Strategic choices & advantage · Working

Path dependency

Also called: path dependence

ELI5

Past choices make some future choices easier and others harder.

Used in conversation

“The legacy architecture creates path dependency in the product strategy.”

Definition

The way earlier choices constrain or shape later possibilities.

Here “Path dependency” means: The way earlier choices constrain or shape later possibilities.

Pitch context

You will see “Path dependency” in strategy decks, market analyses, business plans and planning workshops when the discussion reaches strategic choices & advantage.

Why it matters: It helps a reader interpret strategic choices & advantage without confusing the measure, decision, role or evidence being discussed.

Sources & evidence · 5

Supporting source families. This entry is an editorial synthesis rather than a quotation from one canonical glossary.