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Co‐evolution in Strategic Renewal Behaviour of British, Dutch and French Financial Incumbents: Interaction of Environmental Selection, Institutional Effects and Managerial Intentionality*
Author(s) -
Flier Bert,
Bosch Frans A. J. Van Den,
Volberda Henk W.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of management studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 4.398
H-Index - 184
eISSN - 1467-6486
pISSN - 0022-2380
DOI - 10.1046/j.1467-6486.2003.00416.x
Subject(s) - intentionality , perspective (graphical) , selection (genetic algorithm) , institutional theory , preference , economics , adaptation (eye) , punctuated equilibrium , business , microeconomics , industrial organization , positive economics , management , psychology , computer science , epistemology , paleontology , philosophy , artificial intelligence , neuroscience , biology
How do incumbent firms and environments co‐evolve and how are firm‐level adaptation and selection at industry level interrelated? Can and do large established organizations renew themselves to adapt to their environment? Three single‐lens theories, relating to environmental selection, institutional theory, managerial intentionality, and a co‐evolutionary perspective are used to investigate strategic renewal of incumbent firms. We derive propositions and distinguish between three dimensions of strategic renewal and develop metrics to investigate our propositions in a multi‐level, multi‐country, longitudinal study of the European financial services industry. Our results provide the following insights. From an environmental selection perspective, we found incumbents have a preference for exploitation renewal actions. Country institutional environments appear to explain to what extent incumbents prefer internal and/or external renewal actions. Managerial intentionality seems to explain outlier behaviour and firm‐specific frequency and timing of renewal actions. From a co‐evolutionary perspective, interaction effects explain deviations from predictions derived from the single‐lens theories applied in this paper.