"Fly on the Wings of R&D: Path Dependence, Creation & Separation"

Abstract

Literature concerned with the process of organizational path emergence is split in those approaches focusing on external triggers and those emphasizing the role of agents to shape a firm's trajectory. In order to integrate these contradicting views, we build on the results of a longitudinal qualitative single case study. Our findings shed light on the interplay of internal and external factors that lead to the creation and constitution of a new path. We followed the process of how the new organizational path of FACC - an aircraft composite component supplier - arised from the existing organizational path of FISCHER - a skiing company - in the 1980s. By analyzing the self- reinforcing processes that add to the divergence of the two paths over time and finally lead to their path separation, we contribute to recent calls to focus on self-reinforcing processes as the core of path dependence theory. By introducing the concept of path separation, the findings also provide an alternative to the upcoming approach...