Microfoundations Of Dynamic Capabilities Research Articles

Not-Sold-Here: How Attitudes Influence External Knowledge Exploitation

Employee attitudes with regard to the usefulness of external knowledge may influence a firm's extent of inter-organizational knowledge transactions. Prior research has focused on “not-invented-here (NIH)” tendencies, which refer to negative attitudes in organizations toward the acquisition of knowledge from external sources. In this research, we develop the concept of “not-sold-here (NSH)” tendencies, which result from protective attitudes in firms toward the external exploitation of knowledge, for example, technology licensing. We show conceptually how NSH tendencies develop and how they can influence the extent of outward knowledge transfer. We test five hypotheses regarding antecedents and consequences of NSH tendencies with data from 152 firms spanning multiple industries. The empirical findings show that NSH tendencies exist in organizations and that they constitute a major barrier to the implementation of external knowledge commercialization strategies. The concept of NSH therefore helps explain the varying degrees of activity in external knowledge exploitation, and it contributes to understanding particular microfoundations of dynamic capabilities.

Foundations and Microfoundations of Dynamic Capabilities

Following an evolutionary approach, the recognition of the firm as a set of recombinable productive resources has been an important reference for understanding their growth and competitiveness. This approach takes into account the firm’s competitiveness as a result of its capability to adapt to a changing and uncertain environment. The recognition of such an environment is based, in turn, on the subjective image built in the mind of the entrepreneur regarding possibilities for and obstacles to the company’s growth. Based on this image, or on their capacity to interpret the environment, entrepreneurs take decisions aimed at coordinating resources in such a way as to achieve their expectations. The aim of this paper is to discuss the concepts of interpretation and coordination as intrinsically relational economic activities, in which intersubjectivity can both limit and potentialize the rationality of agents.

Explicating dynamic capabilities: the nature and microfoundations of (sustainable) enterprise performance

AbstractThis paper draws on the social and behavioral sciences in an endeavor to specify the nature and microfoundations of the capabilities necessary to sustain superior enterprise performance in an open economy with rapid innovation and globally dispersed sources of invention, innovation, and manufacturing capability. Dynamic capabilities enable business enterprises to create, deploy, and protect the intangible assets that support superior long‐ run business performance. The microfoundations of dynamic capabilities—the distinct skills, processes, procedures, organizational structures, decision rules, and disciplines—which undergird enterprise‐level sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring capacities are difficult to develop and deploy. Enterprises with strong dynamic capabilities are intensely entrepreneurial. They not only adapt to business ecosystems, but also shape them through innovation and through collaboration with other enterprises, entities, and institutions. The framework advanced can help scholars understand the foundations of long‐run enterprise success while helping managers delineate relevant strategic considerations and the priorities they must adopt to enhance enterprise performance and escape the zero profit tendency associated with operating in markets open to global competition. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.