The Architecture of Dynamic Capability Research Identifying the Building Blocks of a Configurational Approach

The dynamic capability view (DCV) of the firm has become one of the leading frameworks aimed at identifying drivers of long-term firm survival and growth. Yet, despite considerable academic interest, there are many questions about what dynamic capabilities (DCs) are, how they relate to other organizational operations, and how they relate to firm performance. In this article, we provide a unique and comprehensive examination of the DCV literature that goes beyond past reviews by combining text-based analysis with surveys of, and interviews with, researchers in the field. With this approach, we are able to examine the evolution of the DCV in written literature and identify missing research themes. Based on this review, we argue that future research will benefit from integrating the DCV with configuration theory and the recent micro foundational thinking. We encapsulate this discussion via an architectural model of the DCV (entitled “House of Dynamic Capabilities”) that combines micro foundations underlying DCs at the varying levels of analysis (individual, business unit, and organizational) while also accounting for important enablers of DCs and firm strategic orientation. We also show how this logic requires a completely different set of methodological approaches to those currently in use.     

Strategic human resource development: towards a conceptual framework to understand its contribution to dynamic capabilities

Dynamic capabilities have assumed major importance in the strategy and human resource management literatures. However, discussion of their contribution to strategic human resource development (SHRD) is nascent. We introduce the concept of ‘dynamic’ strategic human resource development capabilities (DSHRDCs) and propose a framework consisting of (a) enabling factors, (b) specific components, (c) underlying processes, and (d) unique SHRD dynamic capabilities. We view a dynamic capabilities approach as a useful lens to understand how SHRD contributes to organizational performance through the development of capabilities. We discuss each component of the framework and propose possible directions for future research and implications for practice.     

Dynamic Capabilities and Knowledge Management: an Integrative Role for Learning?*

Modern strategic management theories try to explain why firms differ, because new sources of competitive advantage are keenly sought in the dynamic and complex environment of global competition. Two areas in particular have attracted the attention of researchers: the role of dynamic capabilities, and the firm's abilities for knowledge management. In this paper, we argue that there is a link between these two concepts, which has not been fully articulated in the literature. The aim of the paper is therefore to ascertain the conceptual connection between them as a basis for future research. Our proposed framework acknowledges and critiques the distinct roots of each field, identifies boundaries, and proposes relationships between the constructs and firm performance.     

动态能力的测量与功效:基于中国经验的实证研究

本文通过理论分析初步界定了测量动态能力的6个维度。为了验证此评测体系的科学性和实用性,本文对国内29家企业的高层管理者进行了半结构性访谈,并在探测性检验的基础上将动态能力的测量维度调整为市场潜力、组织柔性、战略隔绝、组织学习与组织变革5个方面。最后通过大规模的问卷调查,基于363份有效样本,对我国企业动态能力的制约性因素,以及它对企业绩效的贡献进行了检验,结果表明,动态能力在一定程度上受到经济结构的影响,在动态能力对企业绩效的有限的贡献中,不同能力因子的作用存在一定的差异性。     

The interface of the top management team and the board: A dynamic managerial capabilities perspective

Although top management teams use their human capital, social capital, and cognition (i.e., dynamic managerial capabilities) to drive strategic change in their firms, faultlines within these teams may dampen the strategic change that they produce. While boards can enable but also restrict these change efforts, we know little about how precisely a board's monitoring and advice-giving condition the impact of the top management team's dynamic managerial capabilities on strategic change. We clarify how intense monitoring and advice-giving affect strategic change when faultlines between the top management team's and board's dynamic managerial capabilities are more or less salient. We explain that intense monitoring further stifles both the breadth and speed of strategic change that can be accomplished, and that this is more pronounced when the faultlines between the two bodies are strong. Furthermore, we outline that intensive advice-giving can be beneficial in improving the breadth of strategic change, but more so when these faultlines are weak and less so when they are strong. Notably we illuminate that the reverse happens in terms of speed of strategic change: intensive advice-giving can be detrimental engendering a further dampening of strategic change speed which is more pronounced when these faultlines are strong but less when they are weak.     

Is offshoring dead? A multidisciplinary review and future directions

Offshoring has represented a dominant business practice in the past three decades, prompting considerable research across multiple business domains to understand its various facets. By applying bibliometric techniques (Donthu et al., 2021), the authors of the current article aim to take stock of this rich, multidisciplinary literature. With performance analysis, author network analysis, bibliographic coupling, and topic trend analysis, they identify its underlying intellectual structure and map its temporal, spatial, and thematic evolution. The analysis of 111 key journals and 668 articles, spanning more than three decades (1989–2022) comprises four distinct time periods and longitudinal trends that support meaningful visual representations of the bibliographic data. The findings reveal six foundational themes for offshoring research: (1) offshoring and global supply chains, (2) offshoring of IT/business processes, (3) outcomes of offshoring, (4) governance mechanisms in offshoring and success strategies, (5) drivers of offshoring, and (6) backshoring of manufacturing. Based on the temporal and topic trend analysis, this article concludes with recommendations for broad further research avenues that can shed light on the future of offshoring in the post-pandemic world.     

动态能力如何影响企业绩效——基于中国企业的实证研究

本研究以中国企业为样本对动态能力如何影响企业绩效的问题进行了分析和探讨。数据分析结果表明,战略过程对动态能力与企业绩效的正向作用关系具有明显的中介作用。但是,不同的动态能力维度对绩效的不同方面影响程度也不同,动态外部协调能力对企业绩效各个方面影响的显著程度在所有维度中最为突出,是企业在超竞争环境中树立竞争优势的关键。此外,动态能力构成维度间的路径关系表明,动态信息利用能力在企业动态适应外部环境变化过程中具有非常重要的节点作用,是企业培育动态能力路径的关键。     

Dynamic Marketing Capabilities: Toward an Integrative Framework

In recent years, the dynamic capabilities view has attracted attention in the management literature, and theoretical papers note many research challenges. Currently, one of the most significant issues is the role of the marketing function in the development of dynamic capabilities, and some recent discussions have even introduced the new term ‘dynamic marketing capabilities’. The main area of interest is how to achieve a well‐integrated framework to serve as the starting point for empirical papers. Although the most recent research proposes a wide range of processes as possible dynamic marketing capabilities, it is difficult to find consensus among these proposals. To resolve this difficulty, this paper seeks to define the dynamic marketing capabilities construct based on accepted components in the generic dynamic capabilities view. More specifically, it defines the role of dynamic marketing capabilities through absorptive capacity and knowledge management. By identifying these components and relating them in an integrative model, the authors propose to explain how dynamic marketing capabilities work and precisely which marketing processes promote both components.     

Comparative strategic management: An emergent field in international management

In this article we present an important yet understudied field in international management—comparative strategic management across nations. Although the strategic management discipline traditionally uses the firm as a unit of analysis, and indeed firms within the same nation or industry are often heterogeneous, as argued by the resource-based view, we observe something more. We note a sustained and systematic pattern of strategic management issues at the national-level. We explicate that a unique bundle of national-level institutional, competitive and socio-cultural conditions function together with a repertoire of distinctive capabilities or weaknesses for most firms, incubating certain national-level patterns of corporate-, business-, and international-level strategies adopted by most firms within the nation. To further illustrate we use BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China) to showcase why and how we advance the study of comparative strategic management (CSM). In our quest to guide future research on CSM, we present a rudimentary yet overarching framework of comparative environments, comparative capabilities, and comparative strategies among firms operating in BRIC countries.     

The Strategic Management of Innovation: A Systematic Review and Paths for Future Research

Strategic management scholars have long emphasized the importance of innovation for a firm's competitive advantage and performance. However, the current state of knowledge about the strategic management of innovation is characterized by conflicting theoretical predictions, persisting knowledge gaps and theoretical inconsistencies. Adopting a ‘systematic’ approach to reviewing the literature, this paper combines different quantitative methods – co‐word analysis, cluster analysis and frequency analysis – to review 342 articles on the strategic management of innovation published in seven journals from 1992 to 2010. On the basis of these analyses, suggestions are developed for future research which could help to promote future theory development and provide relevant material for policy decisions that managers and executives have to make when they manage innovation.     

THE ROLE OF SUPPLY MANAGEMENT CAPABILITIES IN GREEN SUPPLY

Managers realize that they should avoid complex green supply initiatives when they do not have the capabilities to implement them. However, they have little guidance on how these capabilities can be developed. This paper provides an initial analysis of the role of supply management capabilities in green supply. We argue that the implementation of green supply is better explained by focusing on the development and deployment of an organization's specialized internal resources, rather than by the more usual focus on external environmental pressures on a firm. Further, we argue that capabilities appropriate for green supply are developed by a proactive corporate environmental stance and by a more strategic purchasing and supply management approach. We test our model using data from a two‐phase survey of 70 operating units within UK public limited companies. Our results indicate support for our conjecture that supply management capabilities are jointly developed by a proactive corporate environmental approach and a strategic purchasing and supply process. Our study results should be useful to business strategists, regulators, and researchers interested in the predictors of corporate green behavior. They should also assist future researchers in many branches of environmental management who are seeking to explore the role of the internal capabilities of firms in supporting environmental management.     

Building Organizational and Scientific Platforms in the Pharmaceutical Industry: A Process Perspective on the Development of Dynamic Capabilities

In this paper, we examine the process of dynamic capability development in a large pharmaceutical firm. Using interviews with multiple managers at different organizational levels, we developed two narratives of the process of developing two separate dynamic capabilities in the same firm. We focus on three areas that prior research has shown to be critical in the early stages of the process of implementing new strategic initiatives: the cognitive orientations of key personnel, managerial action undertaken within the firm, and the firm's internal and external contexts. We provide evidence that managers undertake specific initiatives based on their own particular cognitive orientations , and that senior managers play a major role in the development of capabilities by imprinting the organization with their specific cognitive orientation and then orchestrating the multilevel organizational routines necessary for actualization of a capability. These replicable actions by senior management during the early stages of capability development can lead to the development of a capability that is not initially in the cognitive frames of lower level employees. Finally, we will show that internal and external contingencies have a profound impact on the decision to develop a capability, and to discontinue its development. Our findings thus suggest that the process of developing new capabilities shares common elements with other strategic initiatives.     

Explaining the Causes and Effects of Dynamic Capabilities Generation: A Multiple‐Indicator Multiple‐Cause Modelling Approach

The purpose of this paper is to develop a multiple‐indicator multiple‐cause model to explain dynamic capabilities generation. We use one of the main common effects of dynamic capabilities (operational, structural and strategic flexibility) to design a measurement tool for dynamic capabilities generation. Based on this measurement tool, we test the influence of several factors identified in the specialized literature as potential causes that trigger and promote dynamic capabilities generation. We use data from a survey of 200 CEOs of Spanish firms to test the model. The results show that only organizations whose managers have perceived a high degree of environmental dynamism have generated dynamic capabilities. The results also show that knowledge codification and technical innovation are significantly related to dynamic capabilities generation. We attempt to shed light on current theoretical debates about dynamic capabilities generation and provide a practical guide to explain the origin and results of dynamic capabilities that have been tested empirically.     

The extended dynamic capabilities model: A meta-analysis

This paper investigates, from meta-analytic approach, some topics that were unexplored in others dynamic capabilities meta-analysis. Hence, our research advances to identify and test the main antecedents of dynamic capabilities, the possible moderation effects of economic and cultural contexts in the relationship between dynamic capabilities and firm performance and the mediation effects between the antecedents of dynamic capabilities and firm performance. (1) The elements that stimulate dynamic capabilities development are resources, knowledge and learning, alliances and environmental dynamism. However, entrepreneurial orientation has no direct relationship with dynamic capabilities. (2) Dynamic capabilities play a mediating role between resources, knowledge and learning, alliances and firm performance. Curiously, entrepreneurial orientation is not mediated by dynamic capabilities in relation to performance. (3) Economic and cultural moderation affect the relation between dynamic capabilities and performance. Surprisingly, we detected that an Eastern orientation, presenting a high level of power distance and a low level of individualism, promotes stronger effects in the relationship between dynamic capabilities and firm performance than a Western orientation. Thus, our main contribution is to broaden the previous research on dynamic capabilities and to propose a future research agenda. In addition, this study adds new empirical evidence to the study of dynamic capabilities, which reduces the heterogeneity of previous results.     

Journal of International Management: A 25-year review using bibliometric analysis

The Journal of International Management (JIM) is a leading international academic journal in the field of international business. This study presents a retrospect of the publications in JIM for the last 25 years (as JIM was founded in 1995) through a bibliometric methodology using the Scopus database and Web of Science. The study graphically maps the bibliographic material using VOS viewer software and applies co-citation analysis, bibliographic coupling, and co-occurrence of author keywords. We identify that the journal has expanded consistently and steadily in terms of both number of publications and citations. The collaboration network has expanded over the years, and the geographical focus is more global, encompassing Asia and Oceania. Bibliographic coupling of JIM publications reveals several distinct, major themes in the international management/business domain. Conventional international management themes that have emerged include market entry modes, globalization, international human resource management, cross-cultural management/leadership, and expatriate management. New emerging themes include emerging markets, global sourcing, innovation performance, digital firms, diversity of global teams, internationalization in uncertain environments, and virtual teams. A summary of the shifting research trends and themes in the discipline and their development is presented in this review, culminating in future directions for prospective publishers of JIM.     

A bibliometric analysis of operations research and management science

Bibliometric analysis is the quantitative study of bibliographic material. It provides a general picture of a research field that can be classified by papers, authors and journals. This paper presents a bibliometric overview of research published in operations research and management science in recent decades. The main objective of this study is to identify some of the most relevant research in this field and some of the newest trends according to the information found in the Web of Science database. Several classifications are made, including an analysis of the most influential journals, the two hundred most cited papers of all time and the most productive and influential authors. The results obtained are in accordance with the common wisdom, although some variations are found.     

Microfinance,Mission Drift,and the Impact on the Base of the Pyramid: A Resource‐Based Approach

This article draws on resource‐based theory and the literature on strategic intent to develop a theoretical model that explains the concept of mission drift in microfinance institutions (MFIs). We argue that the differential strategic intents of commercially oriented, for‐profit, and socially oriented nonprofit organizations drive the acquisition of disparate resources and capabilities, which in turn drives distinct performance outcomes, including a focus on different markets within the overall base of the pyramid (BOP). The article suggests that it is the dynamic aspects of changing strategic intent and the consequent timing delays in the development of associated resources and capabilities that lead to various issues of mission drift. Finally, we suggest that cross‐sector alliances between for‐profit and nonprofit MFIs may benefit from the unique capabilities of both types of organizations and deliver the most and broadest impact on poverty alleviation in BOP markets.     

Developing a company's strategic management capability

Companies vary widely in their strategic management capabilities. Some still rely almost entirely on ‘fire-fighting’. Many others are slowly developing their capabilities but there are only a few which do give due attention to strategic issues and implement their decisions effectively. To be effective a corporate planner must assist this process of development of strategic ability and must adapt his role as the company's capability changes. In the most successful corporate planning units it is clear that this change in role is occuring, but is there not also a largely untapped market for consultants to assist companies in developing these capabilities?     

The management of firms’ alliance network positioning: Implications for innovation

In spite of the frequent calls for a much more integrated approach, the field of management still faces the ever continuing challenges in attempting to bridge the gap between academic research and managerial actions and practices. The field of strategic alliances and firms’ networks are those among which research and practice are more diverging. Trying to cover this separation, the article presents an empirical research on automotive industry that investigates the effects on innovation performance of the position that firms occupy in the network of alliances. The hypothesis that guides this research is that innovation is generated not only from the resources that a company is able to develop internally, but also through access to resources and capabilities owned by the external companies and organizations that the firm itself is tied to through alliances and cooperation agreements. Beyond this broad argument, the paper links tightly research and practice showing way and how the quality of access to resources owned by partners is influenced by the position occupied in the network of alliances and not only by the existence of single collaborative ties. Assuming a managerial approach which relies on the milestones of network research, different types of positioning in the network of alliances are discussed and tested on their impact on innovation.