Historical Case Analysis Research Articles

Introduction to the Special Issue on Abductive Reasoning in Mathematics Education

From a traditional perspective, induction and deduction have been discussed as key ways to generate new knowledge. On the other hand, Charles Sanders Peirce introduced the notion of abduction, distinct from deduction and induction, to avoid the pitfalls of empiricism and rationalism. Abduction is the process of forming an explanatory hypothesis on an observed surprising result (C.P. 5.171). Peirce emphasized that abductive reasoning is the only way of creating new ideas, and both epistemologists and educational researchers have attempted to tackle this notorious problem, the so-called learning paradox, from a Peircean perspective on knowledge generation (Prawat, 1999). With mathematics educators’ recent interests in semiotic approaches, there has been growing attention to the importance of investigating abductive reasoning in mathematics education research. Studies have attempted to clarify the forms and uses of abductive reasoning in students’ mathematical inquiries in order to identify how students generate new mathematical ideas. Researchers also consider that investigating students’ abductive reasoning may help to interpret and understand what occurs in mathematics classrooms. Thus, exploring abductive reasoning in mathematics education may provide a more helpful cornerstone in understanding how mathematics teaching and learning progresses. This special issue of EURASIA Journal of Mathematics, Science and Technology Education aims to share current and future issues on abductive reasoning in mathematics education. In inviting the contributions for this special issue, we intend to offer the reader, original elements of reflection from a wide range of issues on abductive reasoning in mathematics education. David Reid gives an overview of the discussion of abductive reasoning in mathematics education researches based on a meta-analysis of the state-of-the-art literature. He presents the origins of the concept of abductive reasoning and identifies the most significant approaches in mathematics education literature that refers to abductive reasoning. He then proposes a framework in which the different approaches taken in the research literature can be placed and compared. Michael Hoffmann presents very fundamental issues regarding abductive reasoning. Hoffmann tackles two crucial questions related to knowledge creation from a Peircean perspective: Can diagrammatic reasoning indeed be conceived as a foundation of abductive creativity? What is the relationship between abduction and diagrammatic reasoning? To answer these questions, he clarifies the Peircean concept of diagram and diagrammatic reasoning and analyzes the significance of a consistent system of representation for diagrammatic reasoning. He then examines how diagrammatic reasoning and creation of abduction are related. Three further contributions address how abduction is related to various contexts of mathematics learning. Bettina Pedemonte presents the role of abduction in the proving process of students solving a geometrical problem. She focuses on two types of rules in problem solving: strategic rules and definitory rules. She then compares two types of abductions that are related to these two rules, and analyzes the relationship between these two types of abductions and the deductive proof. Ferdinand Rivera examines elementary students’ pattern generalization. He focuses on identifying multiple abductive actions in their pattern generalization, and shows how multiple abductions can be coordinated and how this coordination is related to pattern generalization. He also analyzes the relationship between elementary children’s structural incipient generalizations and the natural emergence of their understanding of functions, especially the central role of abduction in such an understanding. JinHyeong Park and Kyeong-Hwa Lee investigate the abductive nature of mathematical modeling and the characteristics of mathematical inquiries triggered by mathematical modeling. They identify four characteristics of mathematical inquiries triggered by mathematical modeling based on an analysis of didactical and historical cases: abductive, recursive, analogical, and context-dependent. Michael Meyer presents various task-design options that can be used to support students in discovering mathematical properties that refer to abductive reasoning. These task-design options are identified using intense scrutiny of the processes of discovering and verifying mathematical properties from a Peircean perspective on learning and knowledge creation. He also presents concrete examples of task design and empirical findings on the implementation of tasks. From theoretical issues to more practical issues, these contributions in this special issue present state-of-the-art issues in abductive reasoning in the mathematics education research community. We hope that these offer an informative insight into the lively research on abductive reasoning in mathematics education.

Modeling of Entrainment in Debris Flow Analysis for Dry Granular Material

Debris flow entrainment refers to the increase in mass by way of erosion of the channel beds or undermining the channel banks. Entrainment makes the calculation of travel distance and velocities of debris flow much more complex and difficult. Shear failure of the material in the channel bed is usually considered to be the dominant mechanism in entrainment analysis. However in granular flow, material at the surface of the channel bed can be eroded by progressive scouring under the base of the debris. This may result in more material being eroded and entrained than just considering the shear failure mechanism. A new analytical model is proposed to calculate entrainment in debris flow analysis by considering both rolling and shearing motion. Newton’s Law of Motion is used to calculate accelerations, velocities, and displacements of granular particles. To study the entrainment process inside granular flow and to verify the new entrainment model, numerical experiments have been carried out using the Discrete Element Method (DEM). Velocities, including translational velocity, rotational velocity and average velocity, total volume, shear stresses are monitored using measurement circles in the numerical experiment. Variations of the depth of erosion at specific locations along the debris flow channel are monitored and the average entrainment rates are calculated. By comparing the numerical experimental results with the analytical solutions, it is found that results from the analytical model agree well with that from the numerical experiments. In order to use the new entrainment model into debris flow runout calculation, the new entrainment model has been incorporated in a runout model based on an energy approach. Entrainment calculation governed by a second order partial differential equation is solved using the finite difference method. The total mass and profile of the channel bed are adjusted during the entrainment calculation. Sensitivity analyses have been carried out on the new model by varying the model parameters including internal friction angle, basal friction angle, turbulent coefficient and mean of Probability Density Function (PDF) etc. Back analysis of historical cases is carried out using the new model. Several case histories have been studied which include the Tsingshan debris flow, Niumian Rock Avalanche, Fjaerland debris flow, Faucon debris flow and Zymoetz River rock avalanche. An extremely large rock avalanche occurred on April 9, 2000 at Yigong is also studied in the thesis. Measurements obtained from site investigation, including flow velocity, flow height, entrainment depth at specific locations, run-out distance and total volume at deposition fan, have been used to evaluate the model. The results are encouraging based on comparisons of the run-out distance, front velocity and total volume of the debris. Improvements are required on the entrainment depth and total volume in some cases when lateral spreading of the debris is significant.

Automated discovery systems and the inductivist controversy

The paper explores possible influences that some developments in the field of branches of AI, called automated discovery and machine learning systems, might have upon some aspects of the old debate between Francis Bacon’s inductivism and Karl Popper’s falsificationism. Donald Gillies facetiously calls this controversy ‘the duel of two English knights’, and claims, after some analysis of historical cases of discovery, that Baconian induction had been used in science very rarely, or not at all, although he argues that the situation has changed with the advent of machine learning systems. (Some clarification of terms machine learning and automated discovery is required here. The key idea of machine learning is that, given data with associated outcomes, software can be trained to make those associations in future cases which typically amounts to inducing some rules from individual cases classified by the experts. Automated discovery (also called machine discovery) deals with uncovering new knowledge that is valuable for human beings, and its key idea is that discovery is like other intellectual tasks and that the general idea of heuristic search in problem spaces applies also to discovery tasks. However, since machine learning systems discover (very low-level) regularities in data, throughout this paper I use the generic term automated discovery for both kinds of systems. I will elaborate on this later on). Gillies’s line of argument can be generalised: thanks to automated discovery systems, philosophers of science have at their disposal a new tool for empirically testing their philosophical hypotheses. Accordingly, in the paper, I will address the question, which of the two philosophical conceptions of scientific method is better vindicated in view of the successes and failures of systems developed within three major research programmes in the field: machine learning systems in the Turing tradition, normative theory of scientific discovery formulated by Herbert Simon’s group and the programme called HHNT, proposed by J. Holland, K. Holyoak, R. Nisbett and P. Thagard.

Explicating media, governance, and capitalism: A critical comparative analysis of historical cases

Ample literature argues that media is vital for the functioning of democratic public discourse and helps other firms comply with effective governance. While scholars have focused on understanding media’s impact on corporate governance, they have not thoroughly investigated how media companies are governed. Accordingly, we adopt a qualitative and comparative historical case narrative approach for investigating and analyzing corporate governance in commercial media firms. The paper contributes nuanced and critical insights into governance practices in the context of institutional change. Our evidence suggests that commercial media, suffering from firm governance challenges, may not have the collective capacity to effectively function as meaningful discursive components in capitalist systems. The paper concludes with a critical discussion and additional areas for future research.

댐 붕괴 홍수로 인한 하류부 인명피해 예측

본 연구에서는 기왕의 댐 붕괴사례와 인명손실 결정인자들의 분석으로부터 유도된 상관관계를 이용하여 댐 붕괴 홍수파의 특성이 고려된 인명피해 예측을 위해 미국의 LIFESim 모형에 적용된 인명손실 모듈과 유럽연합에서 제시한 사망률 함수에 의한 인명손실 추정기법이 제시되었다. 극한 홍수조건(PMF)하에서 댐 붕괴로 인한 대상 지점의 수심, 유속 및 홍수도 달시간 등과 같은 홍수특성치는 1차원 수리학적 모형인 FLDWAV에 의해 모의되었으며 범람수심을 이용하여 홍수취약 지역을 예측하였다. 이를 바탕으로 경보, 대피 및 피난처에 대한 가능성을 고려함으로써 홍수위험에 노출된 인구수를 추정하였다. 이러한 홍수위험 노출인구에 대한 사망률(치사율)을 추정하기 위해 홍수위험지역을 상이한 지대로 세분하여 지대별 치사율 또는 사망률 함수를 결정하였으며 이로부터 최종적인 사망자수를 예측하였다. 본 연구를 통해 제시된 댐 붕괴홍수의 인명피해 예측기법은 향후 확률론적 홍수 시나리오에 적용하여 하류부의 홍수위험도를 정량적으로 평가하고 저감대책을 수립하는데 활용될 수 있다. In this study, to estimate loss of life considered flood characteristics using the relationship derived from analysis of historical dam break cases and the factors determining loss of life, the loss of life module applying in LIFESim and loss of life estimation by means of a mortality function were suggested and applicability for domestic dam watershed was examined. The flood characteristics, such as water depth, flow velocity and arrival time were simulated by FLDWAV model and flood risk area were predicted by using inundation depth. Based on this, the effects of warning, evacuation and shelter were considered to estimate the number of people exposed to the flood. In order to estimate fatality rates based on the exposed population, flood hazard zone is assigned to three different zones. Then, total fatality numbers were predicted after determining lethality or mortality function for each zone. In the future, the prediction of loss of life due to dam break floods will quantitatively evaluate flood risk and employ to establish flood mitigation measures at downstream applying probabilistic flood scenarios.

Synthetic biology and biosecurity: challenging the "myths".

Synthetic biology, a field that aims to “make biology easier to engineer,” is routinely described as leading to an increase in the “dual-use” threat, i.e., the potential for the same scientific research to be “used” for peaceful purposes or “misused” for warfare or terrorism. Fears have been expressed that the “de-skilling” of biology, combined with online access to the genomic DNA sequences of pathogenic organisms and the reduction in price for DNA synthesis, will make biology increasingly accessible to people operating outside well-equipped professional research laboratories, including people with malevolent intentions. The emergence of do-it-yourself (DIY) biology communities and of the student iGEM competition has come to epitomize this supposed trend toward greater ease of access and the associated potential threat from rogue actors. In this article, we identify five “myths” that permeate discussions about synthetic biology and biosecurity, and argue that they embody misleading assumptions about both synthetic biology and bioterrorism. We demonstrate how these myths are challenged by more realistic understandings of the scientific research currently being conducted in both professional and DIY laboratories, and by an analysis of historical cases of bioterrorism. We show that the importance of tacit knowledge is commonly overlooked in the dominant narrative: the focus is on access to biological materials and digital information, rather than on human practices and institutional dimensions. As a result, public discourse on synthetic biology and biosecurity tends to portray speculative scenarios about the future as realities in the present or the near future, when this is not warranted. We suggest that these “myths” play an important role in defining synthetic biology as a “promissory” field of research and as an “emerging technology” in need of governance.

Self‐Knowledge, Gender Roles, and the Making of the Secret Gospels: A Chapter in the Sociology of Nonknowledge

AbstractIn addition to the four canonical gospels of theBible'sNewTestament, some so‐called apocryphal gospels have also been discovered to exist. Although the process by which the four gospels byMatthew,Mark,Luke, andJohn were determined to be the core gospels was completed by the late second centuryAD, it is generally held that the exclusion of other gospels was an incremental process that was finalized more than a century later. This article explores the inclusion and exclusion of texts in theNewTestament canon by reference to the sociological notion of ignorance, or “nonknowledge.” It is argued that the strategic use of nonknowledge can be shown to have achieved an “unknowing” of things that had previously been known among the early Christian community. Underpinning this argument is the suggestion that at least part of the success ofChristianity during the first 100 to 200 yearsADwas due to many Christian women not only occupying a special position in their communities but also being seen as having been favored with knowledge aboutGod. Such women were subsequently marginalized and knowledge about their role suppressed. The article concludes by noting that the formal exercise of control over what ought (not) to be known is part of the normal process of establishing stability and order in a bounded institution. This in turn promises to deliver insights for the sociological analysis of historical cases in many other areas.

Ecologia política e processos de territorialização

Propõe-se uma Ecologia Política que complemente a noção de projetos territoriais, apreendidos pela análise das disputas entre diferentes estratégias políticas orientadas por atividades econômicas que articulam atores e ambientes, e possibilite a análise dos conflitos e dos processos de mudança ambiental. O estudo dos conflitos socioambientais deve partir da análise intensiva de casos históricos, a fim de elucidar como os atores sociais em disputa estão ligados entre si por modos específicos de dependência recíproca, pautados num equilíbrio móvel de tensões, que resultam em processos de territorialização, compreendidos enquanto transformações nas formas de apropriação do território e seus recursos naturais, que são constantemente estruturadas, desestruturadas e reestruturadas pelas práticas dos grupos sociais e pelas relações de interdependência estabelecidas, que os ligam uns aos outros pelas redes de interesses referentes à figuração social.

Beyond great powers and hegemons: why secondary states support, follow, or challenge

This book adds a new dimension to the discussion of the relationship between the great powers and the weaker states that align with them-or not. Previous studies have focused on the role of the larger (or super) power and how it manages its relationships with other states, or on how great or major powers challenge or balance the hegemonic state. Beyond Great Powers and Hegemons seeks to explain why weaker states follow more powerful global or regional states or tacitly or openly resist their goals, and how they navigate their relationships with the hegemon. The authors explore the interests, motivations, objectives, and strategies of these 'followers'-including whether they can and do challenge the policies and strategies or the core position of the hegemon. Through the analysis of both historical and contemporary cases that feature global and regional hegemons in Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and South Asia, and that address a range of interest areas-from political, to economic and military-the book reveals the domestic and international factors that account for the motivations and actions of weaker states.

SEC Enforcement: Does Disgorgement Have a Date with Destiny?

Even before the promulgation of The Securities Enforcement Remedies and Penny Stock Reform Act of 1990 (SERPSRA), the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC or Commission) was entitled to seek disgorgement. Since 1971, the courts have been explicating the remedy as applied in the SEC enforcement context, and much of the doctrinal development had taken place by the time the SERPSRA was enacted. However, the doctrine of disgorgement as applied in the SEC enforcement context is not entirely settled. Increasingly, the defense bar is finding acquiescence by certain jurisdictions to offsetting disgorgement by a defendant's costs and expenses. Such costs have been deemed to fall within one of two categories, (1) Direct or Transactional Costs, and (2) General Business expenses. Earlier in the same year the SERPSRA was passed, a recondite case out of the Western District of New York held that business expenses were legitimate offsets to disgorgement. This was when the doctrinal development went AWOL. This paper seeks to explore the concept of equity embodied in the securities laws as intended by Congress. Accordingly, this paper asks whether Congress intended to codify the traditional common law notions of equity in disgorgement, or is the SEC's disgorgement sui generis. To answer this question, the philosophy behind disgorgement is exhaustively fleshed out through a historical case analysis. Next, the paper establishes what the author believes to be a new concept, the theory of regulatory equity. Following the establishment of this theory, the practice of offsetting disgorgement is analyzed to see whether it is faithful to this new concept of equity. The paper then considers examples of offsetting which have enjoyed the imprimatur of the Court, and explains why the practice is illegitimate. Finally, the author asks whether the grave need for meaningful and effective fraud deterrence in the investment industry and the vast inconsistency in how disgorgement is applied in these contexts warrants certiorari by the Supreme Court of the United States.

WHAT IS A PRISONER OF WAR FOR?

This article presents a conceptual map of the purposes served by continuing custody of prisoners of war and captured non-combatants. Morally legitimate and non-controversial purposes include preventing prisoners of war from rejoining their comrades-in-arms, preventing both prisoners of war and captured non-combatants from giving material support to combatants still in the field, facilitating orderly release and repatriation at the end of hostilities, and the prosecution for war crimes. Morally illegitimate purposes include punishment, exploitation as conscript labour, recruitment or conscription as combatants, exploitation for intelligence, display as proof of victory, and ideological indoctrination. Analysis of historical cases illustrating each purpose reveal that continuing custody is often motivated by multiple purposes, both legitimate and illegitimate. What explains adoption of multiple and illegitimate purposes for continuing custody? Prisoners are available for legitimate and illegitimate purposes because neither elites nor masses within the captor state typically view prisoners as members of the moral community.1 Continuing custody does not alter the perceived status of the captured as aliens who cannot be intuitively invested with expectations of reciprocity. This suggests both ending custody as soon as legitimate purposes are served and bringing the captured within the moral community while in continuing captivity. Scientia Militaria: South African Journal of Military Studies Vol. 36 (2) 2008: pp. 19-35

Professional projects and institutional change in healthcare: The case of American dentistry

This paper combines resources from the organization studies and sociology literatures to advance understanding of institutional change processes in healthcare that emerge from the professionalization projects of occupations. Conceptually, we introduce a model that combines the ‘archetype’ approach to analyzing structural change with a framework for analyzing the agency of emergent professions. We then employ the model to frame a historical case analysis (1972–2009) of the highly contested process by which the occupation of dental hygiene in the US fought to introduce a new organizational form, the alternative practice hygiene (APH) archetype. This archetype challenges the traditional model (the dentist’s office archetype) that is supported by the dominant dentistry profession. Our analysis contributes two main sets of empirical findings. First, we present a systematic comparison of the APH and Dentist’s Office archetypes in terms of their belief systems, formal structures, agents, and policy implications (e.g., access to services). Second, we provide an account of the agency of dental hygienists’ attempts to secure the APH model as part of their professionalization project.

Limits to the diffusion of innovation

PurposeThe purpose of this article is to integrate existing theoretical explanations for innovation diffusion across the disciplines of marketing, innovation and sociology research.Design/methodology/approachLiterature reviews and historical case analysis were used to support an integrative model.FindingsInnovation diffusion is affected by technological, social and learning “conditions” while operating in the contextual “domain” of the individual, community or market/industry.Research limitations/implicationsThe model is drawn from new product development and marketing theory. Both fields are dominated by the assumption that users adopt new technology to maximise their utility. Also, the model does not integrate the overlapping effects of the different contexts and domains.Practical implicationsThe article provides a sound model for orienting new product development strategy, since it may reduce the risk of low and slow user adoption of radical innovations due, for instance, to their technological, social, and cognitive differences with former products. A second critical managerial implication is that technological, social and learning conditions clearly have an effect on marketing actions and competitive strategies.Originality/valueThe article provides a literature review of resistance to technology adoption through a multidisciplinary lens.

Historical Perspectives in Marketing Education

This article provides a justification and an implementation plan for the establishment of a historical orientation across the undergraduate marketing curriculum. The justification for the historical perspective addresses three areas: tapping into the extensive body of knowledge in marketing history, practical implications, and critical thinking. The implementation plan involves recommendations drawing on two pedagogical approaches: (a) the degree to which topical marketing history can be infused into the marketing curriculum and (b) the development of a general historical perspective across marketing topics and courses (i.e., the role of marketing in history) by specifying historical contexts that are relevant to particular courses. General information on historical research methods in marketing is offered, and an example of a historical case analysis that illustrates a potential way to generate concrete practical outcomes from the historical context of marketing is included. Results of a survey of students show favorable responses to the discussion of the historical context of marketing in a senior-level marketing course.

COMMENTARIES: Debates About the "General" Picture: Cognition and Creative Achievement

Picasso's Guernica represents a potentially useful product for investigation by students of creative achievement. In the case of studies by Simonton (2007) and Weisberg and Hass (2007), both appearing in this same issue of the Creativity Research Journal, detailed examination of this picture has provided a basis for some bold statements about creative thought. In this commentary, we question the conclusions drawn by Simonton with respect to the application of historical case analysis, the methods applied, and the substantive model underlying this effort. More generally, we argue that caution is called for in attempting to account for creative achievement based on a single model of the kind of knowledge involved.

The More Things Change, the More They Remain the Same? Evaluating Strategic Leadership in Organizational Transformations

This study considers what has changed in strategic leadership during the last century and if we could learn something from the past. These questions are addressed through an historical case analysis of a Finnish pulp and paper industry leader, Gösta Serlachius. The findings show that at the surface level the world of strategic leadership is likely to be transient and contingent, but at the deeper level it seems to be based on much more stable elements. A correct combination of absorptive and adaptive capacities merged with managerial wisdom provided the basis for effective strategic leadership at the beginning of the 20th century in a similar way as today. Indeed, the more things change, the more crucial is the combination of these basic elements matching with the organizational environment. It is concluded that historical studies can add substantially to the future strategic leadership research.

La politique étrangère : État des travaux scientifiques

Theoretical studies of foreign policy show that the very subject of the discipline is highly undefined. This is the reason why we shall try, first and foremost, to provide an answer to three fundamental questions. Is there a natural difference between foreign policy and decision-making, or is foreign policy only a sum total of decisions? Is there a difference between a foreign policy which dictates the major general trends and the various policies which apply to restricted scenes of action ? What is the difference between the objectives which actors assign to various policies and their implementation in the international System, thus making their evaluation a problem ? We then deal with the state of studies entered upon by three schools of thought and set down the results registered by the behaviorist trend, the theoretical dilemma it had to face and the dead end it led to. The second trend, historical and political, has, for its part, dealt with comparative analysis of historical cases according to the method of localized and structured comparison. Finally, the third trend, historical, economical and structuralist, has resorted to the world System paradigm of I. Wallerstein. The problem of this paradigm is the transposition of the debate between the supporters of the Annales school (structural serial history, economical and social contingencies) and the historians of international relations (who favour history of events and the role of the state). This approach also focuses on the debate about the dichotomy international relations/transnational relations. In the ends, rigorous and interdisciplinary research studies is deemed necessary for the promotion of studies in foreign policy.

Midlevel Dry Intrusions as a Factor in Tornado Outbreaks Associated with Landfalling Tropical Cyclones from the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico

Midlevel dry intrusions have been mentioned as a factor in tornado outbreaks associated with landfalling tropical cyclones for more than three decades, but a systematic analysis of historical outbreak cases with respect to this pattern has been missing. Herein, following an examination of all named tropical cyclone landfalls from the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico for the period 1960–99, 13 “outbreak” cases (defined as storms producing 20 or more tornadoes) have been identified with 11 of the cases offering clear evidence of a dry intrusion at midlevels over the outbreak area. The outbreaks all occurred when the favored area for tornadogenesis (the right-front or northeast quadrant of the storm) coincided with a pronounced gradient of relative humidity, with the gradient best reflected at the 700- and/or 500-hPa level(s). Two distinct patterns were identified with respect to the origin of the midlevel dry air involved in these cases: in one, a mass of dry air that impinged on much of the northern or northwestern semicircle of the storm's outer circulation gradually divided into two separate areas (one to the northwest and the other to the northeast of the storm center) as the storm advanced; the other involved ingestion of a lobe of dry air from a reservoir most often located in the eastern semicircle of the storm. The outbreak cases were determined to have a strong diurnal signal detected in the temporal distribution of the tornadoes, as almost two-thirds (65%) of the tornadoes in the 11 “positive” cases occurred between 1500 and 2400 UTC (daylight hours in the region examined). A review of all tropical cyclone landfall events since 1960 revealed that there are only three cases with clear evidence of a midlevel dry intrusion that were not accompanied by an outbreak as defined herein.

Historical Cases as Teaching Tools in Management Courses—An Appraisal

In this article, the authors discuss the analysis of historical cases in management courses. They offer techniques and specific suggestions on how management professors can draw the greatest benefits from this method.

Co-Evolution of Entrepreneurial Careers, Institutional Rules and Competitive Dynamics in American Film, 1895-1920

An historical case analysis of the American film industry is undertaken to gain a better understanding of the co-evolutionary processes of entrepreneurial careers, institutional rules and competitive dynamics in emerging industries. The study compares technology and content-focused periods, which were driven by entrepreneurs with different career histories and characterized by distinct institutional rules and competitive dynamics. Archival data and historical analysis is used to trace how entrepreneurial careers, firm capabilities, institutional rules, and competitive dynamics co-evolved. A co-evolutionary perspective is integrated with insights from institutional and resource-based theories to explain how the American film industry emerged, set an initial trajectory with specific institutional rules and competitive dynamics, and then changed.