This paper models organizational strategy as a social choice. We model how individual preferences for a course of action are aggregated toward an organizational choice and strategy. To accomplish this aggregation we specifically highlight the role of conditional (rather than categorical)...

In this essay we respond to Jepperson and Meyer’s (2011) critique of “action theories” and methodological individualism in sociology. We highlight fundamental problems with their argument, notably their misconception of methodological individualism(s) and the belief that this explanatory...

Micro-foundations have become an important emerging theme in strategic management. This paper addresses micro-foundations in two related ways. First, we argue that the kind of macro (or "collectivist") explanation that is utilized in the capabilities view in strategic management - which implies...

Making links between micro and macro levels has been problematic in the social sciences, and the literature in strategic management and organization theory is no exception. The purpose of this chapter is to raise theoretical issues in developing micro-foundations for strategic management and...

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...

Existing research on ecosystems is overly descriptive and structural. While description and structure are important, in this essay we argue for a microanalytic and firm-specific approach to ecosystems. We focus on the “hypothesis-led” firm—the role that a firm-specific hypothesis plays in...

We argue that perception, priming, and cognition research utilize the tools of stage magic in problematic ways, engaging in what we call "surprise-hacking." Surprise-hacking consists of the pre-experimental planning and staging of counterintuitive and negative results (such as blindness, bias,...

Seeing — perception and vision — is implicitly the fundamental building block of the literature on rationality and cognition. Herbert Simon and Daniel Kahneman's arguments against the omniscience of economic agents — and the concept of bounded rationality — depend critically on a...

Valve Corporation represents an intriguing case study of organization design and strategy. In this short commentary (cf. Puranam & Håkonsson, 2015), I discuss Valve's use of tipping points and thresholds in strategic decision making. While Valve indeed illustrates structural features such as...