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The foundation is solid, if you know where to look: comment on Felin and Foss

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2010

BRIAN T. PENTLAND
BRIAN T. PENTLAND*
Affiliation:
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824, USA
*
*Email: pentland@bus.msu.edu
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Abstract:

This paper offers an alternative to the view of the routines literature provided by T. Felin and N. J. Foss, ‘The Endogenous Origins of Experience, Routines and Organizational Capabilities: The Poverty of Stimulus’, published by the Journal of Institutional Economics. The emphasis here is on practice-based theories of organizational routines that are grounded in close, ethnographic observation of real routines. While this literature may be unfamiliar to some readers, it is relevant here because it specifically contradicts the core assertions made by Felin and Foss. Further, this literature provides a clear theoretical foundation for subsequent research on problems such as stability and change in routines, the nature of capabilities and dynamic capabilities, and complex ecologies of routines.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Institutional Economics , Volume 7 , Special Issue 2: Business Routines , June 2011 , pp. 279 - 293
Copyright
Copyright © The JOIE Foundation 2010

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