Path breaking minimally requires restoring an actual choice situation.

Evidence

Since the process of becoming path dependent has been framed as progressively eliminating the scope of decision making, this minimum condition is the effective restoration of a choice situation—the insertion of at least one alternative course of action. However, opening the window for an alternative is necessary but not sufficient. — Jörg Sydow, Georg Schreyögg, and Jochen Koch, Organizational Path Dependence, 101

Categorization

• DEFINE: Operationalizes a slippery term: ‘path breaking’ = restoring a choice situation by inserting at least one alternative.