Firms frequently create executive links between units by transferring or sharing people. Organization theory has emphasized that “boundary-spanning” by people can be a source of innovation and change as these executives combine knowledge from different domains. Within the organization,...

This chapter addresses the issue of structural change within for-profit organizations, both as adaptation to changing markets and as purposeful experimentation to search for new opportunities, and builds upon the ‘reconfiguration’ construct. In the areas of strategy, evolutionary economics,...

This paper studies how firms use acquisitions to achieve long-term business reconfiguration. We base the study in a routine-based perspective on business dynamics. We develop and test hypotheses concerning the relative extent of change by acquiring and non-acquiring businesses, focusing on...

This paper empirically examines how business unit reorganization affects innovation, and explores how the learning process may mediate this relationship. Unit reorganization is the creation, deletion, or recombination of business units within a firm. Innovation is radical and involves product...

This paper integrates advances in organisational structure research into a broader framework of ‘structural action’ that depicts organisations as dynamic structures. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the main contributions from various theories and perspectives that have all informed...

This paper examines when firms pursue structural realignment through business unit reconfiguration, specifically by recombining business units. Our results refine and extend contingency theory and studies of organization design by drawing on theories of decision avoidance and delay to describe...