Equating path dependence with mere past-dependence explains nothing about lock-in.

Evidence

The basic point of any path-dependence argument provided so far stresses the importance of past events for future action or, more precisely, of foregoing decisions for current and future decision making. Hence, decisions are conceived as historically conditioned: ‘bygones are rarely bygones’ (Teece, Pisano and Shuen, 1997: 522). Although this insight has certainly advanced the building of a time-sensitive understanding of institutional and organizational phenomena and helped to overcome the a-historical and unbounded view of rational choice thought, it is too vague a perspective. Path dependence means more than a mere ‘past-dependence’ (Antonelli, 1999) as such an all-embracing understanding of path dependence does not enable us to better understand the specific dynamics of locked institutional and organizational processes and their underlying forces. — Georg Schreyögg and Jörg Sydow, The Hidden Dynamics of Path Dependence, 43

Categorization

• SEED: Angle: ‘Saying History Matters Is Not a Theory’ — why a concept that explains everything (everything is historically conditioned) stops explaining anything, and what analytic sharpening buys you.