How to overcome path dependency through resource reconfiguration

Goumagias, Nikolaos; Fernandes, Kiran Jude; Nucciarelli, Alberto; Li, Feng

Abstract

Firms reconfigure their resources when responding to changes in their external or internal environment, often by incorporating new knowledge and resources in collaboration with external stakeholders. However, the reconfiguration process is challenging, costly, and often fails. The firm’s history plays an important role in the resource reconfiguration process being path dependent. Path dependency, debatably, leads to lock-in effects that prevent reconfiguration. However, we argue that this is a very limited viewpoint. In this paper, drawing empirical evidence from the digital games industry, we contend that path dependency constrains the reconfiguration action space and can potentially improve strategic planning by identifying the paths of least resistance. Depending on the extent of the reconfiguration, we identify two alternatives: direct reconfiguration (horizontal reconfiguration) or increasing the complexity by incorporating additional configurations (vertical reconfiguration).

Citation

Goumagias, N., Fernandes, K. J., Nucciarelli, A., & Li, F. (2022). How to overcome path dependency through resource reconfiguration. Journal of Business Research, 145, 78-91. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.02.040

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 12, 2022
• Online Publication Date: Mar 3, 2022
• Publication Date: 2022-06
• Deposit Date: Jun 1, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 4, 2023
• Journal: Journal of Business Research
• Print ISSN: 0148-2963
• Publisher: Elsevier
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 145
• Pages: 78-91
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2022.02.040
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1201974