Microfoundations of Routines and Capabilities: Individuals, Processes, and Structure

By Teppo Felin, N. J. Foss, Koen H. Heimeriks, Tammy L. Madsen. 2012

1,031 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This article introduces the Special Issue and discusses the microfoundations of routines and capabilities, including why a microfoundations view is needed and how it may inform work on organizational and competitive heterogeneity. Building on extant research, we identify three primary categories of micro‐level components underlying routines and capabilities: individuals, social processes, and structure. We discuss how these components, and their interactions, may affect routines and capabilities. In doing so, we outline a research agenda for advancing the field's understanding of the microfoundations of routines and capabilities.

Subfields: Management Science and Operations Research, Strategy and Management

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/783b43495467d602f2c87cde7990b25dd4351f2b

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In Management Science and Operations Research

In Strategy and Management

Citations in the corpus

Human Capital Is Dead; Long Live Human Capital Resources! (2014, background): “First, microfoundations research on routines suggests that through emergence, the combinations and coordination of individuals may create collective constructs that are distinct from their individual origins (Felin et al., 2012; Felin & Hesterly, 2007; Felin et al., 2009).”
Quo Vadis, Dynamic Capabilities? A Content-Analytic Review of the Current State of Knowledge and Recommendations for Future Research (2018, background): “…remains most common, there has been an increasing interest in dynamic managerial capabilities as noted previously (Adner & Helfat, 2003; Helfat &Martin, 2015; Sirmon & Hitt, 2009), in line with the ongoing microfoundations movement in capabilities research more generally (Felin et al., 2012).”
Innovation Through Tradition: Lessons From Innovative Family Businesses and Directions for Future Research (2016, background): “Which managerial decisions (Dosi, Faillo, & Marengo, 2008) and microfoundations (Felin et al., 2012) help create and nurture these capabilities in family (and also nonfamily) businesses remains an open question and points to a promising area for future research.”
The Essence of Dynamic Capabilities and their Measurement (2018, neutral): “Such reviews have identified conceptual challenges for the development of the field, some of which have been resolved in recent work (e.g. Di Stefano et al. 2014; Felin et al. 2012; Peteraf et al. 2013; Teece 2007, 2012).”
Cultural and language skills as resources for boundary spanning within the MNC (2014, background): “These findings highlight the importance of microfoundations (Barney & Felin, 2013; Felin et al., 2012).”
The Architecture of Dynamic Capability Research Identifying the Building Blocks of a Configurational Approach (2016, neutral): “While they differ in their specific levels, they all share a common focus on outcomes at the level above the individual (Felin et al., 2012, p. 601).””
Entrepreneurial leadership, capabilities and firm growth (2015, background): “Growth capabilities are an outcome of leadership behaviours and management activities combined, developed through the result of interactions and complementarities among individuals, processes and structures (Felin et al., 2012).”