"A longitudinal study of the factors that affect firms" Ability to shape technological evolution and to exert a broad influence on technological change

Abstract

Among organization scholars there is a growing interest in the study of the organization-environment co-evolution. The majority of them focus on how organizations are shaped by their environment and only a few examine how organizations systematically influence their environment (Lewin and Volberda 1999). Thinking about this research area, Nelson and Winter (1982), in one of the most influential works in evolutionary social science, posited that “Perhaps in the future it will become possible to build and comprehend models of industry evolution that are based on detailed and realistic models of individual firm behavior” (p. 36). Building on this line of reasoning, the overarching objective of this thesis is to shed light on how specific firm’s characteristics can enhance or limit the ability of a firm to affect technological evolution and to exert a broad influence on technological change.