There's a scene in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking Glass in which the Red Queen, having just led a chase with Alice in which neither seems to have moved from the spot where they began, explains to the perplexed girl: "It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place." Evolutionary biologists have used this scene to illustrate the evolutionary arms race among competing species. William Barnett argues that a similar dynamic is at work when organizations compete, shaping how firms and industries evolve over time. Barnett examines the effects--and unforeseen perils--of competing and winning. He takes a fascinating, in-depth look at two of the most competitive industries--computer manufacturing and commercial banking--and derives some startling conclusions. Organizations that survive competition become stronger competitors--but only in the market contexts in which they succeed. Barnett shows how managers may think their experience will help them thrive in new markets and conditions, when in fact the opposite is likely to be the case. He finds that an organization's competitiveness at any given moment hinges on the organization's historical experience. Through Red Queen competition, weaker competitors fail, or they learn and adapt. This in turn heightens the intensity of competition and further strengthens survivors in an ever-evolving dynamic. Written by a leading organizational theorist, The Red Queen among Organizations challenges the prevailing wisdom about competition, revealing it to be a force that can make--and break--even the most successful organization.

This book considers: how innovation through technological change is transforming the service sector; how changing consumer needs and behaviors are forcing firms to alter operations; how firms need competitive strategies and new modes of implementation to respond to this changing landscape; and how public policy will need to adapt.

Sex is as fascinating to scientists as it is to the rest of us. A vast pool of knowledge, therefore, has been gleaned from research into the nature of sex, from the contentious problem of why the wasteful reproductive process exists at all, to how individuals choose their mates and what traits they find attractive. This fascinating book explores those findings, and their implications for the sexual behaviour of our own species. It uses the Red Queen from ‘Alice in Wonderland’ – who has to run at full speed to stay where she is – as a metaphor for a whole range of sexual behaviours. The book was shortlisted for the 1994 Rhone-Poulenc Prize for Science Books. ‘Animals and plants evolved sex to fend off parasitic infection. Now look where it has got us. Men want BMWs, power and money in order to pair-bond with women who are blonde, youthful and narrow-waisted ... a brilliant examination of the scientific debates on the hows and whys of sex and evolution’ Independent.

The competitive strategy used by a new firm may be the most important strategy it ever employs (Covin & Slevin, 1989; Ferrier, 2001). A well-chosen and executed firm strategy is essential for a firm to realize its potential competitive advantage (Porter, 1981). A firm's strategic intent and resulting competitive actions are especially important when firms are new and vulnerable as they strive to learn which strategic actions help them adapt to their rivals actions and to their environment (Stinchcombe, 1965). Further, the competitive actions that new firms choose to take with rival firms affects the overall competitive dynamics of their industry (Smith, Ferrier, and Ndofor, 2001). One way to explore how the competitive actions of new firms affect their future is to capture and examine their individual competitive moves and countermoves over time (Smith, Grimm, Gannon, & Chen, 1991). Red Queen competition is a particular form of competitive dynamics that is well-suited to explore these issues of new rival firms (Barnett, 2008). Barnett and Sorenson (2002) suggested that competition and learning reinforce one another as organizations develop, and this is what van Valen (1973) referred to as the 'Red Queen.' This definition of the Red Queen led to the development of the concept of Red Queen competition and the Red Queen effect. The competitive strategies these new firms use to obtain resources as they adapt, in particular how these firms compete and or cooperate, are key competitive strategies that remain understudied to-date (Amit, Glosten, and Muller, 1990). I explore Red Queen competition, and the ensuing Red Queen Effect, in a complex environmental setting that represents a high technology ecosystem (Arned, 1996, 2010; Iansiti & Levien, 2004a, 2004b; Moore, 1993; Pierce, 2009). New firms in such an ecosystem represent a particularly salient combination of type of firm, firm lifecycle period, and firm environment to examine strategic actions since these firms comprise a significant portion of the high-growth and future of our global economy (Stangler, 2010). Further, due to their need to rapidly adapt in a complex ecosystem, these firms rely heavily on short-lived information resources for competitive advantage (Barney, 1991; Nelson and Winter, 1982; Omerzel, 2008). To place this research in context, I consider the moderating effects of key environmental ecosystem resource conditions (Dess & Beard, 1984; Miller & Friesen, 1983; Sharfman & Dean, 1991). Empirical studies to-date have yielded mixed results and left unanswered questions about the basic components and the effects of Red Queen competition. To address these issues I explore this literature in chapter one of the dissertation, and in chapter two I develop a theoretical model of Red Queen competition that draws on the available empirical and theoretical literature to-date. Due to the mixed finding from the empirical results, I develop a precise agent-based simulation model of Red Queen competition in chapter three to facilitate data collection. Using this data I test a series of hypotheses designed to explore the fundamentals of Red Queen competition, specifically how escalating competitive activity for resources among new firms impacts their survival and performance. In addition, the moderating effect of environmental changes on Red Queen competition is also tested to explore the affect of context on Red Queen competition. Chapter four explains the findings from these hypotheses, future research directions, implications and limitations from the research, and my concluding thoughts.

This twenty-sixth volume of Research in Organizational Behavior presents a set of well-crafted and thoughtful essays on a series of research topics. They range from efforts to redirect the study of leadership, to analyses of interpersonal relationships, to considerations of cross-cultural issues in organizing work, to discussions of institutional and environmental forces on organizational outcomes. Each of these essays includes a thorough review of the relevant literature, and more importantly, pushes that literature forward with new conceptual analysis and theory. In short, these essays continue the spirit of "rigorous eclecticism" that has exemplified the annual publication of ROB. As a collection, this year's set of essays provides a healthy advance for the field of organizational behavior. They are examples of serious scholarship that extend and challenge our current thinking about organizations and the behavior of its participants. Many of these chapters will take their place among the best presented by the Research in Organizational Behavior series. . Revisiting the Meaning of Leadership . When and How Team Leaders Matter . Normal Act of Irrational Trust: Motivated Attributions and the Trust Development Process . Gender Stereotypes and Negotiation Performance: An Examination of Theory and Research . Third-Party Reactions to Employee (Mis)treatment: A Justice Perspective . Subgroup Dynamics in Internationally Distributed Teams: Ethnocentrism or Cross-National Learning? . Protestant Relational Ideology: The Cognitive Underpinnings and Organizational Implications of an American Anomaly . Isomorphism In Reverse: Institutional Theory as an Explanation For Recent Increases in Intraindustry Heterogeneity and Managerial Discretion . The Red Queen: History-Dependent Competition Among Organizations

This is the first comprehensive overview of the development of the field of Organizational Behavior. It belongs on the shelf of every scholar and student in the discipline. Part I covers the foundations of the scientific method, theory development, and the accrual of scientific knowledge in the field. Part II introduces the ideas of pioneers whose work pre-dates the emergence of Organizational Behavior. Part III considers the actual emergence of OB as we know it today, with an analysis of the environmental forces that impinged upon it (such as the recruiting of social scientists into business schools). Part IV presents an assessment of the current state of the art in OB research, with an original assessment of the importance, validity, and practical usefulness of 73 core theories in OB. Finally, Part V sets forth a vision for the future identity and growth of Organizational Behavior research, theory, and practice.