Dynamic capabilities as ‘becoming’: Implications from learning theories

摘要

This paper challenges the traditional understanding of dynamic capabilities as firm-level resources suitable for volatile environments to extend our understanding of dynamic capabilities by incorporating learning and behavioural theories of organisational change in studying capabilities embedded in firm routines. Organisational learning rejects the idea of stability; organisations are seen in constant flux, in a continual state of ‘becoming’. Such a perspective leaps over the question of do organisations have dynamic capabilities, instead explores how capabilities are dynamised in this state continual state of change and what learning theories can tell us about the nature and scope of this dynamisation. I investigate these issues in six, mature, medium-sized companies that are operating in three different sectors with varying levels of market dynamism.