Critical junctures activate the self-reinforcing processes that create path dependence

Evidence

The third essential part of a systematic path analysis is the search for a triggering event that was likely to have set the path-building process in motion. Tracer studies (e.g. Lee, 1999) may help to identify these initial events mostly unknown to the actors. Also, special attention has to be devoted to identifying the critical juncture at which a self-reinforcing process leading to organizational path dependence was activated. It is here where the first working of one or more self-reinforcing mechanisms can be uncovered. — Jörg Sydow, Georg Schreyögg, and Jochen Koch, Organizational Path Dependence, 117

Categorization

• XREF: Directly invokes the historical-institutionalist concept of critical junctures (Collier & Collier, Capoccia). — connects to: Path dependence plus recurrent mechanisms jointly explain contention’s regularities. — Charles Tilly, Regimes and Repertoires, 366