The Red Queen among Organizations: How Competitiveness Evolves

by William P. Barnett

There's a scene in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass in which the Red Queen, having just led a chase with Alice in which neither seems to have moved from the spot where they began, explains to the perplexed "It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place." Evolutionary biologists have used this scene to illustrate the evolutionary arms race among competing species. William Barnett argues that a similar dynamic is at work when organizations compete, shaping how firms and industries evolve over time.


Barnett examines the effects--and unforeseen perils--of competing and winning. He takes a fascinating, in-depth look at two of the most competitive industries--computer manufacturing and commercial banking--and derives some startling conclusions. Organizations that survive competition become stronger competitors--but only in the market contexts in which they succeed. Barnett shows how managers may think their experience will help them thrive in new markets and conditions, when in fact the opposite is likely to be the case. He finds that an organization's competitiveness at any given moment hinges on the organization's historical experience. Through Red Queen competition, weaker competitors fail, or they learn and adapt. This in turn heightens the intensity of competition and further strengthens survivors in an ever-evolving dynamic. Written by a leading organizational theorist, The Red Queen among Organizations challenges the prevailing wisdom about competition, revealing it to be a force that can make--and break--even the most successful organization.

Genres: Business

296 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Irfan Malick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although, it is not an academic book, but it is grounded in strong academic traditions. Readers are exposed to mathematical models to quantify the key intuitions. Fundamentally, this book is about competition presenting another definition. I have personally liked this definition as it is more quantifiable and empirical as opposed to mainstream managers relying on "softer" data.

Readers should spend time in understanding the arguments presented here that my conflict with other knowledge domains. Ultimately, this book presents an additional perspective to see things.

[Elizabeth]

from the library
copy pp 2,3,4

Table of Contents

Preface xi
Acknowledgments xiii
Why are Some Organizations More Competitive Than Others?
1 (13)
``Competitiveness'' Varies from Organization to Organization
3 (1)
Organizations Are Intendedly Rational Adaptive Systems
4 (3)
Organizations Compete with Similar Organizations
7 (1)
What It Takes to Win Depends on a Context's Logic of Competition
8 (4)
Organizations Learn a Context's Logic of Competition by Competing
12 (2)
Logics of Competition
14 (32)
Analyzing Logics of Competition
17 (11)
Meta-Competition among Alternative Logics
28 (6)
The Logic of Predation
34 (3)
Discovering Logics of Competition
37 (6)
Summary and Implications for the Model
43 (3)
The Red Queen
46 (28)
How Do Organizations Respond to Competition?
47 (3)
The Red Queen as an Ecology of Learning Organizations
50 (9)
Consequences of Constraint in Red Queen Evolution
59 (10)
Killing the Red Queen through Predation
69 (3)
Argument Summary
72 (2)
Empirically Modeling the Red Queen
74 (16)
Modeling ``Competitiveness'' as a Property of Organizations
75 (2)
The Red Queen Model
77 (2)
Modeling a Pure-Selection Process
79 (1)
Modeling Myopia
80 (2)
Modeling the Implications of Predation
82 (2)
Modeling Organizational Founding
84 (1)
Modeling Organizational Survival
85 (2)
Comparisons to Other Ecological Models of Organizations
87 (3)
Red Queen Competition Among Commercial Banks
90 (42)
The Institutional Context of Twentieth-Century U.S. Commerical Banking
90 (7)
Logics of Competition among U.S. Banks
97 (8)
Specifying the Red Queen Model for Illinois Banks
105 (4)
Estimates of the Bank Founding Models
109 (10)
Estimates of the Bank Failure Models
119 (11)
Summary of Findings
130 (2)
Red Queen Competition Among Computer Manufacturers
132 (83)
The Computer Industry and Its Markets
136 (2)
Discovering Logics of Competition among Mainframe Computer Manufacturers
138 (32)
Discovering Logics of Competition among Midrange Computer Manufacturers
170 (23)
Discovering Logics of Competition among Microcomputer Manufacturers
193 (20)
Summary of Findings
213 (2)
The Red Queen and Organizational Inertia
215 (13)
The Competition-Inertia Hypothesis
218 (4)
The Red Queen and Inertia among Computer Manufacturers
222 (2)
The Red Queen and the Rise and Fall of Organizations
224 (4)
Some Implications of Red Queen Competition
228 (9)
Managerial Implications of the Red Queen
230 (2)
Research Implications of the Red Queen
232 (5)
APPENDIX: DATA SOURCES AND COLLECTION METHODS
237 (8)
Commercial Banks
237 (4)
Computer Manufacturers
241 (4)
Notes 245 (14)
References 259 (16)
Index 275

Choice Reviews

Barnett (Stanford Univ.) presents an excellent theoretical account of the evolution of competitiveness, supported by empirical evidence. The theory of Red Queen competition posits that company competitiveness requires that a firm perform better than its rivals within the context of the logics of competition, those being the principles that determine who can compete, how they compete, criteria for success or failure, and related consequences. Barnett thoroughly depicts the ecological model in which organizations interact and compete in an ongoing process of adapting to competitors' improvements. Generally, these adaptations either work toward improving the company's competitiveness as it learns the current context's logics of competition, or the adaptations do not work and the company becomes less competitive or fails. Barnett empirically models the theory in the commercial banking and computer manufacturing industries. Red Queen theory suggests that exposure to competition provides a major impetus to continued development of organizational capabilities. This ecological theory provides an excellent complement and contrast to many existing theoretical frameworks in strategic management. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduate through professional readers. Copyright 2008 American Library Association.

[Samir Dhond · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book since it presents a very different view of competition and moreover, competitiveness. Itprovided insights into how competitiveness evolves. It made me more aware of this thin line between constructive competitiveness and destructive competitiveness.