Selection and variation in organizational evolution

Glenn R. Carroll, J. Richard Harrison and David G. McKendrick

Industrial and Corporate Change, 2012, vol. 21, issue 1, 217-243

Abstract: Many organizational populations display increasing variation over time in characteristics thought to be central to survival, as we show here for hard disk drive producers. We develop a simple model that might account for this pattern. In it, technological advance follows a trajectory consistent with a proportionate random process (akin to a Gibrat process) that favors technology leaders but only stochastically. We demonstrate through computer simulations that evolution in an organizational population with selection favoring a characteristic evolving as a proportionate random process can, under plausible conditions, generate increased variation over time. Copyright 2012 The Author 2011. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Associazione ICC. All rights reserved., Oxford University Press.

Date: 2012
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