Red Queen Hypothesis
Red Queen dynamics explain why competitive advantage is temporary and why companies must continuously invest just to maintain position.
Every arms race has the same ending: both sides spend more than winning is worth. They're running faster to stay in the same place - the Red Queen's eternal treadmill.
Named after Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass where the Red Queen tells Alice 'It takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place.' Evolutionary biologist Leigh Van Valen (1973) proposed that species must continually adapt just to maintain their relative fitness as other species adapt. Standing still (not evolving) means falling behind. The hypothesis also predicts that sexual reproduction is maintained despite its twofold cost because it generates genetic diversity valuable in arms races with parasites.
Business Application of Red Queen Hypothesis
Red Queen dynamics explain why competitive advantage is temporary and why companies must continuously invest just to maintain position. Intel and AMD exemplify this: both invest ~$15-20 billion annually in R&D yet neither achieves durable dominance. The relentless treadmill means running faster to stay in place - consumer benefit, producer burden.
Discovery
Leigh Van Valen (1973)
Discovered that extinction probability remains constant regardless of species age, implying continuous evolutionary arms races
Red Queen Hypothesis Appears in 3 Chapters
The Red Queen hypothesis explains why species must continually adapt just to maintain relative fitness - standing still means falling behind as others evolve.
Red Queen coevolution →Van Valen's discovery that extinction probability is independent of species age reveals that survival is a race where the finish line keeps moving.
The Red Queen in natural selection →Past success is irrelevant to future survival - the environment never stops changing, demanding continuous adaptation just to maintain position.
Continuous adaptation imperative →