In the Evolution Process, Revolution is Sometimes Necessary (Link)

Organizational ecologists believe that when firms are founded, they are inspired by events in the competitive environment and are founded to capture opportunities that arise in that environment. Over time, however, the environment shifts. All else being equal, for various reasons (e.g., structure, politics, managerial limitations, etc.), firms will become less competitive than new firms. Environmental changes are particularly damning if they are competency destroying, i.e., changes that would amount to what Austrian economist, Joseph Schumpeter called creative destruction, a process in which new fundamental business models and key players in an industry emerge.

In the advent of the Internet age, the pulp and paper industry is undergoing an evolutionary process much like the creative destruction. Yet many existing firms are trying to fine-tune what they have been doing best -- under the old regime. As a result, the remaining players that are strong enough to weather the initial shock are fighting for a rapidly shrinking pie. Exceptional periods call for exceptional moves. But exceptional moves are the toughest when firms are established, with established managers and established routines that have been successful in history. Historically, few firms have managed to break free from their once successful model and explore new ones. Revolution at the firm level is, oftentimes, harder and slower than evolution at the macro level.

A few interesting references on related topics:

Evolution -- Aldrich, H. 1999. Organizations Evolving. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Organizational ecology -- Carroll, G. R., & Hannan, M. T. 2000. The Demography of Corporations and Industries. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Creative destruction -- Schumpeter, J. A. 1942. Capitalism, Socialism, and Democracy. New York, New York: Harper Torchbooks.
Exploitation and exploration -- March, J. G. 1991. Exploration and exploitation in organizational learning. Organization Science, 2, 71-87.