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The Mystery of the Routine. The Darwinian Destiny of An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change

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  • Geoffrey M. Hodgson

Abstract

The three core Darwinian principles of variety, inheritance and selection are found in Nelson and Winter?s Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change (1982). Is the application of these core Darwinian principles purely analogical, or does it also relate to ontological communalities between social and biological evolution? Why do Nelson and Winter describe their theory as ?Lamarckian? despite this strong Darwinian content? This ?Lamarckian? inclination is related to their imperfect and inconsistent definitions of their core concept of ?routine?. It is argued here that a routine must be treated as a genotype rather than a (behavioural) phenotype. Following Winter (1987), it is also argued that the use of Darwinian principles in economics relates to general features that are common to both social and biological systems. This permits consideration of the routine as a replicator in a broad Darwinian analysis. A definition of replication is taken from the recent literature on cultural evolution and applied to the key concepts of (individual) habit and (organisational) routine. An ontologically-grounded Darwinian and evolutionary economics leads us to a more detailed discussion of the mechanisms of replication, as well as the sources of variety and the processes of selection.

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  • Geoffrey M. Hodgson, 2003. "The Mystery of the Routine. The Darwinian Destiny of An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change," Revue économique, Presses de Sciences-Po, vol. 54(2), pages 355-384.
    • Handle: RePEc:cai:recosp:reco_542_0355
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    3. Ron A. Boschma & Jesse W.J. Weltevreden, 2005. "B2c e-commerce adoption in inner cities: An evolutionary perspective," Papers in Evolutionary Economic Geography (PEEG) 0503, Utrecht University, Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Group Economic Geography, revised Feb 2005.
    4. G. Buenstorf, 2005. "How Useful Is Universal Darwinism as a Framework to Study Competition and Industrial Evolution?," Papers on Economics and Evolution 2005-02, Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography.
    5. Burr, Wolfgang & Frohwein, Torsten, 2012. "Regelbrüche in Organisationen," Research Papers on Innovation, Services and Technology 1/2012, University of Stuttgart, Institute of Business Administration, Department I - Institute of Research & Development and Innovation Management.
    6. Khan, Haider, 2008. "Causal Depth: Aspects of a Scientific Realist Approach to Causal Explanation contra Humean Empiricism," MPRA Paper 8293, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2008.
    7. Agnès Festré & Nathalie Lazaric, 2007. "Routines and leadership in Schumpeter and von Mises' analysis of economic change," Post-Print halshs-00271338, HAL.
    8. Geoffrey Hodgson & Thorbjørn Knudsen, 2006. "The nature and units of social selection," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 16(5), pages 477-489, December.
    9. Christian Cordes, 2006. "Darwinism in economics: from analogy to continuity," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 16(5), pages 529-541, December.
    10. Elena Tsepilova S. & Е. Цепилова С. & В. Горобинская И., 2017. "ИНСТИТУЦИОНАЛЬНЫЙ ПОДХОД К ХАРАКТЕРИСТИКЕ НАЛОГОВОЙ ПОЛИТИКИ ГОСУДАРСТВА // Institutional Approach to the Government Fiscal Policy," Экономика. Налоги. Право // Economics, taxes & law, ФГОБУ "Финансовый университет при Правительстве Российской Федерации" // Financial University under The Government of Russian Federation, vol. 10(2), pages 134-141.
    11. Markus C. Becker & Nathalie Lazaric & Richard R. Nelson & Sidney G. Winter, 2005. "Applying organizational routines in understanding organizational change," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 14(5), pages 775-791, October.
    12. Beckert, Jens & Ebbinghaus, Bernhard & Hassel, Anke & Manow, Philip (ed.), 2006. "Transformationen des Kapitalismus: Festschrift für Wolfgang Streeck zum sechzigsten Geburtstag," Schriften aus dem Max-Planck-Institut für Gesellschaftsforschung Köln, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies, volume 57, number 57.
    13. Dehua Gao & Flaminio Squazzoni & Xiuquan Deng, 2018. "The Intertwining Impact of Intraorganizational and Routine Networks on Routine Replication Dynamics: An Agent-Based Model," Complexity, Hindawi, vol. 2018, pages 1-23, November.
    14. Erik Lundmark & Alf Westelius, 2014. "Entrepreneurship as Elixir and Mutagen," Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, , vol. 38(3), pages 575-600, May.
    15. Robert Charles Sheldon & Eric Michael Laviolette & Fabien Geuser, 2020. "Explaining the process and effects of new routine introduction with a notion of micro-level entrepreneurship," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 30(3), pages 609-642, July.
    16. Khan, Haider, 2008. "Causal Depth contra Humean Empiricism: Aspects of a Scientific Realist Approach to Explanation," MPRA Paper 8297, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 2008.
    17. Stańczyk-Hugiet Ewa, 2014. "Routines in the process of organizational evolution," Management, Sciendo, vol. 18(2), pages 73-87, December.
    18. Lukas Radwan & Sebastian Kinder, 2013. "Practising the Diffusion of Organizational Routines," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 45(10), pages 2442-2458, October.
    19. Valentine P. Vishnevsky & Aleksandr V. Gurnak, 2015. "Taxation, evolutionary economics and tax populations," Journal of Tax Reform, Graduate School of Economics and Management, Ural Federal University, vol. 1(1), pages 113-132.
    20. Christian Cordes, 2014. "There are several ways to incorporate evolutionary concepts into economic thinking," Papers on Economics and Evolution 2014-02, Philipps University Marburg, Department of Geography.
    21. Rouslan Koumakhov & Adel Daoud, 2017. "Routine and reflexivity: Simonian cognitivism vs practice approach," Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford University Press and the Associazione ICC, vol. 26(4), pages 727-743.

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