaptation

Evolutionary Processes and Organizational Adaptation PDF Author: Daniel A. Levinthal
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192634100
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 152

Get Book

Book Description
How do firms adapt? There are two basic starting points from which to answer that question. One is premised on ideas of rational choice and intentionality, while the other is a process of evolutionary dynamics. Both are well-defined and operate as powerful intellectual attractors. Using the ideas of Gregor Mendel as a useful touchstone, this book aims to construct a middle-ground between these two conceptions. The image of the "Mendelian" executive shows how we might effectively balance the ideas of godlike rational design on the one hand and evolutionary dynamics on the other. The perspective developed in this book is anchored on the two key primitives of path-dependence and artificial selection. The intentionality of the Mendelian executive allows for the conscious exploration of opportunities, rather than the happenstance of random variants, yet the constraining forces of path-dependence may lead these moves to adjacent spaces. This perspective also highlights the role of intentionality with respect to the selection and culling of strategic initiatives. The organization operates an “artificial selection” environment, as firms receive profits and losses and, in turn, mediate how these environmental outcomes are projected onto underlying elements and actors within the organization. In this spirit, exploration can be considered not merely as the distance in the underlying behavior from current action, but also as changes in the dimensions of merit by which initiatives are judged. The Mendelian executive is a catalyst and cultivator of promising pathways to unknown futures.

Evolutionary Processes and Organizational Adaptation

Evolutionary Processes and Organizational Adaptation PDF Author: Daniel A. Levinthal
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192634100
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 152

Get Book

Book Description
How do firms adapt? There are two basic starting points from which to answer that question. One is premised on ideas of rational choice and intentionality, while the other is a process of evolutionary dynamics. Both are well-defined and operate as powerful intellectual attractors. Using the ideas of Gregor Mendel as a useful touchstone, this book aims to construct a middle-ground between these two conceptions. The image of the "Mendelian" executive shows how we might effectively balance the ideas of godlike rational design on the one hand and evolutionary dynamics on the other. The perspective developed in this book is anchored on the two key primitives of path-dependence and artificial selection. The intentionality of the Mendelian executive allows for the conscious exploration of opportunities, rather than the happenstance of random variants, yet the constraining forces of path-dependence may lead these moves to adjacent spaces. This perspective also highlights the role of intentionality with respect to the selection and culling of strategic initiatives. The organization operates an “artificial selection” environment, as firms receive profits and losses and, in turn, mediate how these environmental outcomes are projected onto underlying elements and actors within the organization. In this spirit, exploration can be considered not merely as the distance in the underlying behavior from current action, but also as changes in the dimensions of merit by which initiatives are judged. The Mendelian executive is a catalyst and cultivator of promising pathways to unknown futures.

Evolutionary Processes and Organizational Adaptation

Evolutionary Processes and Organizational Adaptation PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book

Book Description


Evolutionary Processes and Organizational Adaptation

Evolutionary Processes and Organizational Adaptation PDF Author: Daniel A. Levinthal
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199684944
Category : Management
Languages : en
Pages : 158

Get Book

Book Description
How do firms adapt? Is it through rational choice and intentionality, or rather a process of evolutionary dynamics? Using the ideas of Gregor Mendel as a touchstone, this book aims to construct a middle-ground between these two conceptions and provide a new framework for understanding the adaptive dynamics of organizations.

Evolutionary Selection Processes

Evolutionary Selection Processes PDF Author: Ewa Stańczyk-Hugiet
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
ISBN: 1787696871
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 200

Get Book

Book Description
The book explains managerial intervention and its effects on the strategic adaptation mode. It introduces the concept of primary selection (inside an organization) with endogenous mechanisms and explains the strategic process via selecting organizational routines. The book goes beyond the classical selection exposing its multilevel character.

Evolutionary Dynamics of Organizations

Evolutionary Dynamics of Organizations PDF Author: Joel A.C. Baum
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195358910
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 518

Get Book

Book Description
This book presents the latest research and theory about organizational evolutionary change. It brings together the work of organization theorists who have played key roles in challenging the orthodox adaptation views that prevailed until the beginning of the 1980s. Joel A.C. Baum and Jitendra V. Singh emphasize hierarchy of evolutionary processes at the intraorganizational level, the organizational level, the population level, and the community level. Derived from a conference held at the Stern School of Business at New York University, Evolutionary Dynamics of Organizations is organized in a way that gives order and coherence to what has been a diverse and multidisciplinary field.

Resource-Based and Evolutionary Theories of the Firm

Resource-Based and Evolutionary Theories of the Firm PDF Author: Cynthia A. Montgomery
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461522013
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 277

Get Book

Book Description
Resource-Based and Evolutionary Theories of the Firm: Towards a Synthesis explores the intersection of evolutionary theories of the firm with an emergent body of research in the field of strategic management that has been broadly referred to as the `resource-based view of the firm'. The volume approaches strategic questions from several vantage points, thereby fostering a useful cross-fertilization of ideas. The views presented spring from a variety of sources, namely the principles of strategic management, organisation economics, and population ecology.

Adaptation and Natural Selection

Adaptation and Natural Selection PDF Author: George Christopher Williams
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691185506
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 335

Get Book

Book Description
Biological evolution is a fact—but the many conflicting theories of evolution remain controversial even today. When Adaptation and Natural Selection was first published in 1966, it struck a powerful blow against those who argued for the concept of group selection—the idea that evolution acts to select entire species rather than individuals. Williams’s famous work in favor of simple Darwinism over group selection has become a classic of science literature, valued for its thorough and convincing argument and its relevance to many fields outside of biology. Now with a new foreword by Richard Dawkins, Adaptation and Natural Selection is an essential text for understanding the nature of scientific debate.

Strategy-Making and Organizational Evolution

Strategy-Making and Organizational Evolution PDF Author: Robert Alexander Burgelman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108996175
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 148

Get Book

Book Description
This Element presents several frameworks of strategy-making that serve to analyze organizational evolution processes within and beyond the firm. These frameworks form an integrated evolutionary ecological lens to examine the dynamics of strategy-making in organizational evolution. They highlight the role of the internal selection environment for analyzing processes and practices at various managerial levels (top, middle, and operational) within the organization. The Element also explains the role of the CEO in maintaining and updating the internal selection environment and contributing to organizational evolution, as well as making. fundamental decisions about organizational splits of the firm's business models as an ecosystem evolves.

Routledge Handbook of Evolutionary Economics

Routledge Handbook of Evolutionary Economics PDF Author: Kurt Dopfer
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 0429677723
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 477

Get Book

Book Description
While dating from post-Classical economists such as Thorstein Veblen and Joseph Schumpeter, the inception of the modern field of evolutionary economics is usually dated to the early 1980s. Broadly speaking, evolutionary economics sees the economy as undergoing continual, evolutionary change. Evolutionary change indicates that these changes were not planned, but rather were the result of innovations and selection processes. These often involved winners and losers, but most importantly, they resulted in actors learning what was and was not working. Evolutionary economics, in contrast to mainstream economics, emphasises the relevance of variables such as technology, institutions, decision rules, routines, or consumer preferences for explaining the complex evolutionary changes in the economy. In so doing, evolutionary economics significantly broadens the scope of economic analysis, and sheds new light on key concepts and issues of the discipline. This handbook draws on a stellar cast list of international contributors, ranging from the founders of the field to the newest voices. The volume explores the current state of the art in the field of evolutionary economics at the levels of the micro (e.g. firms and households), meso (e.g. industries and institutions), and macro (e.g. economic policy, structure, and growth). Overall, the Routledge Handbook of Evolutionary Economics provides an excellent overview of current trends and issues in this rapidly developing field.

Institutions and Evolution of Capitalism

Institutions and Evolution of Capitalism PDF Author: Francesca Gagliardi
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
ISBN: 1785365002
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 384

Get Book

Book Description
In just over 30 years, Geoff Hodgson has made substantial contributions to institutional economics, evolutionary economics, economic methodology, the history of economic thought and social theory. To mark his seminal work, this volume brings together original contributions by world-leading scholars in specific areas that have played a significant role in influencing his thinking or represent key debates to which he has contributed. Building on some of the most significant philosophical and methodological foundations underlying Hodgson's work, the volume is organised around the recurring themes of institutions, evolution and capitalism.