The Paradox of Success: An Archival and a Laboratory Study of Strategic Persistence Following Radical Environmental Change

Abstract

An archival study of the airline and trucking industries over a ten-year period and a laboratory study revealed that greater past success led to greater strategic persistence after a radical environmental change, and such persistence induced performance declines. The laboratory study also demonstrated that dysfunctional persistence is due to greater satisfaction with past performance, more confidence in the correctness of current strategies, higher goals and self-efficacy, and less seeking of information from critics.