2007 Foundations

A Behavioral Theory of the Firm—40 Years and Counting: Introduction and Impact

Linda Argote, Henrich R. Greve

Organization Science

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Cited by in snapshot: 75
References in snapshot: 17
Global cited by: 602

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Cited by 75

Celebrating Organization Theory Michael Lounsbury, Christine M. Beckman · 2014
Reciprocity and R&D search: Applying the behavioral theory of the firm to a communitarian context Jonathan O’Brien, Parthiban David · 2013
From Hot Cakes to Cold Feet: A Contingent Perspective on the Relationship between Market Uncertainty and Status Homophily in the Formation of Alliances Francois Herve Collet, Déborah Philippe · 2013
A comparison of alternative measures of organizational aspirations Philip Bromiley, Jared D. Harris · 2013
When do firms change technology‐sourcing vehicles? The role of poor innovative performance and financial slack Razvan Lungeanu, Ithai Stern, Edward J. Zajac · 2015
Toward a Behavioral Theory of Boards and Corporate Governance Hans van Ees, Jonas Gabrielsson, Morten Huse · 2009
The Behavioral Theory of the Firm: Assessment and Prospects Giovanni Gavetti et al. · 2012
Momentum and Organizational Risk Taking: Evidence from the National Football League David W. Lehman, Jungpil Hahn · 2012

Show 67 more citing records

The temporal trajectories of innovative search: Insights from public hospital services Torsten Oliver Salge · 2012
Organizational Aspirations, Reference Points, and Goals George A. Shinkle · 2011
R&D Investment in the Global Paper Products Industry: A Behavioral Theory of the Firm and National Culture Perspective Krista B. Lewellyn, Shuji ‘Rosey’ Bao · 2015
Self-Enhancement and Learning from Performance Feedback Alexander Jordan, Pino G. Audia · 2012
A Behavioral Theory of Market Expansion Based on the Opportunity Prospects Rule Ilídio Barreto · 2011
Variations in R&D Investments of Family and Nonfamily Firms: Behavioral Agency and Myopic Loss Aversion Perspectives James J. Chrisman, Pankaj C. Patel · 2012
Organizational Learning as Credit Assignment: A Model and Two Experiments Christina Fang · 2012
Striving toward the future: aspiration—performance discrepancies and planned organizational change Giuseppe Labianca et al. · 2009
Adaptive aspirations: performance consequences of risk preferences at extremes and alternative reference groups Songcui Hu, Daniela Blettner, Richard A. Bettis · 2011
Business Group Affiliation and Firm Search Behavior in India: Responsiveness and Focus of Attention Balagopal Vissa, Henrich R. Greve, Weiru Chen · 2009
Disentangling Risk and Change Aleksandra Kacperczyk, Christine M. Beckman, Thomas P. Moliterno · 2014
A Behavioral Model of Innovative Search: Evidence from Public Hospital Services Torsten Oliver Salge · 2010
'Exploration and exploitation in product innovation' Henrich R. Greve · 2007
The Liability of Leading: Battling Aspiration and Survival Goals in the Jeopardy! Tournament of Champions Elizabeth Boyle, Zur Shapira · 2012
Contradictory yet Coherent? Inconsistency in Performance Feedback and R&D Investment Change Gerardus J. M. Lucas, Joris Knoben, Marius T.H. Meeus · 2015
Determinants of Firms' Backward- and Forward-Looking R&D Search Behavior Weiru Chen · 2008
Organizational Learning in Target Setting Carmen Aranda León, Javier Arellano, Antonio Dávila · 2016
Board reform versus profits: The impact of ratings on the adoption of governance practices Timothy J. Rowley, Andrew V. Shipilov, Henrich R. Greve · 2016
Driven by aspirations, but in what direction? Performance shortfalls, slack resources, and resource‐consuming vs. resource‐freeing organizational change Pasi Kuusela, Thomas Keil, Markku Maula · 2016
Organizational Goals: Antecedents, Formation Processes, and Implications for Firm Behavior Alfredo De Massis et al. · 2015
Innovation Outcomes of Digitally Enabled Collaborative Problemistic Search Capability Prasanna Karhade, John Qi Dong · 2021
A Behavioral Theory of Social Performance: Social Identity and Stakeholder Expectations Robert S. Nason, Sophie Bacq, David Gras · 2017
Anchored Personalization in Managing Goal Conflict between Professional Groups: The Case of U.S. Army Mental Health Care Julia DiBenigno · 2018
Navigators through the storm: A review of organization theories and the behavior of incumbent firms during transitions Allard van Mossel, Frank J. van Rijnsoever, Marko P. Hekkert · 2017
Renewing Research on Problemistic Search—A Review and Research Agenda Hart E. Posen et al. · 2017
Organizational Goals: Antecedents, Formation Processes and Implications for Firm Behavior and Performance Josip Kotlar et al. · 2018
Behavioral Theory of the Firm Henrich R. Greve · 2013
Deviant versus Aspirational Risk Taking: The Effects of Performance Feedback on Bribery Expenditure and R&D Intensity Dean Xu, Kevin Zheng Zhou, Fei Du · 2018
How negative aspiration performance gaps affect innovation efficiency Montserrat Manzaneque Lizano et al. · 2018
How does inconsistent negative performance feedback affect the R&D investments of firms? A study of publicly listed firms David Diwei Lv et al. · 2019
Performance Feedback Persistence: Comparative Effects of Historical Versus Peer Performance Feedback on Innovative Search Yang Ye, Wei Yu, Robert S. Nason · 2020
Multiple performance pressure inconsistency, resource slack, and the firm’s R&D investment: A behavioral agency theory perspective David Diwei Lv, Weihong Chen, Hailin Lan · 2022
Reviewing the Field of External Knowledge Search for Innovation: Theoretical Underpinnings and Future (Re‐)search Directions Daniel Ehls, Sara Polier, Cornelius Herstatt · 2020
Technological choices under uncertainty: Does organizational aspiration matter? John Qi Dong · 2020
The Plural of Goal: Learning in a World of Ambiguity Daniel A. Levinthal, Claus Rerup · 2020
Motivation and Ability? A Behavioral Perspective on the Pursuit of Radical Invention in Multi-Technology Incumbents J. P. Eggers, Aseem Kaul · 2017
How Firms Make Information Technology Investment Decisions: Toward a Behavioral Agency Theory John Qi Dong et al. · 2021
The Behavioral Theory of the Firm: Assessment and Prospects Giovanni Gavetti et al. · 2012
Just Diverse Among Themselves: How Does Negative Performance Feedback Affect Boards' Expertise vs. Ascriptive Diversity? HeeJung Jung, Yonghoon G. Lee, Sun Hyun Park · 2023
Organization Theory Royston Greenwood, Bob Hinings, John Amis · 2013
How the ghosts of past experience haunt problemistic search Joseph J. Cabral, Dinesh N. Iyer, Jonathan O’Brien · 2023
Self‐Assessment versus Self‐Improvement Motives: How Does Social Reference Group Selection Influence Organizational Responses to Performance Feedback? Daniela Blettner, Serhan Kotiloglu, Thomas Lechler · 2023
Structuring the situation: Organizational goals trigger and direct decision-making Henrich R. Greve · 2023
Innovation performance feedback and patent acquisition from the market: A behavioral perspective Jongseon Lee, Nami Kim · 2023
Performance feedback and firms’ strategic actions: a cross-national meta-analysis Shan Xue, Honghui Chen, Jintao Wu · 2023
Performance Feedback and Risk‐Taking: A Configurational Approach Lakshmi Goyal, Manish Popli · 2023
60th birthday of ‘A Behavioral Theory of the Firm’: a review of the relational concepts and recommendations for future research Moritz Hagen, Wenjia Su, Sebastian Junge · 2023
Feedback persistence matters! Uncovering the varying effects of success and failure persistence on firm risk-taking Lakshmi Goyal, Vikas Goyal · 2023
Organizational Goals, Outcomes, and the Assessment of Performance: Reconceptualizing Success in Management Studies Ruth V. Aguilera et al. · 2023
Manager and employee behaviors in response to performance signals in public organizations Taek Kyu Kim · 2023
Content and process: organizational conflict and decision making Vibha Gaba, John Joseph · 2023
(No) Time for Change: When and Why Entrepreneurs Act During Underperforming Fundraising Attempts Hendrik Wilhelm et al. · 2024
Firm performance feedback and organizational impression management: The moderating role of CEO overconfidence Hazel Husne Dadanlar et al. · 2024
Private firms’ portfolio expansion responses to (in)consistent performance feedback Serhan Kotiloglu, Daniela Blettner, Thomas Lechler · 2024
Editorial: Decision making and problem solving in organizations: assessing and expanding the Carnegie perspective Pino G. Audia, Daniella Laureiro Martinez, Daniel Newark · 2024
The Dynamics of Inferential Interpretation in Experiential Learning: Deciphering Hidden Goals from Ambiguous Experience Bryan Spencer, Claus Rerup · 2024
Foreign Market Investment as a Locus of Response to Adverse Performance Majid Abdi, Liang Wang · 2024
Decision‐making in entrepreneurial teams with competing economic and noneconomic goals Jeroen Neckebrouck, Thomas Zellweger · 2026
Learning from Inconsistent Performance Feedback Cassandra R. Chambers, Marlon Fernandes Rodrigues Alves, Pedro Aceves · 2024
Coping with uncertainty: The interaction of psychological safety and authentic leadership in their effects on defensive decision making Florian Artinger et al. · 2025
Attention to market expansion: Aspirational antecedent and risk-taking consequence Renfei Gao et al. · 2025
Organizational Adaptation Under Goal Multiplicity: Toward an Integration of Dominant Coalition and Problemistic Search Theories Nicolai J. Foss, Ambra Mazzelli · 2025
Change or stability? A meta-analysis of organizational responses to social and historical performance feedback Stefan Breet, Pursey Heugens, Anna Nadolska · 2025
Crisis shocks, executive confidence and strategic change: a study based on US Entity List sanctions Zhengwei Li, LI Qiao-li, Yadan Zheng · 2025
Different Aspirations, Different Directions: A Behavioural Perspective on Negative Performance Discrepancy and Problemistic Search William C. Zhou · 2026
Searching near and far? Search distance and performance below historical and social aspirations Catarina Antunes Mantas, Joris van der Voet, Amandine Lerusse · 2026
Investing in Information Systems: On The Behavioral and Institutional Search Mechanisms Underpinning Hospitals’ IS Investment Decisions1 Torsten Oliver Salge, Rajiv Kohli, Michael Barrett · 2015

References 17

Dancing with Strangers: Aspiration Performance and the Search for Underwriting Syndicate Partners Joel A. C. Baum et al. · 2005
Management Team Learning Orientation and Business Unit Performance J. Stuart Bunderson, Kathleen M. Sutcliffe · 2003
Investment and the behavioral theory of the firm: evidence from shipbuilding Henrich R. Greve · 2003
A Behavioral Theory of the Firm Richard M. Cyert, James G. March · 1963
Less Likely to Fail: Low Performance, Firm Size, and Factory Expansion in the Shipbuilding Industry Pino G. Audia, Henrich R. Greve · 2006
Aspiration Level Adaptation: An Empirical Exploration Theresa K. Lant · 1992
Speed and Search: Designing Organizations for Turbulence and Complexity Nicolaj Siggelkow, Jan W. Rivkin · 2005
Aspiration Performance and Railroads’ Patterns of Learning from Train Wrecks and Crashes Joel A. C. Baum, Kristina Dahlin · 2007

Show 9 more referenced records

Disrupted Routines: Team Learning and New Technology Implementation in Hospitals Amy C. Edmondson, Richard M.J. Bohmer, Gary P. Pisano · 2001
Psychological Safety and Learning Behavior in Work Teams Amy C. Edmondson · 1999
Antecedents of Convergence and Divergence in Strategic Positioning: The Effects of Performance and Aspiration on the Direction of Strategic Change Kyung Min Park · 2007
Perspective—Neo-Carnegie: The Carnegie School’s Past, Present, and Reconstructing for the Future Giovanni Gavetti, Daniel A. Levinthal, William Ocasio · 2007
Incentives to Cheat: The Influence of Executive Compensation and Firm Performance on Financial Misrepresentation Jared D. Harris, Philip Bromiley · 2007
Performance, Aspirations, and Risky Organizational Change Henrich R. Greve · 1998
A Behavioral Theory of the Firm William J. Baumöl, Richard M. Cyert, J. G. March · 1964
Organizational Learning Linda Argote, Gergana Todorova · 2008
Organizational Learning from Performance Feedback Henrich R. Greve · 2003

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Records that cite some of the same reference targets.

The Behavioral Theory of the Firm: Assessment and Prospects Giovanni Gavetti et al. · 2012

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Handbook of Organizational Routines Narduzzo, Alessandro, Warglien, M · 2008

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Conclusion Henrich R. Greve · 2003

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Model Henrich R. Greve · 2003

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Advanced topics Henrich R. Greve · 2003

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Foundations Henrich R. Greve · 2003

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Introduction Henrich R. Greve · 2003

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Organizational Learning Linda Argote, Gergana Todorova · 2008

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Organizational Learning from Performance Feedback Henrich R. Greve · 2003

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Applications Henrich R. Greve · 2003

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Organizational Learning Processes and Outcomes: Major Findings and Future Research Directions Linda Argote, Sunkee Lee, Jisoo Park · 2020

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Microfoundations of Management: Behavioral Strategies and Levels of Rationality in Organizational Action Henrich R. Greve · 2013

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The Behavioral Theory of the Firm: Assessment and Prospects Giovanni Gavetti et al. · 2012

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Renewing Research on Problemistic Search—A Review and Research Agenda Hart E. Posen et al. · 2017

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Interorganizational Learning and Heterogeneous Social Structure Henrich R. Greve · 2005

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Sticky Aspirations: Organizational Time Perspective and Competitiveness Henrich R. Greve · 2002

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Aspiration Performance and Railroads’ Patterns of Learning from Train Wrecks and Crashes Joel A. C. Baum, Kristina Dahlin · 2007

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Organizational Learning and Knowledge Transfer Linda Argote, Jerry Guo, Jisoo Park · 2026

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Navigators through the storm: A review of organization theories and the behavior of incumbent firms during transitions Allard van Mossel, Frank J. van Rijnsoever, Marko P. Hekkert · 2017

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Behavioral Theory of the Firm Henrich R. Greve · 2013

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Records cited together by the same public-snapshot records.

Performance, Aspirations, and Risky Organizational Change Henrich R. Greve · 1998

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Organizational Learning from Performance Feedback Henrich R. Greve · 2003

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A BEHAVIORAL THEORY OF R&D EXPENDITURES AND INNOVATIONS: EVIDENCE FROM SHIPBUILDING. Henrich R. Greve · 2003

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Situational and institutional determinants of firms' R&D search intensity Weiru Chen, Kent D. Miller · 2007

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Dancing with Strangers: Aspiration Performance and the Search for Underwriting Syndicate Partners Joel A. C. Baum et al. · 2005

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Less Likely to Fail: Low Performance, Firm Size, and Factory Expansion in the Shipbuilding Industry Pino G. Audia, Henrich R. Greve · 2006

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PERFORMANCE FEEDBACK, SLACK, AND THE TIMING OF ACQUISITIONS. Dinesh N. Iyer, Kent D. Miller · 2008

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A Behavioral Theory of the Firm William J. Baumöl, Richard M. Cyert, J. G. March · 1964

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Determinants of Firms' Backward- and Forward-Looking R&D Search Behavior Weiru Chen · 2008

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The Behavioral Theory of the Firm: Assessment and Prospects Giovanni Gavetti et al. · 2012

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Aspiration Performance and Railroads’ Patterns of Learning from Train Wrecks and Crashes Joel A. C. Baum, Kristina Dahlin · 2007

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A Behavioral Theory of Firm Growth: Sequential Attention to Size and Performance Goals Henrich R. Greve · 2008

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Renewing Research on Problemistic Search—A Review and Research Agenda Hart E. Posen et al. · 2017

27 shared citing records · rank 13 of 162

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VARIABLE ORGANIZATIONAL RISK PREFERENCES: TESTS OF THE MARCH-SHAPIRA MODEL. Kent D. Miller, Weiru Chen · 2004

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Self-Enhancement and Learning from Performance Feedback Alexander Jordan, Pino G. Audia · 2012

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Organizational Aspirations, Reference Points, and Goals George A. Shinkle · 2011

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Incentives to Cheat: The Influence of Executive Compensation and Firm Performance on Financial Misrepresentation Jared D. Harris, Philip Bromiley · 2007

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Business Group Affiliation and Firm Search Behavior in India: Responsiveness and Focus of Attention Balagopal Vissa, Henrich R. Greve, Weiru Chen · 2009

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Constrained Growth: How Experience, Legitimacy, and Age Influence Risk Taking in Organizations Vinit M. Desai · 2008

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Perspective—Neo-Carnegie: The Carnegie School’s Past, Present, and Reconstructing for the Future Giovanni Gavetti, Daniel A. Levinthal, William Ocasio · 2007

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