Experience and repetition as antecedents of organizational routines and capabilities : a critique of behaviorist and empiricist approaches
Abstract
We discuss the behaviorist and empiricist foundations of the organizational routines and
capabilities literature, specifically the extant emphasis placed on experience, repetition and
observation as the key inputs and mechanisms of behavior, learning and change in organizations.
Based on this discussion we highlight several concerns associated with specifying experience and
repetition as antecedents of routines and capabilities, namely, (1) the problem of origins and
causation, (2) the problem of extremes, (3) the problem of intentionality, (4) the problem of new
knowledge, and (5) the problem of the environment. We highlight the “poverty of stimulus”
argument and more generally discuss how internalist or rationalist, choice-based approach might
provide a more fruitful (though preliminary) foundation for extant research on organizational
routines and capabilities.
Publisher
Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration. Department of Strategy and ManagementSeries
Discussion paper2009:9