Object-based Path Dependence - Strategic Realignment of Organizations with their Environment

As a well-known concept, technological path dependence gives us valuable insights in how technologies become dominant in their markets. From organizational path dependence we already know a lot about mechanisms that make organizations as an entity path dependent. Still we are missing an approach to identify and analyze paths as an outcome of strategic decision-making. Therefore I introduce object-based path dependence. The concept provides a framework to shed light on organizational decision-making processes. It is grounded on the idea, that decisions are made within a context and on specific subjects. The outcome depends on basic effects, which can initiate decision-making, and additive effects, which shape the internal decision-making process and provide further guidance. I advance known components of path dependence and enrich these with insights on organizational information processing as well as commitment building. Moreover I provide a set of starting points for object-based path management.