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Path Dependence (path + dependence)

Distribution by Scientific Domains
Humanities and Social Sciences72%
Business, Economics, Finance and Accounting18%

Selected Abstracts

Planning for Path Dependence?

ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, Issue 2 2010
The Case of a Network in the Berlin-Brandenburg Optics Cluster
abstract Much research on regional business clusters refers to path dependence as a central feature in the evolution of cluster structures. In many cases, however, little is known about the agentic processes and mechanisms that underlie path dependence. In this article, we explore changes in a specific network in the optics cluster in the German region of Berlin-Brandenburg to show that development of clusters can be driven by elements of both emergence and planning. In particular, we argue that current actors actively and purposively draw upon rules and resources that were shaped not only in the long and discontinuous history of the cluster but also in the recent process of network development that involves careful planning and well-structured planning tools. Using central concepts from structuration theory, we show how agency is implicated in the coordination of the network and how agency turns coordination into a self-reinforcing mechanism. The findings suggest that purposive planning involves a fundamental ambivalence in the processes and outcomes of path dependence, at the level of both the cluster and its constituent networks. [source]

Evolution, Path Dependence and Economic Geography

GEOGRAPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 5 2008
Danny MacKinnon
This article provides a review of research on evolution and path dependence in economic geography. While economic geographers have long been interested in regional economic change, the period since the early 1990s has witnessed a more explicit concern with questions of evolution and adaptation. Indeed, the notion that the economic landscape is ,path-dependent' has been described as one of the most exciting ideas in economic geography. Evolutionary economic geography (EEG) can be seen as comprised of two main strands of literature, focusing on: path dependency, institutions and lock-in; and evolution, routines and complexity. Rather than viewing EEG as a separate enterprise, I suggest that there is a need to link evolution to institutional and political economy approaches within a theoretically plural economic geography. After outlining the contribution of evolutionary economics and the two key strands of EEG, the article discusses some key issues for evolutionary research in economic geography. [source]

Incrementalism and Path Dependence: European Integration and Institutional Change in National Parliaments

JCMS: JOURNAL OF COMMON MARKET STUDIES, Issue 3 2001
Dionyssis G. Dimitrakopoulos
This article analyses the manner in which the Parliaments of France, the UK and Greece have reacted to the process of European integration. It is argued that their reactions display an incremental logic marked by slow, small and marginal changes based on existing institutional repertoires. In all three cases Parliaments have used familiar mechanisms and procedures which they have modified only marginally. This reaction was path dependent, i.e. it was consistent with long-established patterns reflecting the subordinate position of these Parliaments within national polities. [source]

Planning for Path Dependence?

ECONOMIC GEOGRAPHY, Issue 2 2010
The Case of a Network in the Berlin-Brandenburg Optics Cluster
abstract Much research on regional business clusters refers to path dependence as a central feature in the evolution of cluster structures. In many cases, however, little is known about the agentic processes and mechanisms that underlie path dependence. In this article, we explore changes in a specific network in the optics cluster in the German region of Berlin-Brandenburg to show that development of clusters can be driven by elements of both emergence and planning. In particular, we argue that current actors actively and purposively draw upon rules and resources that were shaped not only in the long and discontinuous history of the cluster but also in the recent process of network development that involves careful planning and well-structured planning tools. Using central concepts from structuration theory, we show how agency is implicated in the coordination of the network and how agency turns coordination into a self-reinforcing mechanism. The findings suggest that purposive planning involves a fundamental ambivalence in the processes and outcomes of path dependence, at the level of both the cluster and its constituent networks. [source]

Evolution, Path Dependence and Economic Geography

GEOGRAPHY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 5 2008
Danny MacKinnon
This article provides a review of research on evolution and path dependence in economic geography. While economic geographers have long been interested in regional economic change, the period since the early 1990s has witnessed a more explicit concern with questions of evolution and adaptation. Indeed, the notion that the economic landscape is ,path-dependent' has been described as one of the most exciting ideas in economic geography. Evolutionary economic geography (EEG) can be seen as comprised of two main strands of literature, focusing on: path dependency, institutions and lock-in; and evolution, routines and complexity. Rather than viewing EEG as a separate enterprise, I suggest that there is a need to link evolution to institutional and political economy approaches within a theoretically plural economic geography. After outlining the contribution of evolutionary economics and the two key strands of EEG, the article discusses some key issues for evolutionary research in economic geography. [source]

Closing the gap: towards a process model of post-merger knowledge sharing

INFORMATION SYSTEMS JOURNAL, Issue 4 2007
Youngjin Yoo
Abstract., We develop a process model of post-merger knowledge sharing based on distributed cognition, a systems perspective and path dependence. The framework conceptualizes knowledge sharing by layers of management choice and employee appropriation of knowledge resources seen as knowledge as content and knowledge as connection. We use the framework to study a merger of two polymer companies. The study reveals that mergers represent a discontinuity in knowledge sharing. Yet, chosen strategies often mirror the learned knowledge-sharing practices of one of the merged companies and match poorly with the post-merger knowledge-sharing needs. Five factors emerged contribute to this knowledge gap: (a) the nature of the merger; (b) a lack of shared context; (c) the incompatibility of existing knowledge systems; (d) the tacit dimension of knowledge; and (e) time pressures of the merger. Our study shows that, employees enacted knowledge new sharing practices that differed significantly from the official strategy to close to the post-merger knowledge gap. [source]

"Spontaneous" Interethnic Order: The Emergence of Collective, Path-Dependent Cooperation

INTERNATIONAL STUDIES QUARTERLY, Issue 4 2000
Badredine Arfi
Can "spontaneous," decentralized interethnic cooperation emerge among ethnic groups whose members heavily discount future interethnic relations and do not fear punishment for interethnic noncooperation? Why is it that once the interaction between two ethnic groups evolves along a certain (cooperative or conflictual) path it sometimes becomes harder for the interacting groups to reverse course and seek alternative paths? The answer to these two questions lies in the fact that individual members not only are always calculative and could hence act opportunistically, but also are interdependent and can learn from one another. Because the members of interacting groups operate interdependently they thereby create collective nonlinear path dependence. Using a social game (within evolutionary game theory) the article shows counterintuitively that the emergence of collective, nonlinear path dependence within and across ethnic groups whose members heavily discount the future and face no punishment for interethnic noncooperation makes "spontaneous" decentralized interethnic cooperation a long-run equilibrium. Collective cooperation can thus develop path-dependently among ethnic groups without a Damocles' sword of any sort hanging over their members' heads, even when most individuals are shortsighted and opportunistic. [source]

The ,reversal of fortune' thesis and the compression of history: Perspectives from African and comparative economic history,

JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT, Issue 8 2008
Gareth Austin
Abstract Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson have dramatically challenged the tendency of economists to confine their empirical search for the causes of economic growth to the recent past. They argue that the kind of institutions established by European colonialists, either protecting private property or extracting rents, resulted in the poorer parts of the pre-colonial world becoming some of the richest economies of today; while transforming some of the more prosperous parts of the non-European world of 1500 into the poorest economies today. This view has been further elaborated for Africa by Nunn, with reference to slave trading. Drawing on African and comparative economic historiography, the present paper endorses the importance of examining growth theories against long-term history: revealing relationships that recur because the situations are similar, as well as because of path dependence as such. But it also argues that the causal relationships involved are more differentiated than is recognised in AJR's formulations. By compressing different historical periods and paths, the ,reversal' thesis over-simplifies the causation. Relatively low labour productivity was a premise of the external slave trades; though the latter greatly reinforced the relative poverty of many Sub-Saharan economies. Again, it is important to distinguish settler and non-settler economies within colonial Africa itself. In the latter case it was in the interests of colonial regimes to support, rather than simply extract from, African economic enterprise. Finally, economic rent and economic growth have often been joint products, including in pre-colonial and colonial Africa; the kinds of institutions that favoured economic growth in certain historical contexts were not necessarily optimal for that purpose in others. AJR have done much to bring development economics and economic history together. The next step is a more flexible conceptual framework, and a more complex explanation. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

Latent demand and the browsing shopper

MANAGERIAL AND DECISION ECONOMICS, Issue 3-4 2000
Peter E Earl
This article explores ways of making sense of unplanned purchases on shopping expeditions without seeing shopping as lacking any systematic foundations or reflecting some kind of pathology. The analysis employs both introspection and inputs from cognitive science and focuses on shifts from planned search to browsing in response to promotional cues encountered whilst navigating malls that are designed to promote browsing behaviour. Browsing is examined both in terms of its socio-psychological foundations and with respect to a variety of kinds of latent demand. The economic psychology of attention is examined as are a variety of factors that bring browsing processes to a close. The paper concludes with a discussion of the significance of the analysis in terms of the path dependence of economic systems. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

The Path Not Taken: Leonard White and the Macrodynamics of Administrative Development

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION REVIEW, Issue 4 2009
Alasdair Roberts
Leonard White, The Federalists: A Study in Administrative History (New York: Macmillan, 1948). Leonard White, The Jeffersonians: A Study in Administrative History, 1801,1829 (New York: Macmillan, 1951). Leonard White, The Jacksonians: A Study in Administrative History, 1829,1861 (New York: Macmillan, 1954). Leonard White, The Republican Era, 1869,1901: A Study in Administrative History (New York, Macmillan, 1958). This is a review of four books by Leonard White: The Federalists (1948), The Jeffersonians (1951), The Jacksonians (1954), and The Republican Era (1958). In these books, White develops an approach to the study of administrative development that accounts for a broad range of considerations, including political and economic structure, the organization of the international order, popular culture, the stock of available communication and organizational technologies, and executive talent. White also offers an early argument about the significance of path dependence in institutional evolution. White's approach is largely concerned with the macrodynamics of administrative development. It has been neglected within the field of public administration over the last half century. A literature that builds on White's work would improve the field's ability to explain and anticipate failures in state building and administrative reform. [source]