EXPLOITING AND NURTURING IN-HOUSE TECHNOLOGICAL CAPABILITIES: LESSONS FROM THE AEROSPACE INDUSTRY

This paper identifies four major types of technological capabilities of firms developing multi-technology products: integrative, absorptive, coordinative, and generative. Using an in-depth case study of a high technology sub-system, the paper focuses on a firm's generative capabilities. The paper illustrates that a firm's generative capabilities enables it to (a) frame a particular problem, (b) enact an innovative vision, and (c) solve the problem by developing new manufacturing techniques. The triad frame-enact-solve is argued to be the primary feature of a firm's generative capability.

[1]  D. Teece,et al.  The Dynamic Capabilities of Firms: an Introduction , 1994 .

[2]  D. Mowery.  The relationship between intrafirm and contractual forms of industrial research in American manufacturing, 1900-1940 , 1983 .

[3]  K. Pavitt,et al.  The technological competencies of the world''s largest firms , 1997 .

[4]  K. Pavitt.  Technologies, Products and Organization in the Innovating Firm: What Adam Smith Tells Us and Joseph Schumpeter Doesn't , 1998 .

[5]  D. Leonard-Barton.  CORE CAPABILITIES AND CORE RIGIDITIES: A PARADOX IN MANAGING NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT , 1992 .

[6]  Gianni Lorenzoni,et al.  The leveraging of interfirm relationships as a distinctive organizational capability: a longitudinal study , 1999 .

[7]  R. Coase.  The Nature of the Firm , 1937 .

[8]  John Hutchinson.  Electronic product development , 1995 .

[9]  Rod Coombs,et al.  Core competencies and the strategic management of R&D , 1996 .

[10]  O. Granstrand,et al.  Managing innovation in multi-technology corporations☆ , 1990 .

[11]  Karel Cool,et al.  Asset stock accumulation and sustainability of competitive advantage , 1989 .

[12]  Daniel A. Levinthal,et al.  ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY: A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON LEARNING AND INNOVATION , 1990 .

[13]  Ove Granstrand,et al.  Towards a theory of the technology-based firm 1 Paper originally presented at the workshop on `Techn , 1998 .

[14]  O. Granstrand,et al.  Multi-Technology Corporations: Why They Have “Distributed” Rather Than “Distinctive Core” Competencies , 1997 .

[15]  Franco Malerba,et al.  The Dynamics and Evolution of Industries , 1996 .

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

[17]  G. Richardson,et al.  The Organisation of Industry , 1972 .

[18]  Andrea Prencipe,et al.  Technological competencies and product's evolutionary dynamics a case study from the aero-engine industry , 1997 .

[19]  Andrea Prencipe,et al.  Breadth and depth of technological capabilities in CoPS: the case of the aircraft engine control system , 2000 .