Title: Do established firms explore more in punctuated environments?

Authors: Jun Lin

Addresses: School of Business, State University of New York at New Paltz, 1 Hawk Drive, New Paltz, NY 12561, New York, USA

Abstract: I introduced the punctuated equilibrium theory to account for the fast emergence of new business 'species' in the internet era. The commercial use of the internet altered the industrial environment with new challenges and opportunities, constituting a phase of environmental punctuation. This study examined how established firms respond strategically to such an environment by reorienting to the exploration of new possibilities. I collected data by a content analysis approach using 95 randomly sampled firms during the period of 1998-2001. The results from MANOVA suggested the strategic differences between firms from industries with or without 'environmental punctuation'. Firms that must cope with environmental punctuation, initiate strategic actions more frequently, and their strategic actions are more novel with wider breadth. This study enriches the understanding of the forms and contexts of organisational exploratory learning. Environmental punctuation is envisioned as the suitable context for strategic exploration.

Keywords: punctuated equilibrium; internet era; industrial environment; business environment; strategic exploration; organisational learning; exploratory learning; business models; knowledge management; content analysis; MANOVA; multivariate analysis of variance.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBE.2023.131877

International Journal of Business Environment, 2023 Vol.14 No.3, pp.351 - 369

Received: 11 Dec 2021
Accepted: 08 Sep 2022
Published online: 04 Jul 2023 *

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