Using Old Concepts to Gain New Insights: Addressing the Issue of Consistency

Purpose of the paper: This paper aims to go beyond a bookkeeping approach to evolutionary analysis whereby surviving firms are better adapted and extinct firms were less adapted. From discussion of the preliminary findings of research into the Hobart pizza industry, evidence is presented of the need to adopt a more traditional approach to applying evolutionary theories with organizational research. Methodology/Approach: After a brief review of the relevant literature, the preliminary findings of research into the Hobart pizza industry are presented. Then, several evolutionary concepts that are common place in ecological research are introduced to help explain the emergent findings. The paper concludes with consideration given too advancing a more consistent approach to employing evolutionary theories within organizational research. Findings: The process of selection can not be assumed to occur evenly across time and/or space. Within geographically small markets different forms of selection operate in different ways and degrees requiring the use of more traditional evolutionary theories to highlight the causal process associated with population change. Research Implications: The paper concludes by highlighting Geoffery Hodgson's Principle of Consistency. It is demonstrated that a failure to truly understand how and why theory is used in one domain will likely result in its misuse in another domain. That at present, too few evolutionary concepts are employed in organisational research too ensure an appreciation of any underlying causal processes through which social change occurs. What is the original/value of paper: The concepts introduced throughout this paper, whilst not new, provide new entry points for organizational researchers intent of employing an evolutionary approach to understand the process of social change

Firm Transformation: Advancing a Darwinian Perspective

Purpose of the paper: The paper advocates a Darwinian explanation of the process of firm transformation. Existing, but generally opposing views related to the selection-adaptation debates are united to consider the dialogic nature of both approaches. It is argued that a Darwinian approach, as opposed to a neo-Darwinian or Lamarckian approach provides the means to scale the sides of a debate that has for too long divided scholars interested in firm and industry transformation. Approach: The paper addresses three specific issues to develop its Darwinian argument. Firstly, the various work of Geoff Hodgson that have for many years advanced Darwin's evolutionary ideas are used to argue the nature and application of Darwinism in the socio-economic domain. Secondly, the nature of what constitutes the elements of firm-environment interaction is considered to establish basic areas of focus through which the process of firm transformation is more understandable. Lastly, the construct absorptive capacity is likened to a mechanism of transmission through which the learning processes associated with the acquisition of favoured variations can be reconciled with the generic evolutionary processes of variation, selection, and retention. Findings: To understand the process of firm learning, the role of habits and routines must be outlined in specific detail. They cannot be assumed to perform interacting and replicating roles simultaneously. To do so, undermines the fundamental qualities of an evolutionary theory. What is the original/value of paper: The preliminary framework advanced takes us beyond the Darwinian - Lamarckian debate and provides elements of focus from which a greater understanding of the process of firm/industry transformation is possible

Firm Survival: Adding Transferred Demand into the Equation

This paper is concerned with the development of a consistent evolutionary account of small firm survival. Set against the background of the Hobart Pizza industry, a novel explanation of firm survival is presented that derives its logic from established evolutionary concepts that are rarely, if ever applied to the domain of organizational studies. This paper has two specific aims. Firstly, it introduces a new explanation of firm survival that has potential application in other franchised dominated contexts. Secondly, it is a protest against the lack of consistency demonstrated in developing an evolutionary approach to the study of entrepreneurship thus far

An Alternative View of Small Firm Adaptation

Increasingly, small firms with a history tied to a specific geographic location are having their survival threatened by new and innovative web-based entrants. This paper considers the plight of such firms and proposes an alternative means to reflect on how they may or may not learn about such threats. Adopting an evolutionary perspective, the construct absorptive capacity is used to highlight the deficiencies of current market orientation theory to explain the process of firm learning. The conceptual model of evolutionary potential provides a framework through which both the firm and its owner/s' abilities to learn can be taken into account

Stepping back to look inside the entangled bank

The development of curriculum to facilitate the development of graduate entrepreneurship is a challenging task. That we can help graduate students become entrepreneurs is a frequently challenged assumption. To make matters worse there is little consensus as to how entrepreneurship education should be delivered. This paper argues that our focus should be first and foremost on the processes associated with entrepreneurship curriculum. With reference to a recent study of graduate entrepreneurship, major concerns related to developing entrepreneurship curriculum are tackled through consideration of specific educational literature. Using an evolutionary perspective, this paper provides evidence of how entrepreneurship curriculum can be developed to also account for the diversity of student abilities and the general ambiguity of the subject matter itself. In doing so, it is suggested that the designers of contemporary entrepreneurship curriculum will themselves be entrepreneurs. That the development of entrepreneurship curriculum is an evolving process without a starting or ending point