Self-reflections on evolutionary processes and organizational adaptation: a Mendelian perspective on strategic management

Abstract

A “Mendelian” executive is proposed as an image of strategy-making that lies intermediate between the grand strategist suggested by rational choice approaches and a Darwinian process of random variation and market-based differential selection. The Mendelian executive is capable of intentional design efforts in order to explore possible adjacent strategic spaces, with path-dependence both constraining and enabling what is possible. Furthermore, the argument developed here highlights the role of intentionality with respect to selection processes within the organization, the culling and amplification of strategic initiatives. The firm is viewed as operating an “artificial selection” environment in contrast to selection as the direct consequence of the outcome of competitive processes. Examining the nature of the processes generating these experimental variants and the bases of internal selection, and how these selection criteria may themselves change, is argued to be central to understanding the challenge of organizational adaptation in dynamic environments.