Market size, region and horizontal integration launch markets into different trajectories. Interactions among autonomous agents in a social field are governed by rules. The emergence of complexity in social systems is often explained by self-organization theory derived from thermodynamics. Punctuated equilibrium processes provide an alternative explanation. Four case studies show how new groups of firms with shared competitive positions emerge from the interplay of structural inertia, purposeful action and hierarchically-organized environments.
Entrepreneurial firms operate in markets of low complexity, but high equivocality.
They attract imitators whose attempts to reduce uncertainty generate environmental complexity.