Using insights from ‘embodied cognition’ and a resulting ‘cognitive theory of the firm’, The paper aims to contribute to the further development of evolutionary theory of organizations, in the specification of organizations as ‘interactors’ that carry organizational competencies as ‘replicators’, within industries as ‘populations’. The paper, in particular, analyzes how, if at all, ‘dynamic capabilities’ can be fitted into evolutionary theory, and proposes that the prime purpose of an organization is to serve as a cognitive ‘focusing device’. Here, cognition has a wide meaning, including perception, interpretation, sense making, and value judgments. The paper examines how cognition integrates organizations on the one hand, and creates differences within and between industries on the other, and proposes the following sources of ‘variation’ replication in communication, novel combinations of existing knowledge, and a path of discovery by which exploitation leads to exploration. These sources yield a proposal for dynamic capabilities. The paper also discusses in what sense, and to what extent these sources of variation are ‘blind’, as postulated in evolutionary theory.
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Volume (Year): V (2007) Issue (Month): 4 (November) Pages: 31-55 Download reference. The following formats are available: HTML
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Handle: RePEc:icf:icfjme:v:05:y:2007:i:4:p:31-55
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References listed on IDEAS Please report citation or reference errors to , or , if you are the registered author of the cited work, log in to your RePEc Author Service profile, click on "citations" and make appropriate adjustments.:
Wuyts, S.H.K. & Colombo, M.G. & Dutta, S. & Nooteboom, B., 2004.
"Empirical Tests Of Optimal Cognitive Distance,"
Research Paper
ERS-2004-007-ORG Revision, Erasmus Research Institute of Management (ERIM), ERIM is the joint research institute of the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University and the Erasmus School of Economics (ESE) at Erasmus Uni.
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Nooteboom, B. & Vanheverbeke, W.P.M. & Duysters, G.M. & Gilsing, V.A. & Oord van den, A,J,, 2005.
"Optimal cognitive distance and absorptive capacity,"
ECIS Working Papers
05.05, Eindhoven Centre for Innovation Studies, Eindhoven University of Technology.
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