Institutional Change and Firm Adaptation

We develop a typology of organizational forms found in Southeast Asia that contains four major archetypes, Colonial Business Groups, Family Business Groups, Government Linked Enterprises, and New Managers. We explain how the institutional environment prevailing at their founding profoundly influence the strategies and capabilities of each form. Consequently, strategic repertoires and competencies that are imperfectly aligned with environmental conditions largely delimit the capacity for organizational adaptation in the face of environmental change. We discuss the consequences of such a pattern of path dependence for each organizational form as well as the social and economic systems in which they are embedded.