Niche Construction
Organizations construct niches through market-making and ecosystem shaping - actively constructing competitive environments rather than passively adapting to them.
Don't adapt to markets. Architect them.
Niche construction theory, formalized by evolutionary biologists Odling-Smee, Laland, and Feldman (2003), describes how organisms actively modify their physical environment in ways that alter resource availability and selection pressures for themselves and other species. This challenges the traditional view of evolution as adaptation to fixed environments. Instead, organisms shape their selective environments, creating feedback loops where environmental modifications alter selection pressures, which favor traits that further modify environments. Examples include beavers building dams that create pond ecosystems, earthworms modifying soil chemistry, coral polyps building reefs, and cyanobacteria oxygenating Earth's atmosphere.
Business Application of Niche Construction
Organizations construct niches through market-making and ecosystem shaping - actively constructing competitive environments rather than passively adapting to them. Platform companies, industry standard-setters, regulatory capture, and vertical integration all represent niche construction strategies that create durable competitive advantages.