Causal Ambiguity, Complexity, and Capability-Based Advantage

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Ryall, Michael D.
• 署名单位: University of Melbourne
• 刊物名称: MANAGEMENT SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0025-1909
• DOI: 10.1287/mnsc.1080.0938
• 发表日期: 2009
• 页码: 389-403
• 关键词: CAUSAL AMBIGUITY; competitive inference; NK complexity; sustained advantage; imitation barrier; learning by observing; learning by doing

摘要

This paper presents the. first formal examination of role of causal ambiguity as a barrier to imitation. Here, the aspiring imitator faces a knowledge (i.e., capabilities-based) barrier to imitation that is both causal and ambiguous in a precise sense of both words. Imitation conforms to a well-explicated process of learning by observing. I provide a precise distinction between the intrinsic causal ambiguity associated with a particular strategy and the subjective ambiguity perceived by a challenger. I. find that intrinsic ambiguity is a necessary but insufficient condition for a sustained capability-based advantage. I also demonstrate that combinatorial complexity, a phenomenon that has attracted the recent attention of strategy theorists, and causal ambiguity are distinct barriers to imitation. The former acts as a barrier to explorative/active learning and the latter as one to absorptive/passive learning. One implication of this is that learning by doing and learning by observing are complementary strategic activities, not substitutes-in most cases, we should expect. firm strategies to seek performance enhancement using efforts of both types.