Selection and adaptation paradigms have been jointly employed in the derivation of a theoretical model of firm evolution. This construct enabled researchers to explore: "why are there so many different kinds of organizations?". In that, evolutionary influences and adaptive firm behaviour were simultaneous forces that shape the survival of organizational forms over time. Such a notion was applied towards a dynamic programming context. This dynamic programming model was translated into a computer simulation such that an empirical representation of firm evolution was depicted. / The results from four computer simulations confirmed the selection and adaptation propositions described in this research. The simulations found evolutionary forces to be significant determinants to differentiating firm survival. While, adaptive firm behaviour only served to prolong organizational survivability with in the confines of the selection forces of the market. / Future organizational research should focus on expanding the dimensions of strategic adaptation, strategic, voluntarism, niche width dynamics, organizational inertia theory and organizational slack. By addressing these areas, a more comprehensive depiction of organizational evolution could be attained.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:LACETR/oai:collectionscanada.gc.ca:QMM.27383 |
| Date | January 1996 |
| Creators | Ng, Desmond. |
| Contributors | Goldsmith, Peter (advisor), Westgren, Randall (advisor) |
| Publisher | McGill University |
| Source Sets | Library and Archives Canada ETDs Repository / Centre d'archives des thèses électroniques de Bibliothèque et Archives Canada |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Coverage | Master of Science (Department of Agricultural Economics.) |
| Rights | All items in eScholarship@McGill are protected by copyright with all rights reserved unless otherwise indicated. |
| Relation | alephsysno: 001557499, proquestno: MQ29758, Theses scanned by UMI/ProQuest. |
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