ABSTRACT
Isaac Newton’s and Charles Darwin’s successes, in turn, have become important precedents, suggesting that theoretical unification itself is a legitimate goal of scientific inquiry. This chapter introduces the deontic architecture framework provides a unified account of the firm. J. G. March and H. A. Simon set out to explain the nature of firm-level capabilities in terms of more elementary pieces. The theory of capabilities that March and Simon put forward attempts to explain how the macro-level phenomenon of routinized and programmatic organizational action is accomplished via an architecture of lower-level elements. The chapter shows how the framework can provide an account of the core features of: organizational capabilities; roles and role hierarchies; nexus of contracts approaches; and dynamic capabilities. Organizations operate in a constant state of flux and transformation and new organizations are created in the pursuit of entrepreneurial opportunities.
