Self-reinforcing processes progressively narrow choice until no alternative remains.

Evidence

In a first attempt to develop a more specific understanding we can say that path dependence implies at the very least a sequence of events narrowing the scope of action eventually resulting in a state of persistence or inertia. Valuable insights in the dynamic nature of entrapping or locking processes have been provided by studies from evolutionary economics (David 1985, 1986, 1993, 2007; Arthur, 1989, 1994; Dosi, 1982, 1997). In those accounts, decisions taken in the past can increasingly restrain future choices. The decision pattern used repeatedly in the past may even amount to an imperative for the future course of action so that ultimately no further choice is left. In order to explain the dynamics of these processes, self-reinforcing processes have been identified as major drivers which are likely to accumulate in a specific path of action. — Georg Schreyögg and Jörg Sydow, The Hidden Dynamics of Path Dependence, 44

Categorization

• DEFINE: Renders ‘path dependence’ as a specific mechanism — narrowing sequence driven by self-reinforcement — not a vague gesture at ‘history matters.’
• XREF: Resonates with the reading on how reputation and institutional rules lock trading communities into equilibria (Opting out of the Legal System), where a stable regime hardens into the only practical option. — connects to: Business-derived self-assessment rituals reproduce the sense that no alternative exists. — Mark Fisher (edited by Darren Ambrose), K-Punk: The Collected and Unpublished…, 2105