The study of individual agency, innovation and entrepreneurship is currently experiencing a new birth in management and organization research. As a matter of fact, the dynamics of
institutional entrepreneurship, of path creation and disruptive change, have reached the general discourse on organization and management. While this is certainly welcome, one runs the danger
of overlooking the power of self-reinforcing processes in and among organizations. Such dynamics run, to a large extent, beyond the control and attention of individuals and organizations and
may thus constitute tenacious limits to the innovative endeavors aforementioned. This volume is dedicated to the theoretical and empirical study of self-reinforcements and decidedly redirects
attention to these processes, including: escalating commitment, organizational imprinting and path dependence, and sheds light on the genesis and rise of their pervasive influence. It
includes a selection of papers, most of which have were presented and discussed at the sub-theme on ＂Self-reinforcing organizational processes＂ of the 27th EGOS Colloquium held in 2011 in
Gothenburg, Sweden.
