Adaptation of Industrial Organisations to the Environment Grounded in Evolutionary Models

摘要

Globalisation, higher innovation rates, customisation, more intense competition, technological developments accountrnfor the changes affecting the way industrial companies operate and eventually their structures and processes. Companiesrnhave to adapt themselves to these changes. To do so, they might decrease their internal complexity through redefiningrntheir organisations and product structure with limited effects; more might be won by learning to increase its base ofrncapabilities, which holds parallels to the development of species in evolutionary biology. Two models exist: thernpunctuated equilibrium and the phyletic gradualism. These theories put forward insights in the development ofrnorganisations that stretch beyond the classical insights on the adaptation of organisations based on one-time interventionsrnassuming balance between demands from the environment and internal structure. The research has resulted inrnpreliminary models for adaptation which hold promises that continuous changes becomes possible without the necessityrnof severe one-time interventions that absorb the capacity of (human) resources.