The Development of Organizational Capabilities in a Changing Postal Service Industry: The Cases of <I>Royal Mail</I>, <I>Deutsche Post DHL</I>, <I>La Poste</I>, and <I>Gruppo Poste Italiane</I>

Abstract

Within the field of strategic management, various works highlighted that the development of organizational capabilities is related, among others, to rent appropriation by stakeholders. This line of research is extended here by tackling the issue of how changes of context conditions affect the co-evolution of organizational capabilities and rent appropriation. This issue is investigated through a comparative case study of four companies operating in the postal service industry in the EU, namely Royal Mail, Deutsche Post DHL, La Poste, and Grouppo Poste Italiane. During the last decades, the postal service industry has been affected by remarkable changes of context conditions, especially related to innovation of telecommunications (e.g., email) and liberalization which undermined traditional legal governmental monopolies. Postal service companies generally react to these context changes by developing novel capabilities, redefining their strategic focus, and reconfiguring their organizational structures. Along these processes, stakeholders can manage to reposition themselves in order to better reap the benefits of the reconfigured postal service industry.