The effect of supply networks structural and relational properties on dynamic capabilities

Abstract

From a supply network configuration perspective, the structure and quality of inter-organisational ties in terms of material, information and financial exchanges can facilitate or impede an organisation’s economic decisions, behaviours, and performance. This research aims to explore how structural and relational properties of the supply network in which an organisation is situated may interact with each other in affecting firms’ ability to sense and seize new opportunities and reconfigure their existing asset base (i.e., dynamic capabilities). Adopting a mechanism-centered perspective and a multiple case-based approach including a sample of fifteen varied product categories from six Multinationals in three industrial contexts (i.e., Aerospace, Fast Moving Consumer Goods, and Healthcare), propositions are built concerning the causal mechanisms by which a combination of network configurational entities generates dynamic capabilities. Moreover, capturing specific intrinsic and extrinsic conditions in which these supply networks’ causal powers and liabilities may be activated is considered and demonstrated as an integral element of the dynamic capabilities explanation.