A technology that makes a firm’s identity obsolete forces a crisis of strategy.

Evidence

Most banks cherished the development as it was an opportunity to downsize their costly branch networks. For Handelsbanken the situation was different. How should a bank that claimed to be based on local branches, relate to a technology that seemed to render physical branch offices obsolete? … At least in principle, a wide range of services could be provided to an entire country from a single web branch. — Georg Schreyögg and Jörg Sydow, The Hidden Dynamics of Path Dependence, 509

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the identity-threat dynamic in the chapter’s earlier Selznick discussion of institutional integrity — technologies attack the organization’s basic character, not just its cost base.
• QUESTION: Did Handelsbanken keep its branch network, and if so what did that cost or earn it over 10–20 years? Worth chasing as a test of identity-driven path dependence.