Selection Versus Evolutionary Adaptation: Learning and Post- Entry Performance

This paper examines the maturation process of firms that enter an industry by constructing new plants and investigates the extent to which improvements in the performance of an entry cohort are the result of a selection process that culls out the most inefficient entrants or of a learning process that allows survivors to improve their performance relative to incumbent firms. Both selection and evolutionary learning are related to post-entry performance. Despite the difference in the effect of selection and learning on the amount of post-entry growth, selection per se is a more important contributor to overall growth of a cohort.

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