This paper reports and extends discussions carried out during a workshop held at the Santa Fe Institute in August 1995 by the authors. It treats eight major topics: (i) the importance of carefully examining research on routine, (it) the concept of 'action patterns ' in general and in terms of routine, (Hi) the useful categorization of routines and other recurring patterns, (iv) the research implications of recent cognitive results, (v) the relation of evolution to action patterns, (vi) the contributions of simulation modeling for theory in this area, (vii) examples of various approaches to empirical jj; research that reveal key problems, and (viii) a possible definition of 'routine'. An m extended appendix by Massimo Egidi provides a lexicon of synonyms and opposites ji covering use of the word 'routine ' in such areas as economics, organization theory and z artificial intelligence. 6

More than a decade ago, Low and MacMillan identified three elements indispensable to an understanding of entrepreneurial success: process, context, and outcomes. Since their critique, three important advances include (a) a shift in theoretical emphasis from the characteristics of entrepreneurs as individuals to the consequences of their actions, (b) a deeper understanding of how entrepreneurs use knowledge, networks, and resources to construct firms, and (c) a more sophisticated taxonomy of environmental forces at different levels of analysis (population, community, and society) that affect entrepreneurship. Although our knowledge of entrepreneurial activities has increased dramatically, we still have much to learn about how process and context interact to shape the outcome of entrepreneurial efforts. From an evolutionary approach, process and context (strategy and environment) interact in a recursive continuous process, driving the fate of entrepreneurial efforts. Thus, integrating co...

This study assesses the differential performance effects of learning mechanisms in alliance portfolios. Investigating two distinct types of learning mechanisms (i.e. integrating and institutionalizing mechanisms), the results show that different learning mechanisms have different performance effects at distinct levels of alliance experience.The results are based on a detailed survey among alliance managers and vice-presidents of 192 firms reporting on over 3400 alliances formed over the period 1997–2001.The main lesson from this study is that firms can deliberately develop their alliance capabilities by using integrating mechanisms to transfer prior experiences. Key words • alliance capabilities • alliance experience • alliance portfolio performance • learning mechanisms The road toward a thorough understanding of the learning mechanisms underlying

Provided that organizational learning (OL) is a self-organizing process, a key lever to foster it is to supply organizations with occasions for learning by stressing events which induce it. This presumes knowledge about the causes of OL. Our paper attempts to contribute to a consolidated understanding about the causes of OL by reinterpreting respective assumptions of OL-concepts from a constructivist perspective on information: Applying Bateson’s (1981) definition of information, we show that assumptions of OLconcepts can be transformed into ‘differences which make differences’. Referring to Spencer Brown (1969), we then argue that ‘differences ’ do not represent objective degrees of unlikeness, but result from ‘drawing distinctions’. In the end, this implies that the causes of OL are self-made, that OL is an entirely- from causes to results- intrasystemic process, that whether or how an organization learns lies in its own hands, as it depends upon the distinctions it draws.

* A previous version of the argument was presented at the 15th EGOS Colloquium, Warwick, 4-6 July 1999,

Abstract: It is only through experience with technology that users and developers discover its emergent consequences. This paper provides an interdisciplinary view of adaptation, surveys the evolution and emergent consequences of Earth-orbiting satellites, and examines how the space industry adapted to new information on its impacts. General conclusions regarding technological adaptation are that (1) adaptations are frequently driven by disruptive events, (2) the pace of adaptation is correlated with technology accessibility and the size of the installed user base, and (3) the integration of a technology with a society may be viewed as a process of stakeholder alignment. 1

The paper consists of three parts. The first part gives an inventory of issues that no cognitive theory of the firm can ignore. These are grouped into three themes: aspects of development, issues of coordination and philosophy of knowledge and language. The second part of the paper tries to develop a general logic of change, and to make this logic more determinate and rigorous with the aid of the notion of scripts. The third part gives an