The Value of Moderate Obsession: Insights from a New Model of Organizational Search

This study presents a new model of search on a “rugged landscape,” which employs modeling techniques from fractal geometry rather than the now-familiar NK modeling technique. In our simulations,firms search locally in a two-dimensional fitness landscape, choosing moves in a way that responds both to local payoff considerations and to a more global sense of opportunity represented by a firm-specific “preferred direction.” The latter concept provides a very simple device for introducing cognitive or motivational considerations into the formal account of search behavior, alongside payoff considerations. After describing the objectives and the structure of the model, we report a first experiment which explores how the ruggedness of the landscape affects the interplay of local payoff and cognitive considerations (preferred direction) in search. We show that an intermediate search strategy, combining the guidance of local search with a moderate level of non-local “obsession,” is distinctly advantageous in searching a rugged landscape. We also explore the effects of other considerations, including the objective validity of the preferred direction and the degree of dispersion of firm strategies. We conclude by noting available features of the model that are not exercised in this experiment. Given the inherent flexibility of the model, the range of questions that might potentially be explored is extremely large.Rugged Landscapes; Local Search; Cognition; Obsession; Fractal Geometry

Competitive Implications of Interfirm Mobility

This paper examines the competitive consequences of interfirm mobility. Because the loss of key members (defined as top decision makers) to competing firms may amount to a replication of a firm’s higher-order routines, we investigate the conditions under which interfirm mobility triggers transfer of routines across organizational boundaries. We examine membership lists pertinent to the Dutch accounting industry to study key member exits and firm dissolutions over the period 1880–1986. We exploit information on the type of membership migration (individual versus collective) and the competitive saliency of the destination firm as inferred from the recipient status (incumbent versus start-up) and its geographic location (same versus different province). The dissolution risk is highest when collective interfirm mobility results in a new venture within the same geographic area. The theoretical implications of this study are discussed

Spatial and Temporal Heterogeneity in Founding Patterns

A growing body of literature suggests that populations of organizations are not homogeneous, but instead comprise distinct subentities. Firms are highly dependent on their immediate institutional and competitive environments. The present paper further explores this issue by focusing on the spatial and temporal sources of industry heterogeneity. Our goal is threefold. First, we explore founding rates as a function of spatial density, arguing that density-dependent processes occur along a geographic gradient ranging from proximate, to neighboring, to more distant contexts. Second, we show how multiple, local evolutionary clocks shape such entrepreneurial activity. Third, we provide evidence on how diffusion processes are directly affected by social contagion, with new organizational forms spreading through movements of individuals. Results from data on the Dutch accounting industry corroborate these patterns of heterogeneity

Deconstructing the outsider puzzle: The legitimation journey of novelty

The proposition that outsiders often are crucial carriers of novelty into an established institutional field has received wide empirical support. But an equally compelling proposition points to the following puzzle: the very same conditions that enhance outsiders' ability to make novel contributions also hinder their ability to carry them out. We seek to address this puzzle by examining the contextual circumstances that affect the legitimation of novelty originating from a noncertified outsider that challenged the status quo in an established institutional field. Our research case material is John Harrison's introduction of a new mechanical method for measuring longitude at sea-the marine chronometer- which challenged the dominant astronomical approach.We find that whether an outsider's new offer gains or is denied legitimacy is influenced by (1) the outsider's agency to further a new offer, (2) the existence of multiple audiences with different dispositions toward this offer, and (3) the occurrence of an exogenous jolt that helps create a more receptive social space. We organize these insights into a multilevel conceptual framework that builds on previouswork but attributes a more decisive role to the interplay between endogenous and exogenous variables in shaping a field's shifting receptiveness to novelty. The framework exposes the interdependencies between the micro-, meso-, and macro-level processes that jointly affect an outsider's efforts to introduce novelty into an existing field

Essays on technological evolution

A core strategy question is how established firms can sustain their competitive advantage in the face of technological change. While strategy research typically traces differences in the ability to innovate to a priori heterogeneity in initial conditions, whether such differences result from strategic foresight or historical accidents is unclear. The dissertation seeks to contribute to this debate by examining whether the capabilities used to develop a new technology are created in anticipation of this technology or result from capabilities developed in the past for other uses. We first investigate the process leading to the emergence of a new technology by conducting a longitudinal case study of Corning\u27s pioneering work in fiber optics. The study shows how the exposure to divergent selection forces is an important aspect of the search for new technologies. Since accurate foresight is rare, market feedback can help unveil new investment opportunities and even redirect a firm\u27s R&D. The study also suggests that the experience accumulated in one domain often represents pre-adaptation in other domains: pre-existing skills and knowledge can over time become useful for other unanticipated applications. We then investigate the performance implications of technological pre-adaptation in a large sample study on the evolution of fiber optics technology over the period 1970–1995. The aim is to find out which firms contributed the most to the emergence of this technology and whether firms that leverage their prior experience display any selective advantage as compared to firms that either do not have a similar base of experience or fail to take advantage of it. Far from implying a deterministic view of innovation and firm performance, and thus discarding any meaningful role for strategy, pre-adaptation still allows for variation in the observed behavior of ‘pre-adapted’ firms. To study the dynamic interplay between pre-adaptation, foresight and market feedback, we develop a simulation model based on fractal geometry. The simulation allows studying in a more controlled setting the relative importance between oriented search (i.e., search guided by foresight, heuristics or intention) and market feedback guided search in the development of new technologies or practices