The Growth of the Firm : An Attention-Based View

Although most theories of growth presume that it varies with the focus and limits of managerial attention, the actual role played by attention has remained largely implicit. In contrast, this paper explicitly considers attention structure and the processes that place sustained focus on growth issues. We explain how attention structure—specialized attention within a particular unit and integrated attention between units—affects both bottom-up (stimulus-driven) and top-down (schema-driven) attentional processing of new issues. We also examine the relationship between attention structure and divisional interdependencies, identifying conditions under which different attentional patterns generate organizational tensions that lead to architectural elaboration: the delineation of new organizational units. This logic is illustrated with examples from Motorola, a large telecommunications equipment provider, during a period of sustained growth. In linking theories of growth with the attention-based view, we augment both perspectives and offer an approach which provides a better understand growth's cognitive underpinnings