scholarly journals Do firms develop dynamic capabilities differently? The case of professional services firms in New Zealand

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Andrea Dickens

<p>Differences in dynamic capabilities (DCs) help explain firms’ abilities to change. DCs research has explored what DCs might be and generic categorisations of them after they have emerged, but little light has been thrown on the specific practices that enable or inhibit their emergence. This study explores how DCs emerge and why firms might develop DCs differently under the same market conditions.   This thesis sought to understand these questions and respond to calls for longitudinal empirical studies to extend DC theory by studying the paths of four professional services firms in New Zealand over three decades. Using a multi-case study design and thematic analysis, this research applied Teece’s (2007) framework of sensing, seizing and transforming capabilities to identify the presence of DCs within each case, before attempting to identify the enablers and inhibitors influencing the development of such capabilities. While elements of each generic class of DC were evident in each case, the findings suggest that in order to utilise DCs to adapt effectively to environmental changes, a firm must deploy all three classes of capabilities at the same time.   This research contributes to the DC literature by proposing a prioritised typology of antecedents that may help stimulate Teece’s sensing, seizing and transforming DCs, while identifying the rigidities that could inhibit their development. The empirical results reported on in this thesis suggest that similar firms’ development of DCs may be different because of idiosyncratic leadership and culture that can limit a firm’s ability to perceive the importance of DCs. Other characteristics that inhibit the development of DCs include centralised, non-participative cultures and high internal (or inward looking) orientation. These results extend current theory about triggers for developing DCs by identifying that the strongest triggers may be either serious macro-economic events or internally driven by firm-defined goals or strategies.</p>

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Andrea Dickens

<p>Differences in dynamic capabilities (DCs) help explain firms’ abilities to change. DCs research has explored what DCs might be and generic categorisations of them after they have emerged, but little light has been thrown on the specific practices that enable or inhibit their emergence. This study explores how DCs emerge and why firms might develop DCs differently under the same market conditions.   This thesis sought to understand these questions and respond to calls for longitudinal empirical studies to extend DC theory by studying the paths of four professional services firms in New Zealand over three decades. Using a multi-case study design and thematic analysis, this research applied Teece’s (2007) framework of sensing, seizing and transforming capabilities to identify the presence of DCs within each case, before attempting to identify the enablers and inhibitors influencing the development of such capabilities. While elements of each generic class of DC were evident in each case, the findings suggest that in order to utilise DCs to adapt effectively to environmental changes, a firm must deploy all three classes of capabilities at the same time.   This research contributes to the DC literature by proposing a prioritised typology of antecedents that may help stimulate Teece’s sensing, seizing and transforming DCs, while identifying the rigidities that could inhibit their development. The empirical results reported on in this thesis suggest that similar firms’ development of DCs may be different because of idiosyncratic leadership and culture that can limit a firm’s ability to perceive the importance of DCs. Other characteristics that inhibit the development of DCs include centralised, non-participative cultures and high internal (or inward looking) orientation. These results extend current theory about triggers for developing DCs by identifying that the strongest triggers may be either serious macro-economic events or internally driven by firm-defined goals or strategies.</p>


2015 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 809-813 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Astrid Susanti ◽  
Muhtosim Arief

The co-operative plays an important role in Indonesia’s economic development since it can improve people’s welfare and support SMEs through its unique character, which is a combination of the economic and social character. As an enterprise, co-operative is not immune to environmental changes. Therefore co-operative must be able to compete with other industries to reach the best performance in globalization era. The capability to cope with environmental pressure is known as dynamic capability. Research on the implementation of dynamic capabilities, however, only focus on conceptual discussions and empirical studies are still limited, especially in co-operatives. This research is proposed to fill the gap by conducting the empirical research, in order to examine the effect of dynamic capabilities for the formation of competitive advantage to achieve co-operatives’ performance in terms of economic and social performances. The result shows that dynamic capability could be implemented in Indonesian credit co-operatives to establish a competitive advantage and ultimately be used to achieve a better firm’s performances. However, dynamic capability cannot be used directly to achieve a better performance. The firms must choose the right and superior capability to compete with their competitors.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Simon Collins

<p>The term “resilience” is used to describe aspects of businesses that are able to withstand potentially destructive changes in the commercial environment in which they operate. Few studies have investigated the ability that some firms have not just to endure disturbance, but to buck market trends and improve, grow and capitalise on potentially destructive change. This thesis aims to elaborate our existing understanding by contributing empirical knowledge on resilient firms through the examination of the research questions: In the context of the New Zealand Manufacturing sector during the Global Financial Crisis, what contributes to resilience in firms? And, do dynamic capabilities play a role in the resilience of firms?  To address the identified gap in the literature, this research analysed the strategies of seventeen New Zealand manufacturing firms during the Global Financial Crisis utilising a qualitative, case study approach. Teece’s (2007) Sensing, Seizing and Transformation dynamic capabilities framework was used to analyse and categorise the firms’ actions. The findings confirm some, but also refute other, pre-existing assumptions and understandings regarding the resilience of firms that are offered by the prevailing literature.  This thesis contributes to the field of theory by offering evidence for five propositions that extend the existing resilience literature. These are: first, that the dynamic capabilities framework provides a useful means through which to examine the resilience of firms; second, resilient firms appear to have bundles of dynamic capabilities that provide resilience when present; third, certain capabilities appear to be necessary but not sufficient to create resilience; fourth, capabilities that enable firms to generate additional efficiency and margin appear to be among the most valuable in the creation of resilience, and fifth, capabilities that increase the ‘volume’ of knowledge, and improve the flow of, and access to, knowledge within a firm also appear to be among the most valuable for creating resilience.  This examination of the concept of resilience presents new perspectives on why some firms perform better during crises, and how advantage is created and maintained when the environment generates barriers to performance. The results progress resilience as an emerging concept in the strategic management literature in two ways: first, the addition of empirical evidence extends and elaborates current theory regarding what constitutes resilient action in firms; and second, the results highlight the strengths and weaknesses of applying a dynamic capabilities framework to explore strategic management concepts.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Simon Collins

<p>The term “resilience” is used to describe aspects of businesses that are able to withstand potentially destructive changes in the commercial environment in which they operate. Few studies have investigated the ability that some firms have not just to endure disturbance, but to buck market trends and improve, grow and capitalise on potentially destructive change. This thesis aims to elaborate our existing understanding by contributing empirical knowledge on resilient firms through the examination of the research questions: In the context of the New Zealand Manufacturing sector during the Global Financial Crisis, what contributes to resilience in firms? And, do dynamic capabilities play a role in the resilience of firms?  To address the identified gap in the literature, this research analysed the strategies of seventeen New Zealand manufacturing firms during the Global Financial Crisis utilising a qualitative, case study approach. Teece’s (2007) Sensing, Seizing and Transformation dynamic capabilities framework was used to analyse and categorise the firms’ actions. The findings confirm some, but also refute other, pre-existing assumptions and understandings regarding the resilience of firms that are offered by the prevailing literature.  This thesis contributes to the field of theory by offering evidence for five propositions that extend the existing resilience literature. These are: first, that the dynamic capabilities framework provides a useful means through which to examine the resilience of firms; second, resilient firms appear to have bundles of dynamic capabilities that provide resilience when present; third, certain capabilities appear to be necessary but not sufficient to create resilience; fourth, capabilities that enable firms to generate additional efficiency and margin appear to be among the most valuable in the creation of resilience, and fifth, capabilities that increase the ‘volume’ of knowledge, and improve the flow of, and access to, knowledge within a firm also appear to be among the most valuable for creating resilience.  This examination of the concept of resilience presents new perspectives on why some firms perform better during crises, and how advantage is created and maintained when the environment generates barriers to performance. The results progress resilience as an emerging concept in the strategic management literature in two ways: first, the addition of empirical evidence extends and elaborates current theory regarding what constitutes resilient action in firms; and second, the results highlight the strengths and weaknesses of applying a dynamic capabilities framework to explore strategic management concepts.</p>


2013 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mark Hinton ◽  
R.T. Hamilton

This study characterizes high-growth New Zealand-owned firms operating in business-to-business relationships. Within a case study design featuring six such firms, four dimensions emerged that captured their key features: founders' characteristics; opportunity orientation; opportunity exploitation; and the management of growth. All the firms had joint founders who brought complementary skills and maintained external advice networks. The growth opportunities leveraged innovations of other firms. Exploitation was in niche areas in which there were both few competitors and small numbers of larger customers, facilitating intensive relationship marketing. The founders managed the businesses by developing a pro-growth culture among employees, but supported this through strong financial control systems and low debt preference. The lack of evidence on the characteristics of this important group of firms has contributed to poorly targeted policy. This paper begins to redress this situation.


2017 ◽  
Vol 15 (spe) ◽  
pp. 445-461
Author(s):  
José Bonfim Albuquerque Filho ◽  
Sergio Bulgacov ◽  
Márcia Ramos May

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to elucidate the effects of strategic, technical and institutional response, in the perspective of dynamic capability facing environmental changes, considering that the literature has few references on how institutional factors contribute to a firm’s dynamic capabilities. A case study was conducted on the oldest journalistic enterprise in Brazil. It was found that the organizational practices with dynamic capabilities were conditioned by mechanisms and factors that have extrapolated intentions, expectations, and planning skills of the firm’s own Board of Directors. The new social structure found in the organization is based on the interpretations of the journalists themselves, regarding the social reality of the field of journalism, was supported by the coherent interpretative schemata of some managers in order to reduce the uncertainty caused by institutional demands of the rapidly changing reading habits of people. The study revealed that strategic practices such as making the newspaper known at schools, development of a digital newspaper, showed the influence of institutions as a new normative order, social responsibility, greater legitimacy, and at the same time, a higher capacity of the organization to adapt to its business environment. These aspects, reflect a cultural structure that is reproduced at the company in its practices for the continuous use of new technologies and new social demands.


2021 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-120
Author(s):  
Mohamed Mousa

PurposeThrough a multiple case study design, this article elaborates the chances of initiating and/or implementing responsible management education (RME) in Egyptian public business schools after the identification of COVID-19. In other words, this paper identifies the effect of COVID-19 on internalizing RME in the previously mentioned context.Design/methodology/approachThis is a qualitative study. The author focused on academics who work in four out of the 25 business schools in Egypt and employed a multiple-case study design (to collect his data.FindingsThe results showed that COVID-19 has not had any effect on the adoption of sustainable business education in the sample institutions. Moreover, some respondents went further and indicated that the identification of coronavirus slows down any attempt to implement RME in Egyptian public business schools. Accordingly, the author thinks that the sample business schools can implement RME post-COVID-19 if they overcome the following three types of obstacles: self-determination, contextual and national obstacles.Originality/valueThis paper contributes by filling a gap in RME, leadership and literature in the higher education sector, in which empirical studies on the effect of COVID-19 on the performance of business school have been limited until now.


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