Organizational lock-in arises from emotion, cognitive bias, and politics, not just utility maximization.

Evidence

Focusing on utility-driven behavior only implies a disregard for important insights of organizational studies. Self-reinforcing patterns in organizations have been shown to result from other factors as well, such as emotional reactions (uncertainty avoidance, intergroup revenge, etc.), cognitive biases (selective perception, blind spots, implicit theories, etc.), and even political processes (gaining and maintaining power, reciprocal negotiation). These aspects have to be included in a theory of organizational paths to adapt to the scope of organizational behavior possibly activating self-reinforcing effects. More precisely, we suggest including different forms of positive feedback cycles based on specifically organizational forces. — Jörg Sydow, Georg Schreyögg, and Jochen Koch, Organizational Path Dependence, 42

Categorization

• SEED: An essay arguing that the rational-actor model of path dependence is itself a lock-in — economics stuck in a utility-calculus equilibrium it can’t exit. Could pair organizational case studies with behavioral-failure literature.
• XREF: Connects to Kahneman-style cognitive bias work and to institutional-theory critiques of rational choice (Crouch & Farrell, Eden, Ortmann are the cited critics).