Abstract
This working paper aims to deepen the scholarly dialogue between strategy and history. It does so by examining how historical models of change can contribute to theory and research on the competitive advantage of firms during periods of rapid innovation. Focusing on the dynamic capabilities framework, it shows how three models of historical change – evolutionary, dialectical, and constitutive – can be used to extend theory and deepen research about the origins, context, and micro‐foundations of dynamic capabilities. We show how each model of historical change shaped the intellectual development of the dynamic capabilities framework, point to historical research that illustrates these processes, and discuss the methodological and conceptual implications for future research. We conclude by suggesting that recognizing and building on these historical models of change can provide a common conceptual language for a deeper dialogue between historians and strategy researchers.
Highlights
This working paper aims to deepen the scholarly dialogue between strategy and history
History played a formative role in the development of strategic management (Gras and Larson 1939, Penrose 1960, Chandler 1962, Chandler 1977), but business strategy and business history drifted apart as the former became increasingly focused on parsimonious explanations and formalized methods while the latter emphasized the value of contextualized explanations and narrative exposition (Kipping, Kurosawa et al 2016)
We argue that the dynamic capabilities framework implicitly incorporates a number of historical models of change over time, and that making these models of change explicit offers scholars a way to better identify opportunities for research at the intersection of history and strategy
Summary
This working paper aims to deepen the scholarly dialogue between strategy and history. Historians and strategy scholars have sought to create conceptual and methodological terms of engagement between the two fields with the aim of fostering research that explores such questions (Ingram, Rao et al 2012, Kipping and Üsdiken 2014, Wadhwani and Bucheli 2014, Maclean, Harvey et al 2016, Vaara and Lamberg 2016) In this working paper, we contribute to the re-emerging dialogue between history and strategy by examining how historical reasoning can contribute to the study of firm competitive advantages under conditions of change. We argue that the dynamic capabilities framework implicitly incorporates a number of historical models of change over time, and that making these models of change explicit offers scholars a way to better identify opportunities for research at the intersection of history and strategy
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