Adaptation and Selection in Strategy and Change: Perspectives on Strategic Change in Organizations

Abstract

Abstract The study of organizational change, as the many chapters in this handbook demonstrate, reflects extensive and diverse theoretical perspectives and empirical approaches. In this chapter we return to an examination of the adaptation-selection debate (Baum, 1996, Lewin and Volberda, 1999). Our purpose is to consider the implications of the different theories on adaptation and selection for strategy and change. In particular, we reconsider theories and empirical studies that inform organization-level adaptation as a direct outcome of strategic management and organizational change or have implications for organizational change but make no direct or explicit assumptions about managerial intentionality.