Adaptation and inertia in dynamic environments

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Stieglitz, Nils; Knudsen, Thorbjorn; Becker, Markus C.
• 署名单位: Frankfurt School Finance & Management; University of Southern Denmark
• 刊物名称: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0143-2095
• DOI: 10.1002/smj.2433
• 发表日期: 2016
• 页码: 1854-1864
• 关键词: ORGANIZATIONAL ADAPTATION; inertia; selection; exploration; dynamism

摘要

Research summary: We address conflicting claims and mixed empirical findings about adaptation as a response to increased environmental dynamism. We disentangle distinct dimensions of environmental dynamismthe direction, magnitude, and frequency of changeand identify how selection shapes adaptive responses to these dimensions. Our results show how frequent directional changes undermine the value of exploration and decisively shift performance advantages to inert organizations that restrict exploration. In contrast, increased environmental variance rewards exploration. Our results also show that, in dynamic environments, the best-performing organizations are generally more inert than less successful organizations.Managerial summary: Our research helps managers to understand under what business conditions investments into exploration and strategic flexibility are more likely to pay off. Dynamic business environments characterized by persistent trends and by large, infrequently occurring structural shocks reward strategic pursuit of temporary advantage. Thus, exploration and strategic flexibility are preferred strategies. In contrast, the challenge in frequently changing environments with fleeting opportunities is to identify and to focus on strategic actions whose payoffs on average are high, independent of environmental volatility. Low levels of exploration and long-term strategic focus are preferred strategies in these circumstances. Copyright (c) 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.