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Article
Publication date: 24 May 2013

M. Rosario Perello‐Marin, Juan A. Marin‐Garcia and Javier Marcos‐Cuevas

Scholars in social sciences tend to use the term of path dependence without explaining exactly what they mean by it. Path dependence is a useful approach to understand the success…

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Abstract

Purpose

Scholars in social sciences tend to use the term of path dependence without explaining exactly what they mean by it. Path dependence is a useful approach to understand the success or otherwise of the implementation of management innovation. The aim of this paper is to identify under which conditions it makes sense to talk about path dependence, and the relevance of using path dependence to the analysis of management innovation.

Design/methodology/approach

The path dependence literature in different contexts and knowledge areas within social science is reviewed using a narrative approach.

Findings

The concept of path dependence can be used to study management innovation, particularly when analyzing the introduction of new management practices. The authors argue that the order in which management practices are introduced has a profound effect on the outcomes for the organization. When the appropriate practices are introduced first, these create enhanced capabilities for the implementation of subsequent practices. If inappropriate practices are rolled out, they may severely impede management innovation and thus evolution and change of the firm.

Research limitations/implications

This work highlights the need to conduct further research to understand the interaction between existing practices and the new ones. This study can be extended with an empirical work to corroborate the results presented here.

Originality/value

By reviewing the different definitions of path dependence that exist in the literature, this paper will stimulate a debate on the necessary and sufficient conditions of path dependence and encourage a greater level of clarity in the management innovation area.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 51 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 October 2014

Jesús M. Valdaliso, Edurne Magro, Mikel Navarro, Mari Jose Aranguren and James R. Wilson

– The purpose of this paper is to apply the path dependence theoretical framework to STI policies that support research and innovation strategies for smart specialisation (RIS3).

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to apply the path dependence theoretical framework to STI policies that support research and innovation strategies for smart specialisation (RIS3).

Design/methodology/approach

Review of the recent literature on the phases, sources of reinforcement and change mechanisms (layering, conversion, recombination, etc.) present in path-dependent processes, as well as the role played by mental frameworks, political agents and power relations; and its illustration and testing over 30 years of STI policy development in the Basque Country.

Findings

How to operationalise the analysis of continuity and change of STI policies supporting RIS3 policies characterised by path dependence processes. Likewise, learnings from the analysis of Basque case regarding the types of challenges that European regions will face as they design their RIS3, according to their degree of maturity in STI policies.

Originality/value

It is the first time that the recently developed tools for analysis of path-dependent processes are applied to the development of STI policies supporting RIS3 policies.

Details

European Journal of Innovation Management, vol. 17 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1460-1060

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 26 January 2009

Marie‐Andrée Caron and Marie‐France B. Turcotte

This paper aims to analyze so‐called sustainability, corporate social responsibility or citizenship reports, as artefacts of a compromise between an institutional entrepreneur…

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to analyze so‐called sustainability, corporate social responsibility or citizenship reports, as artefacts of a compromise between an institutional entrepreneur (IE), the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), and companies. Some companies take on this invitation but to which extent the information they produce as a result corresponds to the ideal promoted by the IE?

Design/methodology/approach

A sample of ten reports from Canadian companies were analyzed using a combination of deductive and inductive coding techniques. The discourse and pictures were analyzed to identify whether they represent path creation (adherence to the sustainability ideal) or path dependence (the expression of traditional business interests and practices).

Findings

The study findings show that companies adopt the sustainability reporting guideline and ideal promoted by IE, but only partially. Path dependence and path creation are in tension, a condition typical of innovative processes according to the actor network theory (ANT) framework. It suggests that the market for sustainability information is under construction.

Originality/value

The value of the paper is that it examines voluntary disclosure of social and environmental performance by companies, using the notion of IE from the neo‐institutionalist theory, as well as the innovation model from the ANT. The originality of the paper also lies in its methodology – particularly the use of a mixed method—including the composition of “poems” with “verses” extracted from the corporate reports.

Details

Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal, vol. 22 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0951-3574

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 June 2015

Kirsi Mäkinen, Paula Kivimaa and Ville Helminen

The purpose of this paper is to examine spatiality of transitions by combining aspects of urban form to policy analysis. It aims to increase understanding of how urban form…

1824

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine spatiality of transitions by combining aspects of urban form to policy analysis. It aims to increase understanding of how urban form relates to potential effects of transport policies on urban mobility transitions.

Design/methodology/approach

Novel analytical framework combines concepts of path dependence, path creation and path destabilisation to three urban fabrics (walking, transit and car cities), to study the transition potential of recent transport policy measures influencing the Helsinki region in Finland.

Findings

Analysis showed that the potential effects of single policy measures often reach over all three urban fabrics. A policy measure may simultaneously contain elements of both path dependence, i.e. support for fossil-fuel based private motoring in the car city and path creation, i.e. stimulation of innovations in transit or walking cities. Policy outcomes are often conditional on implementation of other policy measures. For transition governance, this indicates that policy mixes should both destabilise car cities and enforce path creation in walking and transit cities.

Research limitations/implications

Findings are based on potential rather than evaluated impacts and a limited sample of policies.

Practical implications

Findings support previous research on the importance of policy coherence: multiple policies and coherence across domains are important. They demonstrate the usefulness of analysing recent or planned policies from the transition perspective.

Originality/value

The paper provides novel insights by combining policy analysis to the spatial model of overlapping urban fabrics. In addition, it applies the concepts of path dependence, path creation and path destabilisation in a new way.

Details

Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, vol. 26 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-7835

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 March 2024

Daniel Padgett, Christopher D. Hopkins and Colin B. Gabler

This paper aims to investigate the interrelated role of relational commitment and dependence as drivers of key performance outcomes. Specifically, the authors provide a conceptual…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to investigate the interrelated role of relational commitment and dependence as drivers of key performance outcomes. Specifically, the authors provide a conceptual model of the impact of commitment on relationship value dependence and switching cost dependence. The authors further investigate how these dimensions of dependence offer differing noneconomic and economic paths to strategic and financial performance.

Design/methodology/approach

Survey data was collected from 296 purchasing agents across multiple industries located in the USA. The conceptual model and accompanying hypotheses were tested via partial least squares structural equation modeling.

Findings

The results show that the relational path is driven by affective and normative commitment, which are related to relationship value dependence. Conversely, calculative commitment is related to switching cost dependence. This economic path is related to both strategic and financial performance, whereas the relational path is more closely related to strategic as opposed to financial performance outcomes.

Research limitations/implications

This study extends research on Business-To-Business (B2B) relationships by leveraging social exchange theory to examine the interrelated roles played by two forms of dependence on performance outcomes. Thus, the authors answer Scheer et al.’s (2015) call for research into the two distinct types of dependence – relationship value and switching cost dependence – and their roles in determining B2B relationship outcomes. The findings contribute to the literature by integrating social exchange and relationship marketing concepts to develop a dual pathway approach to B2B partnerships.

Practical implications

The results suggest that dependence is not necessarily negative for firms. Specifically, buyers can and do still exhibit positive performance, both strategic and financial, in relationships with suppliers even when dependent on the relationship. Regardless of whether buyers are dependent due to a relationship or economic factors, both can, in different ways, lead to positive strategic and financial outcomes. Together, the authors contribute to the understanding of B2B partnerships by offering guidelines for both buyers and suppliers in the dyad.

Originality/value

The authors derive a comprehensive model depicting primarily relational and economic paths to performance through different types of commitment and dependence. The authors contribute to the literature by demonstrating that relational and economic paths to success are not the same, highlighting how firms could influence performance even when the relationship is not necessarily characterized by generally positive relational benefits and behaviors.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 October 2005

Muhammad Imran and Nicholas Low

The purpose of the paper is to explore this phenomenon, how initial choice in the history of transport policy in Pakistan became “locked into” suboptimal transport policies biased…

4419

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of the paper is to explore this phenomenon, how initial choice in the history of transport policy in Pakistan became “locked into” suboptimal transport policies biased towards private vehicles and roads and now resisting change to a more sustainable transport policy.

Design/methodology/approach

The methodology was designed by applying the concept of “path dependence” on a case study of Pakistan. This approach helped to locate the “critical juncture” for explaining how transport decision has been made over time and on which basis.

Findings

Pakistan transport development, including urban transport planning, has become both “resource dependent” and “path dependent” upon international agencies which shapes the outcomes and limits the application of sustainable solutions in transport in ways that could be consistent with the local situation.

Research limitations/implications

The paper is a part of a research project, “identifying the institutional barriers to sustainable urban transport in Pakistan” which is in progress. Therefore, the paper may develop its findings at the end of the research project.

Practical implications

The paper provides valuable information to getting insight into urban transport politics of Pakistan.

Originality/value

The research paper has implied the concept of “path dependence” to explain the difference between reality and ideal in urban transport planning of Pakistan by the interventions of global agencies.

Details

Management of Environmental Quality: An International Journal, vol. 16 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-7835

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 24 June 2020

Bruno S. Silvestre, Minelle E. Silva, Allan Cormack and Antônio Márcio Tavares Thome

This paper explores how organizational capabilities and path dependence affect the implementation of supply chain (SC) sustainability initiatives. Through the lenses of…

1691

Abstract

Purpose

This paper explores how organizational capabilities and path dependence affect the implementation of supply chain (SC) sustainability initiatives. Through the lenses of contingency and evolutionary theory, the paper addresses the underexplored supply chain dynamics that enhance or inhibit sustainability trajectories.

Design/methodology/approach

Using in-depth multi-case studies for theory elaboration, five supply chains were studied through open-ended interviews with SC members, secondary data collection and site visit observation. The design consists of a combination of deductive and inductive approaches to elaborate theory on supply chain dynamics and enhanced sustainability trajectories.

Findings

The empirical study shows that learning is a fundamental condition for supply chains as they implement sustainability initiatives, and that exploitation capabilities are more frequently used than exploration capabilities. Path dependence plays a role in the outcomes of supply chain sustainability initiatives, which are influenced by both path dependence and contingencies of the contexts in which these systems operate.

Research limitations/implications

This paper puts forward five propositions that emerge from the literature and from the field study results. Although this is an exploratory research bounded by geographical limitations and the limited number of SC cases, the goal of elaborating theory may open up several promising avenues for future large-scale and longitudinal research studies.

Practical implications

By enhancing our understanding of the dynamics of supply chain sustainability trajectories, decision-makers, scholars and policy-makers can better understand how supply chains learn, how they employ SC member capabilities and how they deal with stakeholder resistance.

Originality/value

This paper extends supply chain sustainability theory by addressing the knowledge gap that exists with regard to understanding the dynamics of evolving supply chain sustainability trajectories. This paper sheds additional light on this important topic and contributes in multiple ways to the sustainable supply chain management literature.

Details

International Journal of Operations & Production Management, vol. 40 no. 9
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0144-3577

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 February 2003

Charles Booth

Does history matter in strategy? The lack of attention given to historical perspectives in the mainstream literature suggests that it does not. Recently, however, authors have…

2732

Abstract

Does history matter in strategy? The lack of attention given to historical perspectives in the mainstream literature suggests that it does not. Recently, however, authors have argued that historical forces do affect the strategic management of organizations, and have highlighted their importance through the concept of “path dependence”. I review the literature on path dependence and argue that a conception of the complexities of historical understanding is required in a dynamic understanding of organizations. To highlight these complexities, I review an important theme in twentieth century historiography: the possibilities and problems presented by counterfactual analysis. Despite some serious objections to counterfactual thinking, this method may yield benefits for both managers and theorists. I conclude that to do justice to the importance of history in organizations, we must follow Collingwood in engaging, not with the question “Shall I be a historian or not?”, but rather with the question, “How good a historian shall I be?”.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 41 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 29 November 2019

Bo Bengtsson, Peter G. Håkansson and Peter Karpestam

Transaction costs, responsive housing supply, rent controls, tenant protection, and access to credit affect residential mobility – these different parts of housing policy are…

Abstract

Transaction costs, responsive housing supply, rent controls, tenant protection, and access to credit affect residential mobility – these different parts of housing policy are included in what has been defined as housing regimes, which embrace regulations, laws, norms, and ideology as well as economic factors. In this chapter, we investigate how these regimes change by using institutional theories of path dependence. We use Sweden as an example and study three Swedish housing market reforms during the past decades that may have affected residential mobility, each related to one of the main institutional pillars of housing provision: tenure legislation, taxation, and finance. More precisely, we study the development of the rental regulation since the late 1960s, the tax reform in 1991, and the new reforms on mortgages since 2010. What caused these reforms? What were the main mechanisms behind them, and why did they occur at the time they did? We argue, besides affecting residential mobility, these reforms have the common feature of including interesting elements of path dependence and forming critical junctures that have led the development on to a new path. Institutions of tenure legislation, housing finance, and taxation are often claimed to have effects on residential mobility. Although they are seldom designed with the explicit aim of supporting (or counteracting) residential mobility, they may sometimes do so as more or less unintended consequences.

Details

Investigating Spatial Inequalities
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78973-942-8

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 8 February 2013

Klaus Heine and Heike Rindfleisch

The aim of this paper is to propose an integrative framework of organizational decline on the firm‐level.

3120

Abstract

Purpose

The aim of this paper is to propose an integrative framework of organizational decline on the firm‐level.

Design/methodology/approach

In recent years, there has been a growing number of contributions to the research field of organizational decline from diverse theoretical perspectives and different levels of analysis. In this paper, an integrative framework of organizational decline on the firm‐level is proposed that relies on a process perspective, combining insights from organizational ecology, path dependence and the resource‐based view.

Findings

Different theoretical perspectives are used to explore various aspects of the problem of organizational decline. A theoretical framework as a theoretical perspective is developed to guide research and to interconnect diverse theoretical findings. Based on the suggested framework, two archetypes are distinguished which lead an organization to insolvency: malabsorptive incompetence and maladapted competencies.

Originality/value

The proposed framework allows the capture of the dynamic process of organizational decline and the identification of the triggers driving organizational decline.

Details

Journal of Organizational Change Management, vol. 26 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0953-4814

Keywords

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