Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-l7hp2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-27T13:33:49.993Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Problems at the Foundation? Comments on Felin and Foss

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 January 2011

SIDNEY G. WINTER
SIDNEY G. WINTER*
Affiliation:
Deloitte and Touche Professor of Management, Emeritus, The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia PA 19104-6370, USA
*
*Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

This paper reviews the assessment of the routines and capabilities literature provided by T. Felin and N. J. Foss, ‘The Endogenous Origins of Experience, Routines and Organizational Capabilities: The Poverty of Stimulus’, published by the Journal of Institutional Economics. Although valuable points are raised, the assessment is largely off target because it is fixated on the implausible view that the literature assessed is strongly shaped by the tradition of behavioral psychology (B. F. Skinner and others). At the same time, important portions of the routines and capabilities literature that are highly relevant to the authors’ substantive concerns, and which are plainly inconsistent with the main interpretive claim, are not considered.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Institutional Economics , Volume 7 , Special Issue 2: Business Routines , June 2011 , pp. 257 - 277
Copyright
Copyright © The JOIE Foundation 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Argote, L. (1999), Organizational Learning: Creating, Retaining and Transferring Knowledge, Boston: Kluwer Academic Publishers.Google Scholar
Becker, M. and Lazaric, N. (2003), ‘The Influence of Knowledge in the Replication of Routines’, Economie Applique, 56: 65–94.Google Scholar
Becker, M., Lazaric, N., Nelson, R. R., and Winter, S. G. (2005), ‘Applying Routines in the Study of Organizational Change’, Industrial and Corporate Change, 14: 775–791.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chandler, A. (1992), ‘Organizational Capabilities and the Economic History of the Industrial Enterprise’, Journal of Economic Perspectives, 6: 79–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, M. D. (2006), ‘What's Different is Routine’, Industrial and Corporate Change, 15: 387–390.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, M. D. (2007), ‘Reading Dewey: Reflections on the Nature of Routine’, Organization Studies, 28: 773–786.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, M. D. and Bacdayan, P. (1994), ‘Organizational Routines are Stored as Procedural Memory’, Organization Science, 5: 554–568.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cyert, R. M. and March, J. G. (1963), A Behavioral Theory of the Firm, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Dosi, G. and Lovallo, D. (1997), ‘Rational Entrepreneurs or Optimistic Martyrs? Some Considerations on Technological Regimes, Corporate Entries, and the Evolutionary Role of Decision Biases’, in Garud, R., Nayyar, P. R. and Shapira, Z. B. (eds.), Technological Innovation: Oversights and Foresights, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 41–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dosi, G. and Marengo, L. (1994), ‘Some Elements of an Evolutionary Theory of Organizational Competences’, in England, R. W. (ed.), Evolutionary Concepts in Contemporary Economics, Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, pp. 157–178.Google Scholar
Dosi, G., Nelson, R. R., and Winter, S. G. (2000), The Nature and Dynamics of Organizational Capabilities, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Eisenhardt, K. M. and Martin, J. (2000), ‘Dynamic Capabilities: What are They?’, Strategic Management Journal, 21: 1105–1121.3.0.CO;2-E>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feldman, M. (2000), ‘Organizational Routines as a Source of Continuous Change’, Organization Science, 11: 611–629.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feldman, M. and Pentland, B. T. (2003), ‘Reconceptualizing Organizational Routines as a Source of Flexibility and Change’, Administrative Science Quarterly, 48: 94–118.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Felin, T. and Foss, N. J. (2011), ‘The Endogenous Origins of Experience, Routines and Organizational Capabilities: The Poverty of Stimulus’, Journal of Institutional Economics, 7 (2), doi:10.1017/S1744137410000214.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gavetti, G. (2005), ‘Cognition and Hierarchy: Rethinking the Foundations of Capabilities’ Development’, Organization Science, 16: 599–617.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gavetti, G. and Levinthal, D. (2000), ‘Looking Forward and Looking Backward: Cognitive and Experiential Search’, Administrative Science Quarterly, 45: 113–137.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gavetti, G., Levinthal, D. A., and Ocasio, W. (2007), ‘Neo-Carnegie: The Carnegie School's Past, Present and Reconstructing for the Future’, Organization Science, 18: 523–526.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gavetti, G., Levinthal, D. A., and Rivkin, J. W. (2005), ‘Strategy-Making in Novel and Complex Worlds: The Power of Analogy’, Strategic Management Journal, 26: 691–712.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gavetti, G. and Rivkin, J. W. (2007), ‘On the Origin of Strategy: Action and Cognition over Time’, Organizaton Science, 18: 420–439.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hodgson, G. M. and Knudsen, T. (2006), ‘The Nature and Units of Social Selection’, Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 16: 477–489.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoetker, G. and Agarwal, R. (2007), ‘Death Hurts but it isn't Fatal: The Postexit Diffusion of Knowledge Created by Innovative Companies’, Academy of Management Journal, 50: 446–467.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holland, J. H. (1995), Hidden Order: How Adaptation Builds Complexity, Reading, MA: Helix Books.Google Scholar
Jantunen, A. and Sainio, L.-M. (2008), ‘Sidney G. Winter on Strategic Management Research: Insights from the 2008 Viipuri Prize Winner’, Finnish Journal of Business Economics, 2008: 217–222.Google Scholar
King, A. A. and Tucci, C. L. (2002), ‘Incumbent Entry into New Market Niches: The Role of Experience and Managerial Choice in the Creation of Dynamic Capabilities’, Management Science, 48: 171–186.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klepper, S. (2002), ‘The Capabilities of New Firms and the Evolution of the U.S. Automobile Industry’, Industrial and Corporate Change, 11: 645–666.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klepper, S. and Sleeper, S. (2005), ‘Entry by Spinoffs’, Management Science, 51: 1291–1306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knott, A. M. and Posen, H. (2005), ‘Is Failure Good?’, Strategic Management Journal, 26: 617–641.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
March, J. G. and Simon, H. A. (1958), Organizations, New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
McCorduck, P. (2004), Machines Who Think: An Inquiry Into the History and Prospects of Artificial Intelligence, Natick, MA: A.K. Peters, Ltd.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miller, R., Hobday, M., Leroux-Demers, T., and Olleros, X. (1995), ‘Innovation in Complex Systems Industries: The Case of Flight Simulation’, Industrial and Corporate Change, 4: 363–400.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mishima, K. (1999), ‘Learning by New Experiences: Revisiting the Flying Fortress Learning Curve’, in Lamoreaux, N. R., Raff, D. M. G. and Temin, P. (eds.), Learning by Doing in Markets, Firms and Countries, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, pp. 145–179.Google Scholar
Murmann, J. P. (2003), Knowledge and Competitive Advantage: The Coevolution of Firms, Technology and National Institutions, Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Narduzzo, A., Rocco, E., and Warglien, M. (2000), ‘Talking about Routines in the Field: The Emergence of Organizational Capabilities in a New Cellular Phone Network Company’, in Dosi, G., Nelson, R. R. and Winter, S. G. (eds.), The Nature and Dynamics of Organizational Capabilities, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 27–50.Google Scholar
Nelson, R. R. and Winter, S. G. (1982), An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Pentland, B. T. and Feldman, M. (2008), ‘Designing Routines: On the Folly of Designing Artefacts, while Hoping for Patterns of Action’, Information and Organization, 18: 235–250.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pentland, B. T. and Rueter, H. H. (1994), ‘Organizational Routines as Grammars of Action’, Administrative Science Quarterly, 39: 484–510.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Polanyi, M. (1964), Personal Knowledge: Towards a Post-Critical Philosophy, New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Popper, K. (1972), Objective Knowledge, Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Raff, D. M. G. (2000), ‘Superstores and the Evolution of Firm Capabilities in American Bookselling’, Strategic Management Journal, 21: 1043–1059.3.0.CO;2-7>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rosenbloom, R. (2000), ‘Leadership, Capabilities and Technological Change: The Transformation of NCR in the Electronic Era’, Strategic Management Journal, 21: 1083–1103.3.0.CO;2-4>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schumpeter, J. (1934) [1911]), The Theory of Economic Development, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Schumpeter, J. A. (1950), Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, New York: Harper and Row.Google Scholar
Schwartz, B. (1978), The Psychology of Learning and Behavior, New York: W.W. Norton.Google Scholar
Sinclair, G., Klepper, S., and Cohen, W. (2000), ‘What's Experience got to do with it? Sources of Cost Reduction in a Large Specialty Chemicals Producer’, Management Science, 46: 28–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skinner, B. F. (1989), Recent Issues in the Analysis of Behavior, Columbus, OH: Merrill Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Szulanski, G. (2000), ‘Appropriability and the Challenge of Scope: Banc One Routinizes Replication’, in Dosi, G., Nelson, R. R. and Winter, S. G. (eds.), The Nature and Dynamics of Organizational Capabilities, New York: Oxford University Press, pp. 69–98.Google Scholar
Thorndike, E. L. (1932), The Fundamentals of Learning, New York: Teachers College Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tripsas, M. (1997), ‘Unraveling the Process of Creative Destruction: Complementary Assets and Incumbent Survival in the Typesetter Industry’, Strategic Management Journal, 18: 119–142.3.0.CO;2-0>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Usselman, S. W. (1993), ‘IBM and its Imitators: Organizational Capabilities and the Emergence of the International Computer Industry’, Business and Economic History, 22: 1–35.Google Scholar
Watson, J. B. (1934), Behaviorism, New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers.Google Scholar
Winter, S. G. (1986), ‘The Research Program of the Behavioral Theory of the Firm: Orthodox Critique and Evolutionary Perspective’, in Gilad, B. and Kaish, S. (eds.), Handbook of Behavioral Economics, vol. A: Behavioral Microeconomics, Greenwich, CT: JAI Press, pp. 151–188.Google Scholar
Winter, S. G. (1990), ‘Survival, Selection and Inheritance in Evolutionary Theories of Organization’, in Singh, J. V. (ed.), Organizational Evolution: New Directions, Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, pp. 269–297.Google Scholar
Winter, S. G. (2000), ‘The Satisficing Principle in Capability Learning’, Strategic Management Journal, 21: 981–996.3.0.CO;2-4>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winter, S. G. (2003), ‘Understanding Dynamic Capabilities’, Strategic Management Journal, 24: 991–995.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winter, S. G. (2008), ‘Dynamic Capability as a Source of Change’, in Beck, N. and Ebner, A. (eds.), The Institutions of the Market: Organisations, Social Systems and Governance, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp. 40–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zollo, M. and Winter, S. G. (2002), ‘Deliberate Learning and the Evolution of Dynamic Capabilities’, Organization Science, 13: 339–351.CrossRefGoogle Scholar