A Theory of the Cultural Evolution of the Firm: The Intra-Organizational Ecology of Memes

Abstract

In this article, we propose a theory of the cultural evolution of the firm. We apply cultural and evolutionary thinking to the questions posed by theories of the firm: What are firms and why do they exist? We argue that firms are best thought of as cultures, as social distributions of modes of thought and forms of externalization. Using the term ‘meme’ to refer collectively to cultural modes of thought (ideas, beliefs, assumptions, values, interpretative schema, and know-how), we describe culture as a social phenomenon, patterns of symbolic communication and behavior that are produced as members of the group enact the memes they have acquired as part of the culture. Memes spread from mind to mind as they are enacted and the resulting cultural patterns are observed and interpreted by others. The uncertainties of interpretation and the possibilities of reinterpretation and recontextualization create variation in the memes as they spread. Over time, firms evolve as a process of the selection, variation, and retention of memes. Our claim is that understanding firms in this way provides a new perspective (what we call the ‘meme’s-eye view’) on the question of why we have the firms we have and, by allowing us to shed the functionalist assumptions shared by both economics and knowledge-based theories of the firm, makes possible a genuinely descriptive, as opposed to normative, theory of why we have the firms that we have.

The Influence of Routine Interdependence and Skillful Accomplishment on the Coordination of Standardizing and Customizing

“…Further, the dynamic enactment of the continuously shifting salience of interdependent routines explicates the coordination of complementarity between multiple routines. It extends our understanding of how the consistency and coherence of a routine ecology are generated (Birnholtz et al, 2007;Galunic & Weeks, 2003) by showing that such complementarity is enacted within the multiple intersections between interdependent routines and a focal routine.…”

Aplikacja teorii istnienia przedsiębiorstw dla podmiotów ekonomii współdzielenia na przykładzie firmy Uber

“…Wszystkie te czynniki sprawiaj , e ci ko jest wprost odpowiedzie na pytanie, dlaczego istniej przedsi biorstwa. Weeks i Galunic (2003, s. 1313) sugeruj , i "najprostsz odpowiedz mo e by to, e dzisiejsze firmy istniej dlatego, gdy istnia y wczoraj. Co wiadczy o powszechnej wierze, w fakt, e potrzebujemy firm, poniewa zostali my tego nauczeni.…”

“…Krytyk koncepcji kosztów transakcyjnych, jako warunkuj c istnienie przedsi biorstwa, podejmuj Weeks i Galunic (2003), którzy twierdz , e poszczególni uczestnicy wolnego rynku, dzia aj cy jako samodzielne jednostki, jak równie ci dzia aj cy w ramach firm, nie s w stanie dok adnie okre li kosztów zwi zanych z zwieraniem transakcji. Podstaw tej krytyki jest za o enie o ograniczonej racjonalno ci, a tak e odrzucenie neoklasycznego za o enia o idealnej konkurencji na wolnym rynku.…”

An extra‐memetic empirical methodology to accompany theoretical memetics

“…There is a range of instances where the meme concept has been applied to organisations, for example, Weeks and Galunic (2003) propose a memetic theory of the firm, Price and Shaw (1998) suggest memetic patterns influence organisational culture, O'Mahoney (2007) Despite the absence of a e pi i al e ide e fo e es e iste e, seemingly without exception each study assumes their existence. Subsequently, the definition of what a meme is varies from study to study so on each occasion memes are couched in terms which suit the message of the thesis rather than a consensus of what might constitute a putatively real entity.…”

“…Subsequently, the definition of what a meme is varies from study to study so on each occasion memes are couched in terms which suit the message of the thesis rather than a consensus of what might constitute a putatively real entity. For example, memes might be core elements of culture which are imitated (Voelpel et al, 2005;Weeks and Galunic, 2003), self-replicating ideas or thoughts (Pech, 2003) …”