Redesigning routines for replication

One factor affecting the replicability of routines is the template of what gets replicated. There isn't much work on where this comes from. One view is that the routine is discovered over time. Another view is that in some cases firms prefer to copy the last incarnation exactly. A third view is that in completely new contexts, neither evolution nor copy-exactly is completely appropriate. In those instances firms need to redesign the routine prior to introducing it to the new context. We conduct an exploratory study of a redesign process that ends in failure. Analysis of the failure provides preliminary hypotheses about how to create theory for redesigning routines.