Organizational Learning from Performance Feedback
A Behavioral Perspective on Innovation and Change

"From his perch atop the shoulders of giants - Cyert, March and Simon, Kahneman and Tversky - Henrich Greve offers us a powerful model of organizational learning, innovation and strategic change that bridges the behavioral sciences. The view he affords is inspiring, revealing Greve as a giant himself. A feast for thought that every serious student of strategy and organization will consume with pleasure." Joel Baum, Canadian National Chair in Strategic Management, Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto

"Greve has done a marvelous job linking organizational aspirations, risk taking and learning in analyzing the effects of performance feedback on organizational change. Providing an exciting new framework this book is going to become a standard reference for scholars interested in studying how organizations learn, innovate and change." Zur Shapira, William Berkley Professor of Management, Stern School of Business, New York University

"Greve provides an outstanding review of both the theoretical and empirical literatures that address the influence of performance on corporate behavior. He also offers new and interesting empirical results. This is an essential book for anyone interested in performance feedback in organizations." Philip Bromiley, Curtis L. Carlson Chair in Strategic Management, Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota

"This is a finely wrought work of scholarship that enriches performance feedback theory with new arguments and new evidence drawn from the radio and ship-building industries. Writing with remarkable grace, Henrich Greve makes performance feedback theory not only accessible to the novice but also engrosses the expert. In short, a remarkably engaging and innovative accomplishment." Hayagreeva Rao Richard L. Thomas Distinguished Professor of Leadership and Change, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

"Organizational Learning with Performance Feedback assembles a vast body of evidence demonstrating that firms respond on a number of dimensions--R&D, investment, the strategic direction of the firm--to what they learn about their performance. How strongly firms respond depends on their aspirations: generally, performance below aspiration levels triggers more dramatic responses than performance above these levels. But here's the kicker: almost all performance measures are noisy and short-term measures are especially noisy, hence too much performance feedback is dysfunctional because it triggers searches for problems that do not exist. We have had a feeding frenzy of performance measurement, and it will get worse until managers grasp the implications of OLPF." Marshall W. Meyer, Richard A. Sapp Professor of Management and Sociology, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania

"Important"
American Journal of Sociology, John P. Walsh