Individual Path Dependency and Social Inertia: Facing the Crudeness of Sociology

The construct of path dependence has been introduced to challenge neoclassical economics (David, 1985). By referring to the history of economic processes Paul David explained, that unintended consequences of action can lead to a lock-in which is potentially inefficient. The cause behind these processes leading to inefficiency Paul David named the mechanism of increasing returns. As examples technical interrelatedness (as learning) and system scale economies (as fixed cost reduction) were introduced. The lock-in was described as a point of quasi-irreversibility of investment that evolves due to the increasing returns. Paul David argued, based on his path dependency construct, that historical research in (socio-) economics is essential for understanding economic processes – other scholars support this opinion (Kieser, 1994). Not surprisingly, researchers believing in the neoclassical paradigm (for the discussion on paradigms see Kuhn, 1996) criticized path dependency research. They pointed out that David's arguAbstract