Observable quasi-parameters let decision makers convert institutional drift into deliberate change

Evidence

Institutions can change due to endogenous processes, exogenous shocks, and combinations of both. The exact mechanism that brings about institutional change once the behavior associated with an institution is no longer self-enforcing depends on the nature of the quasi-parameters that delimit self-reinforcement. If these quasi-parameters are observable and their importance well understood, decision makers mighty actually realize that past behavior is no longer self-enforcing and the mechanism directly leading to institutional change will be intentional. — Georg Schreyögg and Jörg Sydow, The Hidden Dynamics of Path Dependence, 928

Categorization

• DEFINE: Introduces ‘quasi-parameters’ and the observable-versus-unobservable distinction that governs whether change is intentional or not.
• DEEPTHINKING: A dense mechanism: whether path-breaking becomes willed depends not on stress alone but on whether the parameters holding the path in place are visible to actors — a genuinely hard-to-summarize condition for agency under path dependence.