TY - JOUR
T1 - How to overcome path dependency through resource reconfiguration
AU - Goumagias, Nikolaos
AU - Fernandes, Kiran Jude
AU - Nucciarelli , Alberto
AU - Li, Feng
PY - 2022/6/1
Y1 - 2022/6/1
N2 - Firms reconfigure their resources when responding to changes in their external or internal environment, often by incorporating new knowledge and resources in collaboration with external stakeholders. However, the reconfiguration process is challenging, costly, and often fails. The firm’s history plays an important role in the resource reconfiguration process being path dependent. Path dependency, debatably, leads to lock-in effects that prevent reconfiguration. However, we argue that this is a very limited viewpoint. In this paper, drawing empirical evidence from the digital games industry, we contend that path dependency constrains the reconfiguration action space and can potentially improve strategic planning by identifying the paths of least resistance. Depending on the extent of the reconfiguration, we identify two alternatives: direct reconfiguration (horizontal reconfiguration) or increasing the complexity by incorporating additional configurations (vertical reconfiguration).
AB - Firms reconfigure their resources when responding to changes in their external or internal environment, often by incorporating new knowledge and resources in collaboration with external stakeholders. However, the reconfiguration process is challenging, costly, and often fails. The firm’s history plays an important role in the resource reconfiguration process being path dependent. Path dependency, debatably, leads to lock-in effects that prevent reconfiguration. However, we argue that this is a very limited viewpoint. In this paper, drawing empirical evidence from the digital games industry, we contend that path dependency constrains the reconfiguration action space and can potentially improve strategic planning by identifying the paths of least resistance. Depending on the extent of the reconfiguration, we identify two alternatives: direct reconfiguration (horizontal reconfiguration) or increasing the complexity by incorporating additional configurations (vertical reconfiguration).
KW - strategic planning
KW - path dependency
KW - resource-based view
KW - knowledge-based view
KW - evolutionary economics
U2 - 10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.02.040
DO - 10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.02.040
M3 - Article
VL - 145
SP - 78
EP - 91
JO - Journal of Business Research
JF - Journal of Business Research
SN - 0148-2963
ER -