Path Dependence and QWERTY's Lock-In: Toward a Veblenian Interpretation

2011 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 457-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Hall ◽  
Iciar Dominguez Lacasa ◽  
Jutta Günther
Keyword(s):  
Path Dependence ◽  
Lock In

Path Dependence

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michelle Hegmon
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Path Dependence ◽  
General Level ◽  
Historical Contingency ◽  
Difficult Decision ◽  
Critical Junctures ◽  
Potential Applications ◽  
Path Dependent ◽  
Historical Sequences ◽  
Lock In

Path dependence concepts, thus far, have seen little application in archaeology, but they have great potential. At a general level, these concepts provide tools for theorizing historical sequences, such as patterns of settlement on a landscape and divergent historical traditions. Potential applications include issues of historical contingency in the late Rio Grande, settlement in the Mesa Verde region, and divergent trajectories in the post-Chaco period. Specific concepts from path dependence theory, including lock-in and critical junctures, are illustrated by an analysis of the growth of Hohokam irrigation, which exhibited a path-dependent trajectory. As archaeological study of path dependence builds awareness of the importance of decision-making on the future, it contributes to difficult decision-making in today’s world.

Carceral lock-in: How organizational conditions stymie the development of justice alternatives in a rape crisis center

2020 ◽  
pp. 136248062097178
Author(s):  
Benjamin R Weiss
Keyword(s):  
Organization Theory ◽  
Path Dependence ◽  
Participant Observation ◽  
Carceral State ◽  
Organizational Conditions ◽  
Physical Infrastructure ◽  
Rape Crisis Center ◽  
Criminal Legal System ◽  
Lock In ◽  
Depth Interviews

Many perpetrators of sexual violence are themselves victims of similar crimes. Such “complex victims” do not fit neatly into the dichotomous categories of victim and perpetrator essential to the functioning of the adversarial criminal-legal system. How anti-rape activists attempt to incorporate complex victims into their work illustrates challenges they experience when wrestling with the carceral state more broadly. In this article, I draw on 32 months of participant observation and 40 in-depth interviews to show how organizational conditions—departmental silos and physical infrastructure—prevent activists’ treatment of complex victims. Building on the concept of path dependence from organization theory, I argue that carceral understandings of harm become “locked-in” despite activists’ anti-carceral attitudes. This article identifies barriers to the treatment of complex victims, further explains feminist activists’ simultaneously contentious and coalitional relationship with the carceral state, and introduces the concept of carceral lock-in to help understand impediments to justice alternatives.

Sprayed to Death: Path Dependence, Lock-in and Pest Control Strategies

1996 ◽  
Vol 106 (436) ◽  
pp. 521 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robin Cowan ◽  
Philip Gunby
Keyword(s):  
Pest Control ◽  
Path Dependence ◽  
Control Strategies ◽  
Lock In

Chronic Instability and the Limits of Path Dependence

2015 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 976-991 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Bernhard
Keyword(s):  
Federal Republic ◽  
Path Dependence ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Historical Institutionalism ◽  
External Shocks ◽  
Chronic Instability ◽  
Rapid Succession ◽  
Critical Junctures ◽  
Comparative Historical Analysis ◽  
Lock In

Historical institutionalism challenged older forms of comparative historical analysis by moving away from purely structural explanations of historical outcomes. Instead it posited that there were critical junctures in which actors chose between institutional alternatives, which in turn led to path dependence. I examine a phenomenon neglected both by historical institutionalism and older forms of historical analysis—chronic instability. Instead of institutional lock-in, some junctures lead to periods of instability in which a series of regimes replace each other in rapid succession. Three different causal mechanisms that routinely contribute to chronic instability—external shocks, changing configurations of actors, and disjuncture between the logic of change and mechanisms of reproduction—are explored in depth. The plausibility of the theory is illustrated by an examination of regime instability in Germany from the collapse of the Empire in 1918 through the founding of the Federal Republic in 1949.

scholarly journals Aligning to disadvantage: How corporate political activity and strategic homophily create path dependence in the firm

2020 ◽  
pp. 001872672090892
Author(s):  
Andrew Perchard ◽  
Niall G MacKenzie
Keyword(s):  
Path Dependence ◽  
Business History ◽  
Political Activity ◽  
Environmental Scanning ◽  
Corporate Political Activity ◽  
Government Relations ◽  
Organizational Behaviour ◽  
Lock In ◽  
Historical Methods ◽  
The Impact

To what extent should firms get close to government for competitive advantage? What happens if they get too close? In this article we explore how corporate political activity inculcated strategic homophily in leading UK aluminium producer, the British Aluminium Company Ltd, resulting in its path dependence and eventual lock-in. The article makes three main contributions: a longitudinal study of corporate political activity and strategic homophily revealing their organizational manifestations and detailed understanding of certain mechanisms of path dependence; articulating the value of historical methods and perspectives to exploring organizational path dependence; and exploring the impact that prolonged business-government relations can have on the organizational behaviour and strategic outlook of the firm with implications for TMT selection and environmental scanning. In so doing it responds to calls for firms to align market positions with political activity, as well as those for the recognition of the value of business history in better understanding the links between corporate political activity and firm performance. It further elucidates the longer-term consequences of strategic homophily, which has to date focused on the early stages of venture formation.

scholarly journals Path dependence and path plasticity: textile cities in the Netherlands

2013 ◽  
Vol 57 (1-2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Geert Vissers ◽  
Ben Dankbaar
Keyword(s):  
The Netherlands ◽  
Textile Industry ◽  
Path Dependence ◽  
Lock In ◽  
Dutch Cities

AbstractConcentrating on three Dutch cities that once had an important textile industry, this study discusses the reasons for the decline of the industry and the responses by firms and other relevant actors. Reasons and responses differed between cities. Therefore, general explanations of the decline of the Dutch textile industry must be supplemented with city-specific accounts. We do not deny that the industry had to deal with path dependence, and lock-in was looming large, but we argue that the demise of the textile industry was not inevitable. The notion of path plasticity helps to direct attention to options that could have been chosen.

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