Effective Search in Rugged Performance Landscapes: A Review and Outlook

The creation of novel strategies, the pursuit of entrepreneurial opportunities, and the development of new technologies, capabilities, products, or business models all involve solving complex problems that require making a large number of highly interdependent choices. The challenge that complex problems pose to boundedly rational managers—the need to find a high-performing combination of interdependent choices—is akin to identifying a high peak on a rugged performance “landscape” that managers must discover through sequential search. Building on the NK model that Levinthal introduced into the management literature in 1997, scholars have used simulation methods to construct performance landscapes and examine various aspects of effective search processes. We review this literature to identify common themes and mechanisms that may be relevant in different managerial contexts. Based on a systematic analysis of 71 simulation studies published in leading management journals since 1997, we identify six themes: ...