Selection Capability: How Capability Gaps and Internal Social Frictions Affect Internal and External Strategic Renewal

By Laurence Capron, Will Mitchell. Organ. Sci., 2009

424 citations recorded by the source corpus.

The dynamic capabilities literature suggests that firms need to use both internal development and external sourcing to thrive over time, but we have a limited understanding of the conditions that best suit different sourcing choices. This study examines how constraints that arise from firms' existing stocks of capabilities and from their internal social contexts shape their choices of capability-sourcing modes and, in turn, their ability to obtain new capabilities. Thus, the research focuses on an underemphasized form of dynamic capability: the ability to select appropriate modes of capability sourcing. We test the arguments with a survey and longitudinal survival study of the international telecommunications industry. We find intriguing variations in the way that firms' selection capability influences their ability to renew their capabilities and, ultimately, to survive.

Subfields: Strategy and Management

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/34b0abf6f29596679c40406f0f3a5c94601994bf

How researchers see this paper

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

In Strategy and Management

Citations in the corpus

A dynamic capabilities-based entrepreneurial theory of the multinational enterprise (2014, neutral): “External sourcing and collaboration can, when done well, augment the firm’s internal capabilities (Capron & Mitchell, 2009; Chesbrough, 2003).”
Entrepreneurship and dynamic capabilities: how firm age and size affect the ‘capability enhancement–SME performance’ relationship (2012, background): “…El Sawy 2011; Protogerou et al. 2012); industry and geography/location dummy variables—to control for contextual pressures and effects on DC attainment (Capron and Mitchell 2009; Lichtenthaler 2009); entrepreneurial orientation—to control for decision-making syle (e.g., risk-taking) on choosing…”
Absorbing the Concept of Absorptive Capacity (2009, background): “In line with Cohen and Levinthal (1990), these early articles strongly link AC to learning, innovation, and performance of firms.”
Processes, antecedents and outcomes of dynamic capabilities (2014, neutral): “…Mathiassen & Vainio, 2007; Petroni, 1998; Tripsas, 1997), although some emphasise inter-organisational collaboration and capability acquisition (Capron & Mitchell, 2009; Jarratt, 2008; Vassolo & Anand, 2007), organisational restructuring (Forrant & Flynn, 1999; Karim, 2006, 2009; Rindova &…”
On the Contingent Value of Dynamic Capabilities for Competitive Advantage: The Nonlinear Moderating Effect of Environmental Dynamism (2014, background): “5 years to 6 for firms that are 50 years or older) (Capron and Mitchell, 2009).”
Strategic Renewal of Organizations (2009, background): “Other stimuli include environmental factors such as changes in government regulation and international competition (Capron and Mitchell 2009), or the continually changing technological frontier in information-technology-related industries (Puranam et al. 2009, Benson and Ziedonis 2009).”