Evolutionary Arms Race
Business arms races exhibit reciprocal adaptation (each company's R&D responds to the other), escalating investment without proportional returns, and no stable equilibrium.
Arms races don't just burn capital - they can burn lives. When competitive pressure overrides engineering judgment, safety becomes negotiable.
Escalating adaptations and counter-adaptations between species, analogous to military arms races where nations develop weapons, opponents develop countermeasures, prompting further development indefinitely. Examples include predator-prey (cheetahs vs. gazelles becoming faster), parasite-host (pathogens vs. immune systems escalating), and competition (trees escalating height far beyond what's optimal without competition).
Business Application of Evolutionary Arms Race
Business arms races exhibit reciprocal adaptation (each company's R&D responds to the other), escalating investment without proportional returns, and no stable equilibrium. The Boeing-Airbus subsidy arms race and Intel-AMD R&D competition demonstrate how escalation can consume resources without increasing total industry profitability.
Evolutionary Arms Race Appears in 2 Chapters
Evolutionary arms races exhibit reciprocal adaptation and escalating investment without stable equilibrium - Boeing-Airbus subsidies and Intel-AMD R&D demonstrate the pattern.
Arms race dynamics →Predator-prey arms races produce extraordinary adaptations - cheetah-gazelle speed, newt-snake toxin resistance - through continuous reciprocal evolution.
Predator-prey escalation →