2. The Dynamic Capabilities View
Might explain why some firms have sustainable
competitive advantage
Powerful group of ideas that:
Explains successes, failures, and sources of struggle
Valuable in times of uncertainty to change
Added value overstated
3. Organizational Capabilities and Behavior
Nelson and Winter’s point of view:
Individuals: skilled behavior is a product of routine, tacit knowledge
and past behavior/learning.
Author’s argument:
decisions in organizations may not be optimal
where organizational memory exists
Authors generalize from individual view to apply
“evolutionary economics” to organizational level.
Theory builds up from the micro to the macro level:
conceptual parallel between micro and macro
causal link between behavior of individuals and nature and behavior
of capabilities
4. Truce Between Motivations
Organizational routines allow for organizational
capabilities.
This view provides the foundation of the capabilities view
and also generates some interesting consequences.
organizational routines resist changes
organizational capabilities are very hard to imitate
This resistance to change: can be seen as a competitive
advantage.
Path dependency and lack of simplicity of capabilities
lends the power as sources of durable competitive
advantage.
5. Not of the Common Garden Variety
Capabilities cannot be of the common garden variety if they
are to be valuable.
Jay Barney (1991)
If capabilities are to confer strategic advantage, they must be of a special
type.
Dericks and Cool (1989)
Describe strategic asset stocks seen as flowing over time – either rising or
falling.
Many capabilities grow over time, they cannot be acquired immediately.
Jan Rivkin (2001)
describes how capabilities must not be too complex
nor to simple
Capabilities must be of a certain sort to be durable
competitive advantages
6. Not of the Common Garden Variety
Capabilities cannot be of the common garden variety if they
are to be valuable.
Jay Barney (1991)
If capabilities are to confer strategic advantage, they must be of a special
type.
Dericks and Cool (1989)
Describe strategic asset stocks seen as flowing over time – either rising or
falling.
Many capabilities grow over time, they cannot be acquired immediately.
Jan Rivkin (2001)
describes how capabilities must not be too complex
nor to simple
Capabilities must be of a certain sort to be durable
competitive advantages