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Understanding how organizations operate in different environments has been at the core of organizational research for decades. Three distinct bodies of literature have emerged, with limited cross-pollination among them: routines, heuristics, and improvisation. We add to the existing literature by studying these three types of organizational responses simultaneously via an in-depth longitudinal study of an organization that encountered increasing levels of environmental dynamism. We pay particular attention to explaining how and why routines broke down, prompting the emergence of heuristics or improvisations, as well as when these three responses were used in tandem and when they interacted with each other. Our theoretical model identifies the triggers of heuristics and improvisations and the focal context that led to routines breaking down. We define 'focal context' as a constructed temporary reality that encompasses both the objective traits of the environment experienced by the organization at a particular point in time, as well as the subjective perceptions that organizational members had of that reality. We also identify the mechanisms of cognitive search and social convergence that led to the creation of nonroutine responses. Finally, we use our insights to clarify the existing overlaps in the conceptualization of the three organizational responses. Our field study is based on a mountaineering expedition to climb one of the most difficult sides of Mount Everest, the Kangshung face, an archetypical case that is particularly well suited to the development of a new theory in which rich data are required to study the phenomena. Keywords: routines * heuristics * improvisation * organizational response * uncertainty, Introduction The study of how organizations adapt and operate in different environments has been at the core of organizational studies for more than half a century (Selznick 1957). Early theories [...]

The literature on technology management has increasingly focused on the sociocognitive elements of the industry life cycle. One of these elements, category labels (words, in most cases) and its role in shaping market understandings, has recently become of interest to scholars. As industries evolve, stakeholders generate a plethora of category labels. However, we know relatively little about why some category labels are used repeatedly, whereas others are abandoned. Drawing on semantic networks theory, we argue that the familiarity and creativity of category labels drive their adoption. We hypothesize that low levels of familiarity hinder comprehension, but too much familiarity increases the cost of obviousness. Likewise, low levels of creativity do not trigger curiosity, whereas too much creativity spurs dissonance. We use two methods to address these hypotheses. First, we study the early smartphone industry, finding support for an inverted U-shaped relationship between both the familiarity and creativity of category labels and their adoption, even after controlling for alternative explanations, such as technology and design characteristics. Second, we find consistent results through two online experiments that broaden the scope of our study and address potential endogeneity concerns in our field data. Our paper expands the literature on the evolution of technology industries by showing that familiarity and creativity are distinct dimensions that influence the sociocognitive dynamics of an emerging industry. We also contribute to the categorization literature by theorizing about the contestation that occurs among category labels and providing empirical evidence of the factors that affect their adoption. Funding: Financial support was received from the National Science Foundation [Grant 1027408] and the Slatkin Family Fund Research Grant. Keywords: technology management * category labels * categories * industry evolution * creativity * familiarity * semantic networks, Introduction During an industry's early stages, stakeholders hold multiple, simultaneous understandings of the industry's products (Kaplan and Tripsas 2008, Anthony et al. 2016). Scholars have examined this sociocognitive dimension through [...]

The phenomenon of a platform owner entering its complementor spaces has been growing and, given its potential impact on the dynamics of competition in platform-mediated industries, has captured the interest of entrepreneurs, scholars, and policy makers. Empirical studies on the consequences of such platform owner entry have been scant so far and show mixed results for complementors. Drawing on competitive dynamics theory, our paper revisits an implicit assumption held in extant studies that allows us to hypothesize on dissimilar entry modes across owners, to study the implications of entry mode differences. We argue that how an owner enters its complementor spaces drives the level of competitive pressure that such an entry exerts on the affected complementors. In turn, this determines the size and valence of the repercussions on complementors' product performance as well as their responses. Drawing on platform theory, we argue that an owner's mode of entry into complementor spaces relates to that owner's approach to platform governance. Using a unique panel dataset of health and fitness mobile apps in the Apple iOS and Google Play store, our results support our prediction that the mode of entry plays a significant role in the resulting complementor dynamics. We find contrasting modes of entry and resulting dynamics that arise between a platform that follows a closed and reigning approach to governance and one that follows an open and laissez-faire approach. Our findings help explain apparent contradictions in prior studies and extend our understanding of this increasingly common phenomenon in platform-mediated industries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Substantial changes are witnessed in the Latin American economies and companies, as their economies have been reformed and opened to world markets. Firms that have adapted to these changes face economic transformation and expanding competition, which can prove to be a benchmark for companies in other countries.

Despite the popularity of flexible manufacturing systems, managers suffer from inadequate frameworks to help incorporate flexibility into their strategic planning. Through a study of thirty-one plants in the printed circuit [...]

This article lays out several hypotheses to establish a specific link between structural economic reforms and the competitive environment of firms. We test our hypotheses on data from the steel industry in three post-reform economies. We find that economic reforms tend to have a positive effect on environmental munificence, but they also produce short-term instability in the environment. We elaborate on the implications of our results for managers, policymakers, and scholars. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on the special case of changes triggered by profound economic reforms in emerging economies, we suggest a new perspective from which to explore the relationship between environmental and organizational change. This research setting is used to explore and propose enhancements to existing theory that take into account how organizations respond to extreme forms of change. We propose a typology of environmental change that helps to interpret our findings and position our study vis-à-vis existing research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A firm may readily subscribe to a new technology but then fail to use it. This article advances existing technology diffusion theory by bringing in a new construct that can explain the likelihood of technology use after adoption. The authors define contiguous user bandwagon and show how this information diffusion mechanism can help in explaining the time to technology use. They test their hypotheses using data on the adoption and use of e-procurement technology (N = 3,158) in the early phase of its diffusion. The authors find support for the hypothesis that contiguous user bandwagon is a strong antecedent of time to technology use. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]