Search results
1 – 10 of 291The title of this book suggests the possibility that new ways of managing innovative processes may favour an evolution of the economy towards an altruistic model. This chapter…
Abstract
The title of this book suggests the possibility that new ways of managing innovative processes may favour an evolution of the economy towards an altruistic model. This chapter argues that the acceleration of innovative processes at the turn of the millennium has produced, or at least has not avoided, phenomena of the concentration of wealth and power in which it is difficult to discern an altruistic root. It is observed that the cultural models developed to interpret innovative phenomena are also focused on the profit of individual companies and not on altruistic values. The author goes on to indicate the appropriateness of referring to less limited phenomenological models and suggests exploring an analogy of innovation with Darwinian evolution. An outline of this approach is provided.
Details
Keywords
This paper addresses the theory of legal pragmatism from the vantage of evolutionary metaphor. Legal pragmatism tends to incorporate a progress narrative with similarities to both…
Abstract
This paper addresses the theory of legal pragmatism from the vantage of evolutionary metaphor. Legal pragmatism tends to incorporate a progress narrative with similarities to both evolutionary biology and classical economics, in which social developments are thought to be determined by competition among techniques and ideas. The difficulty with such competitive views of social change is that they obscure the extent to which successful solutions of the past – now the status quo – may be less adept at meeting new and future problems. Drawing on the evolutionary and economic variant theory of path dependence, it is argued that an assumption that the best, most efficient technique always wins out unduly sanctifies the present and inhibits awareness of unmet challenges. Ultimately, the encouragement of social change and advancement would be more securely located in the legal promotion of individual attempts at originality, rather than an assumption that competition is constantly moving toward perfection.
This essay explores evolutionary and competence‐based theories of the firm. Evolutionary theories can be regarded as a subset of a wider class of theories, variously described as…
Abstract
This essay explores evolutionary and competence‐based theories of the firm. Evolutionary theories can be regarded as a subset of a wider class of theories, variously described as “capabilities”, “resource‐based”, or “competence‐based” theories of the firm. These contrast with a different set of contractarian theories, emanating largely from the work of Coase. It is argued that the contractarian theories of the firm misleadingly assume given individuals thus neglecting processes of individual learning and transformation. Similarly underestimated is importance of technology and the persistence of variety in firm structure and performance. The genesis of the alternative, competence‐based approach is outlined, including the important subset of “evolutionary” approaches of the Nelson‐Winter type. The paper concludes with a discussion of the relevance of the competence‐based approach to strategic management.
Details
Keywords
A functionalist framework is used to synthesize well‐known ideas about societal integration and, conversely, disintegration. If the underlying Darwinian metaphor in functional…
Abstract
A functionalist framework is used to synthesize well‐known ideas about societal integration and, conversely, disintegration. If the underlying Darwinian metaphor in functional analysis is retained, and supplemented by dialectical metaphors, then functional theorizing can insightfully address the forces of societal disintegration. The emerging theory revolves around, on the structural side, the dynamics of segmentation, differentiation, interdependence and exchange, structural overlap, structural embeddedness, mobility, segregation, and domination whereas on the cultural side, the theory emphasizes the dynamics inhering in systems of evaluational, regulatory, and legitimating symbols as well as generalized symbolic media.
Co‐operation is a defining characteristic of ongoing buyer‐seller relationships, yet selfishness lies at the heart of Darwinian models of evolution. Discussion of relationship…
Abstract
Co‐operation is a defining characteristic of ongoing buyer‐seller relationships, yet selfishness lies at the heart of Darwinian models of evolution. Discussion of relationship marketing has paid insufficient attention to the analysis of reasons why individuals incur short‐term costs in order to gain an uncertain benefit from co‐operation in the future. This paper contributes to the development of theories of relationship marketing by exploring Darwinian game‐theoretic models as a basis for buyer‐seller relationships. Indiscriminate altruism by partners may at first seem to be co‐operative behaviour, but simulations have suggested that the long‐term effect may be to reduce co‐operation.
Details
Keywords
History since the Industrial Revolution shows an accelerating trend of change driven by changes in enabling technologies. Such changes give rise to a Darwinian evolution in…
Abstract
History since the Industrial Revolution shows an accelerating trend of change driven by changes in enabling technologies. Such changes give rise to a Darwinian evolution in commerce. The companies most likely to survive are those which can most quickly adapt to such enabling technologies. The World Wide Web provides a potent infrastructure for dispersed but cooperative information sharing. The emergence of powerful and cheap PCs and broadband communications challenges the orthodox organisation of business models. The possibility of dispersed but tightly integrated companies has become a reality. Individual facilities managers may opt to: plan careers outside FM; compete for the remaining work; seek to develop FM to encompass the changed nature of commerce and the facilities provided. Institutions are not exempt from such changes. Academic qualifications need to be date‐stamped. A ten‐year old degree may be of little value when a decade of technological progress has eroded its academic base.
Details
Keywords
So far, the simplicity of heuristics has been mostly studied at the rule level. However, actors' bounded rationality implies that small bundles of rules drive behavior. This study…
Abstract
Purpose
So far, the simplicity of heuristics has been mostly studied at the rule level. However, actors' bounded rationality implies that small bundles of rules drive behavior. This study thus conducts a conceptual elaboration around such bundling. This leads to reflections on the various processes of heuristic emergence and to qualifications of the respective characteristics of basic heuristic classes.
Design/methodology/approach
Determining which rules – out of many possible ones – to select in one's small bundle constitutes a difficult combinatorial problem. Fortunately, past research has demonstrated that solutions can be found in evolutionary mechanisms. Those converge toward bundles that are somewhat imperfect yet cannot be easily improved, a.k.a., locally optimal bundles. This paper therefore identifies that heuristic bundles can efficiently emerge by social evolutionary mechanisms whereby actors recursively exchange, adopt and perform bundles of rules constitute processes of heuristic emergence.
Findings
Such evolutionary emergence of socially calculated small bundles of heuristics differs from the agentic process by which some simple rule heuristics emerge or from the biological calculation process by which some behavioral biology heuristics emerge. The paper subsequently proceeds by classifying heuristics depending on their emergence process, distinguishing, on the one hand, agentic vs evolutionary mechanisms and, on the other hand, social vs biological encodings. The differences in the emergence processes of heuristics suggest the possibility of comparing them on three key characteristics – timescale, reflectivity and local optimality – which imply different forms of fitness.
Research limitations/implications
The study proceeds as a conceptual elaboration; hence, it does not provide empirics. At a microlevel, it enables classification and comparison of the largest possible range of heuristics. At a macrolevel, it advocates for further exploration of managerial bundles of rules, regarding both their dynamics and their substantive nature.
Practical implications
In the field, practitioners are often observed to socially construct their theory of action, which emerges as a bundle of heuristics. This study demonstrates that such social calculations provide solutions that have comparatively good qualities as compared to heuristics emerging through other processes, such as agentic simple rules or instinctive – i.e. behavioral biology – heuristics. It should motivate further research on bundles of heuristics in management practice. Such an effort would improve the ability to produce knowledge fitting the absorptive capacity of practitioners and enhance the construction of normative managerial theories and pedagogy.
Social implications
Bundles of rules may also play a crucial role in the emergence of collective action. This study contributes to a performativity perspective whereby theories can become reality. It demonstrates how the construction of a managerial belief system may amount to the launching of a social movement and vice versa.
Originality/value
Overall, many benefits accrue from integrating the bundles of rules expressed and exchanged by practitioners under the heuristic umbrella. So far, in management scholarship, such emergent objects have sometimes been interpreted as naïve or as indicative of institutional pressures. By contrast, this study shows that socially calculated bundles may efficiently combine the advantages of individuals' reflective cognitive processes with those provided by massive evolutionary exchanges. In conclusion, the social calculations of small heuristic bundles may constitute a crucial mechanism for the elaboration of pragmatic theories of action.
Details
Keywords
Emery and Trist were the first to design an influential taxonomy of four social fields to accommodate the perceived emergence of a new type of business environment, the type 4…
Abstract
Emery and Trist were the first to design an influential taxonomy of four social fields to accommodate the perceived emergence of a new type of business environment, the type 4 turbulent field. This captured the predicament of leading companies suddenly confronted with, what Christensen called much later, disruptive change. Their taxonomy was based on the study of adaptive behavior on linear dynamical systems. This paper proposes a modification of the taxonomy on the basis of Synergetics to enable dealing with the nonlinear evolutionary dynamics of complex probabilistic business systems. Synergetics focuses on what happens in phase transitions or bifurcations which appear to be the essential nature of turbulent fields. Furthermore, Haken's slaving principle and the concept of the order parameter are remarkably well‐suited to review the Christensen's findings of companies held captive by customers and, particularly, the puzzling delay shown by leading companies in responding to newcomers. These newcomers typically change the nature of the order parameters of type 3 established fields, as represented by Christensen's product performance characteristics, which may cause customers to switch their preferences and buying behavior. Thus the apparent stability of an established field can be quite deceptive. As such, this paper suggests the existence of a lock‐out principle complementary to the lock‐in principle described by Arthur in his work.
Details