Locked-in systems keep reproducing inferior outcomes and lose the capacity to adopt better alternatives

Evidence

The transition from Phase II to Phase III—the Lock-in Phase—is characterized by a further constriction, which eventually leads to a lockin—that is, the dominant decision pattern becomes fixed and gains a deterministic character; eventually, the actions are fully bound to a path. One particular choice or action pattern has become the predominant mode, and flexibility has been lost. Even new entrants into this field of action cannot refrain from adopting it. When faced by more efficient alternatives, individuals’ and organizations’ decision processes and established practices continue to reproduce this and only this particular outcome. The occurrence of a lock-in renders a system potentially inefficient, because it loses its capability to adopt better alternatives. — Jörg Sydow, Georg Schreyögg, and Jochen Koch, Organizational Path Dependence, 26

Categorization

• DEEPTHINKING: The counterintuitive core: more efficient alternatives do not displace an established practice, and the system’s own reproduction machinery guarantees its inefficiency.
• SEED: Angle: ‘Why efficient things don’t win’ — lock-in as the explanation for QWERTY keyboards, entrenched standards, and institutional inertia.