Self-reinforcing mechanisms and enabling institutional contexts are distinct forces producing organizational paths

Evidence

A theory of organizational path dependence has to differentiate properly between self-reinforcing mechanisms on the one hand and enabling institutional contexts on the other. In consequence, Pierson’s insights should encourage further research to explore the contextual conditions enhancing (or hindering) the unfolding of selfreinforcing mechanisms and subsequent constitution of organizational paths. — Jörg Sydow, Georg Schreyögg, and Jochen Koch, Organizational Path Dependence, 96

Categorization

• DEFINE: Draws a sharp conceptual boundary between the mechanism that locks a path in and the institutional soil that lets it germinate.
• XREF: Connects to complexity-economics accounts of increasing returns (Arthur, Pierson) and to institutional-theory work on embedded agency.