Technological path studies treat the initial pre-path situation as wholly unrestricted

Evidence

Phase I can be characterized as an open situation with no significantly restricted scope of action. … The technological path studies—if at all—have conceived of the initial situation as being unrestricted. The search for alternatives starts from scratch, and decisions are unconstrained. — Jörg Sydow, Georg Schreyögg, and Jochen Koch, Organizational Path Dependence, 28

Categorization

• QUESTION: If Phase I is genuinely unconstrained, what does it even mean to conceptualize it? The author gestures at a gap without yet filling it.