Competitive advantage and strategy formulation: The key role of dynamic capabilities

Purpose – The aim of this paper is to promote the use of dynamic capabilities as a strategic tool of the highest order in terms of firm management.Design/methodology/approach – The content of the article is developed from a table that offers some insights into the relationship between the three theoretical perspectives analyzed in the paper: resource‐based view, knowledge‐based view and dynamic‐capabilities view.Findings – The paper describes the evolution that can be discerned in the process of developing competitive advantage, from a resource‐based view to a dynamic‐capabilities framework.Originality/value – The objective of the article was not to bring to light any new revelations in this field of investigation, but is intended as a theoretical reflection on the implications of dynamic capabilities for firms and managers.

[1]  Kent D. Miller.  Knowledge inventories and managerial myopia , 2002 .

[2]  Anita M. McGahan,et al.  What Do We Know About Variance in Accounting Profitability? , 2002, Manag. Sci..

[3]  R. Grant.  Toward a Knowledge-Based Theory of the Firm,” Strategic Management Journal (17), pp. , 1996 .

[4]  M. Porter,et al.  The Persistence of Shocks to Profitability , 1999, Review of Economics and Statistics.

[5]  L RanftAnnette,et al.  Acquiring New Technologies and Capabilities , 2002 .

[6]  B. Kogut,et al.  What Firms Do? Coordination, Identity, and Learning , 1996 .

[7]  Solveig Wikström,et al.  Knowledge and Value: A New Perspective on Corporate Transformation , 1993 .

[8]  P. Schoemaker,et al.  Strategic assets and organizational rent , 1993 .

[9]  R. Rumelt.  How much does industry matter , 1991 .

[10]  Annette L. Ranft,et al.  Acquiring New Technologies and Capabilities: A Grounded Model of Acquisition Implementation , 2002, Organ. Sci..

[11]  Timothy W. Ruefli,et al.  Sustained Competitive Advantage: Temporal Dynamics and the Incidence and Persistence of Superior Economic Performance , 2002, Organ. Sci..

[12]  Kathleen M. Eisenhardt,et al.  DYNAMIC CAPABILITIES, WHAT ARE THEY? , 2000 .

[13]  Maurizio Zollo,et al.  Deliberate Learning and the Evolution of Dynamic Capabilities , 2002 .

[14]  M. Gordon,et al.  PUBLICATION RECORDS AND TENURE DECISIONS IN THE FIELD OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT , 1996 .

[15]  E. Penrose.  The theory of the growth of the firm twenty-five years after , 1960 .

[16]  R. Grant.  The Resource-Based Theory of Competitive Advantage: Implications for Strategy Formulation , 1991 .

[17]  C. Prahalad,et al.  The Core Competence of the Corporation , 1990 .

[18]  D. Teece,et al.  DYNAMIC CAPABILITIES AND STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT , 1997 .

[19]  Joseph T. Mahoney,et al.  The resource-based view within the conversation of strategic management , 1992 .

[20]  B. Chakravarthy,et al.  The persistence of knowledge‐based advantage: an empirical test for product performance and technological knowledge , 2002 .

[21]  J. Barney,et al.  CAPABILITIES, BUSINESS PROCESSES, AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE: CHOOSING THE DEPENDENT VARIABLE IN EMPIRICAL TESTS OF THE RESOURCE-BASED VIEW , 2004 .

[22]  J. March.  Exploration and exploitation in organizational learning , 1991, STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI.

[23]  I. Nonaka,et al.  The Concept of “Ba”: Building a Foundation for Knowledge Creation , 1998 .

[24]  David J. Collis,et al.  Research Note: How Valuable are Organizational Capabilities? , 1994 .

[25]  S. Winter,et al.  An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change.by Richard R. Nelson; Sidney G. Winter , 1987 .

[26]  I. Nonaka,et al.  How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation , 1995 .

[27]  David Lei,et al.  Competition, cooperation and learning: the new dynamics of strategy and organisation design for the innovation net , 2003, Int. J. Technol. Manag..

[28]  R WigginsRobert,et al.  Sustained Competitive Advantage , 2002 .

[29]  P. Shrivastava.  A TYPOLOGY OF ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING SYSTEMS , 1983 .

[30]  B. Kogut,et al.  Knowledge of the Firm, Combinative Capabilities, and the Replication of Technology , 1992 .

[31]  Wanda J. Orlikowski,et al.  Knowing in practice: Enacting a collective capability in distributed organizing , 2002, STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI.

[32]  Subba Narasimha,et al.  ORGANIZATIONAL KNOWLEDGE, HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, AND SUSTAINED COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE: TOWARD A FRAMEWORK , 2000 .

[33]  J. Barney.  Is the Resource-Based “View” a Useful Perspective for Strategic Management Research? Yes , 2001 .

[34]  Richard L. Priem,et al.  Is the Resource-Based “View” a Useful Perspective for Strategic Management Research? , 2001 .

[35]  P. N. SubbaNarasimha,et al.  Salience of knowledge in a strategic theory of the firm , 2001 .