Valve Corporation: Strategy Tipping Points and Thresholds

Abstract

Valve Corporation represents an intriguing case study of organization design and strategy. In this short commentary (cf. Puranam & Håkonsson, 2015), I discuss Valve’s use of tipping points and thresholds in strategic decision making. While Valve indeed illustrates structural features such as polyarchy and markets-in-hierarchy, what appears to be novel about Valve is their use of specific social mechanisms in making decisions. I also discuss the broader opportunity for future work to study these mechanisms — such as self-selection, thresholds and matching — in the context of entrepreneurship, strategy and innovation.

Keywords: strategy, organization design, thresholds

JEL Classification: D2