Autonomous strategic behavior, organizational learning and top management support: reexamining field research with computational modeling

Reexamining field research findings about three critical episodes in Intel Corporation’s evolution the authors find that when autonomous strategic behavior significantly increased relevant organizational knowledge Intel top management provided sustained support; when it did not, top management support stopped. Deploying an extended version of March’s (1991) computational model of organizational learning the authors find that, in stable and in moderately turbulent environments top management is likely to provide sustained support to autonomous strategic behavior only when it augments organizational knowledge that is significantly different from organizational learning already embodied in the firm’s current corporate strategy. Top management support depends on detecting such change in organizational learning by changing the rate of exploitation.