Lilla Hortoványi

Strategy Without Templates

Adaptation in Digital Environments

4.3.5 Path Dependence, Coherence, and Disruption

Recent work on paths and routine dynamics highlights that strategic outcomes are shaped by how actions unfold over time, rather than by static configurations observed at a single point. Pentland et al. (2022) show that emerging technology and organizing are better understood through path centric processes rather than through static models of optimal design. This means that the sequence of prior interactions and adjustments can be critically important. Kim et al. (2025) further demonstrate that paths develop through coherence and disruption, indicating that stability is continuously produced through ongoing adjustments rather than resulting from a one-time alignment.

The relevance for strategy is that what is observed as a successful practice is only the current state of an ongoing process. What is visible at any given moment is, therefore, not a complete configuration, but a temporary stabilization within a continuing flow of adjustments. Moreover, its effectiveness depends not only on what the firm currently does, but on how that doing has been historically assembled. This also explains why learning cannot rely on observing static practices but must consider how configurations are formed and reformed over time.

This adds a temporal constraint to the earlier argument: even if a configuration could be observed in full, its effectiveness would still depend on the specific sequence through which it emerged. Strategy in digital environments is, therefore, better understood as a moving configuration rather than a fixed model. What can be observed is only a snapshot of an evolving path, and its replication is unreliable even if conditions appear similar at a given moment. This implies that digital strategy is inherently path dependent, as its effectiveness cannot be separated from the sequence of actions and adjustments through which it has been constructed.

Tartalomjegyzék

Kiadó: Akadémiai Kiadó

Online megjelenés éve: 2026

ISBN: 978 963 664 204 4

Gazdaság

What happens when understanding comes only after action has already begun?

Traditional strategy rests on the assumption that organizations can understand their environment before deciding how to act. Yet the conditions that once allowed organizations to rely on benchmarking, best practices, and proven strategic templates can no longer be taken for granted. Today, organizations increasingly face situations for which no clear roadmap exists. Established assumptions become less reliable, familiar reference points lose their clarity, and strategic decisions must be made before their consequences can be fully understood.

Strategy Without Templates explores how organizations learn, adapt, and navigate environments in which uncertainty is pervasive and established templates are absent or no longer sufficient. Instead of treating strategy as a process of prediction and planning, the book explores how strategic paths take shape through action, experimentation, adjustment, and learning.

A central insight in the book is that temporary solutions are often necessary. What begins as a practical response to an immediate challenge may gradually shape future possibilities in unexpected ways. Some solutions create new opportunities and sources of advantage. Others become constraints that are difficult to overcome.

Hivatkozás: https://mersz.hu/hortovanyi-strategy-without-templates//

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