Lilla Hortoványi

Strategy Without Templates

Adaptation in Digital Environments

7.2 Recursive Reinforcement: How Repetition Produces Structural Embedding

A viable response does not become structural immediately. It must first be reused. The second step in the chapter’s causal sequence is, therefore, repetition. Repetition matters because it transforms a local response into a recognizable and increasingly stable way of acting. What is initially provisional begins to gain persistence when it is enacted repeatedly.

First, repetition reduces cognitive load. When a solution is used repeatedly, it moves from conscious deliberation to automatic execution. This transition, described in routine dynamics literature as the shift from more deliberate to more automatic processing, makes the solution easier to execute and harder to question (Kesting, 2023). As solutions become automatic, they are no longer subject to the same level of active evaluation. They gradually become what members of the organization simply recognize as the way things are done.

Second, repetition creates coordination efficiencies. When multiple actors use the same solution, they develop shared expectations and complementary practices. These interdependencies make it costly to deviate from the established solution, even if alternatives might be superior. Thus, the coordination benefits of repetition increase returns to existing practices, reinforcing their persistence.

Third, repetition produces organizational memory. Solutions that are repeated become encoded in artifacts, documentation, and training materials. This materialization makes the solution independent of the individuals who originally developed it, allowing it to persist even as personnel change. The solution becomes part of the organization’s infrastructure, embedded in systems and processes that shape future action.

Recent research on path nets provides a useful theoretical framework for understanding how repetition produces recurrence without assuming full stability (Pentland et al., 2024). The concept of path nets emphasizes that organizational routines emerge from patterns of concurrence and recurrence in action, rather than from predetermined scripts. This perspective is especially relevant here because it highlights how repetition creates regular rhythms that reduce the need for constant reinvention while still allowing for variation and local adaptation.

The key point is that repetition does more than preserve isolated acts. It stabilizes linkages among tasks, actors, tools, and expectations. Through repeated enactment, a contingent response becomes easier to reproduce, easier to coordinate around, and more difficult to dislodge.

This marks a clear step in the chapter’s causal sequence. A response that was initially viable becomes persistent because it is reused. Repetition, therefore, transforms temporary adjustment into a stable pattern of action.

This is why repetition matters for a configurational theory of the firm. The issue is not only that one practice persists. It is that repeated use stabilizes combinations of activities. Over time, what began as a local arrangement becomes a recognizable pattern of coordination. Therefore, repetition does not merely preserve behavior. It starts to preserve configurations.

Importantly, repetition has a dual effect. It stabilizes activity by reducing uncertainty and facilitating coordination, but it also narrows future flexibility. What becomes embedded through repeated use is not always what is best from the perspective of long-term adaptability. Repetition privileges what is available and workable. The same mechanism can later become a source of inertia.

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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