Learning and Routines in High-Tech SMEs: Analyzing Rich Case Study Material

Institutional economics is concerned with the cultural embeddedness of economic institutions. A key institution is the firm, which, like other institutions, is analyzed in a world in which historical time matters and the rationality of the firm is one of process rather than maximization. In studying processes, evolutionary economists have likened the biological concept of the gene or trait to routine behavior adopted by firms, and routines are hypothesized to be systemic and enduring using, for example, analogies of chreodic development. Routines are acquired by organizations in the same manner as skills are acquired by individuals. Organizations learn and become skillful. Consequently, they do not make decisions so much as undertake processes of action. Research that is trying to provide a manageable base from which to discover whether or not routines are a useful concept for empirical work and whether routines can be identified empirically to help generate useful or effective understanding of the evolutionary change of actual firms is discussed.