A dynamic capabilities-based entrepreneurial theory of the multinational enterprise

By David J. Teece. Journal of International Business Studies, 2014

1,319 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This paper develops a dynamic capabilities-based theory of the multinational enterprise (MNE). It first reviews scholarship on the MNE, with a focus on what has come to be known as “internalization” theory. One prong of this theory develops contractual/transaction cost-informed governance perspectives; and another develops technology transfer and capabilities perspectives. In this paper, it is suggested that the latter has been somewhat neglected. However, if fully integrated as part of a more complete approach, it can buttress transaction cost/governance issues and expand the range of phenomena that can be explained. In this more integrated framework, dynamic capabilities coupled with good strategy are seen as necessary to sustain superior enterprise performance, especially in fast-moving global environments. Entrepreneurial management and transformational leadership are incorporated into a capabilities theory of the MNE. The framework is then used to explain how strategy and dynamic capabilities together determine firm-level sustained competitive advantage in global environments. It is suggested that this framework complements contract-based perspectives on the MNE and can help integrate international management and international business perspectives.

Subfields: Management of Technology and Innovation, Strategy and Management

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/0029ce8718aecf4d71b35b214604d8a3ef636d09

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Management of Technology and Innovation

1. Zaheer Khan
2. Nicole Coviello
3. Y. Lew
4. Satish Nambisan
5. Shaker A. Zahra
6. K. Meyer
7. Yadong Luo
8. Justin Paul

In Strategy and Management

1. K. Meyer
2. Justin Paul
3. Chengqi Wang
4. Zaheer Khan
5. Yadong Luo
6. Junjie Hong
7. Mike W. Peng
8. Alain Verbeke

Citations in the corpus

• The future of international business research on corporate globalization that never was… (2018, background): “…issue of corporate globalization has been debated mainly within the context of large MNEs Journal of International Business Studies and MNE strategy (e.g., Levitt, 1983; Kogut, 1985; Hamel & Prahalad, 1985; Ohmae, 1985; Ghoshal, 1987; Rugman & Verbeke, 2004; Rugman, Oh, & Lim, 2012; Teece, 2014).”
• Inter-organizational collaboration and SMEs’ innovation: A systematic review and future research directions (2020, background): “For example, sensing, seizing and reconfiguring capabilities can help SMEs to develop and maintain IOC relationship, and gain the most relevant knowledge for innovation (Teece, 2014).”
• Innovation and international business (2017, background): “…in the competence-based or capability-based theory of the firm in the analysis of the MNE (Cantwell and Piscitello 2000; Cantwell and Zhang 2009; Teece 2014), and in the role of inter-company alliances in the capability generation of partner MNEs (Hagedoorn and Narula 1996; Chesnais 1988;…”
• Exploring the relationship between big data analytics capability and competitive performance: The mediating roles of dynamic and operational capabilities (2020, neutral): “The ability to do so is also suggested to give an advantage in leveraging such advancements before competition, thus contributing to improved technological capabilities [75].”
• The Corporate Headquarters in the Contemporary Corporation: Advancing a Multimarket Firm Perspective (2015, background): “…and differences between business and geographic units are often not clear cut (e.g., Campbell, Alexander, Goold, & Whitehead, 2014), it is no surprise that scholars advocate closer links between the literatures on corporate and international strategy (e.g., Campbell et al., 2014; Teece, 2014).”
• Toward a 7-P framework for international marketing (2019, background): “Teece (2014) defines path in the context of strategy.”
• Innovation performance: The effect of knowledge-based dynamic capabilities in cross-country innovation ecosystems (2021, neutral): “” As competition in the marketplace steadily evolves from between firms to between ecosystems (Teece, 2014), the heterogeneity of innovation ecosystem members provides complementary resources and capabilities for the shared benefit of the whole ecosystem (Peltier et al. 2020).”
• An Empirical Study on Green Innovation Strategy and Sustainable Competitive Advantages: Path and Boundary (2018, background): “Enterprises can appropriately slow down the implementation of a GIS, or they can engage in green innovation behavior based on mature substantive capabilities, but they should not adjust organizational routines [31,35,66].”
• Entrepreneurship and process studies (2015, background): “Emerging studies of how dynamic organizational capabilities (Teece et al., 1997) are entrepreneurially developed provides one such example (Teece, 2014).”
• What is “strategic asset seeking FDI”? (2015, background): “Hence, for strategy scholars, it is natural to think of FDI projects as combining elements of resource exploitation and resource augmentation (Luo, 2002; Meyer et al., 2009; Teece, 2014).”