Path dependence theory complements rather than replaces other process theories of organizations.

Evidence

Organization research focusing on path dependencies and path breaking would nicely supplement not only the present trend toward process studies, with their inevitable historical component (e.g., Pettigrew et al., 2001; Van de Ven & Poole, 2005), but also studies of organizational practices and their replicate dynamics (e.g., Feldman & Pentland, 2003; Jarzabkowski, 2008; Lawrence et al., 2001). In both cases the theory of organizational path dependence would help to focus on particular types of dynamics and, thus, would complement rather than substitute for other process theories of organizations. However, the conditions that are conducive to path dependence and possible ways of unlocking paths await further exploration. — Jörg Sydow, Georg Schreyögg, and Jochen Koch, Organizational Path Dependence, 121

Categorization

• QUESTION: What actually unlocks a locked-in path? The author explicitly leaves this open as the field’s next frontier.
• SEED: An essay on why every process theory of organizations is secretly a theory of history, and what gets lost when ‘unlocking paths’ stays untheorized.