Dynamic skills of companies

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The term dynamic skills describes the potential of companies to solve problems in a systematic and reliable manner and to take advantage of opportunities through targeted further development and changing their resource base.

Dynamic skills are considered to be an essential source of a company's ability to innovate and its ability to adapt to changing conditions. The analytical use of the concept should not only support the dynamization and more efficient use of existing resources, but also the strategic entry into new business areas and the discovery and perception of business options based on new or external resources. These options also include franchise models . Access to digital resources via portals or development environments play just as important a role as the integration of user communities through social networks.

History of the term

The term was coined in 1997 by the publication of David J. Teece Dynamic Capabilities and Strategic Management and has been widespread in German-speaking countries since around 2007. The concept is based on the older Resource Based View approach (see resource theory ), which the company understands as a pool of resources . Teece expands this inward-looking approach to include the market and strategy perspective. The process of dynamic reconfiguration of resources includes the ability ( ability or capacity ) to generate and strategically use new competencies through integration, coordination and new combination of internal and external resources. These should make it possible to anticipate changes in the competitive environment and to achieve new, at least temporary, competitive advantages over and over again. With the emphasis on the ability , the role of strategic management is emphasized, with the emphasis on the task of integration, coordination and recombination, the concept connects to evolutionary economics . The evolutionary economist Sidney G. Winter sees the ability to recombine capacities and abilities as a higher-order capability or metability . According to Winter, whether such higher-level skills or metacompetencies are built up depends on the cost of building them in relation to ad hoc problem solving.

Empirical analyzes on the topic are currently (2019) still rare. Ludwig and Pemberton showed a connection between competitive survival and dynamic capabilities as well as blockages in practical application using the example of the Russian steel industry. Borgmann uses the approach to determine the timing of the market entry of start-ups in e-business.

Scope and delimitation of the approach

In detail, it is about learning the skills to make external strategic resources compatible and to integrate them sensibly into your own organization as well as to coordinate and permanently reorganize the existing internal strategic competencies and resources. These resources include knowledge, processes, human resources and technology. Occasionally, other factors such as corporate architecture or reputation are also included. Often this change takes place incrementally, sometimes also radically.

This approach breaks the narrow concept of core competency , which in the age of mergers and acquisitions, open innovation and networks has lost its importance and has not found the necessary confirmation in empirical terms. Instead of the notion that resources and skills are gradually expanded with every step of growth, there is the conviction that growth is necessary in order to obtain necessary, previously non-existent resources and skills.

Thus the approach is related to the concept of effectuation , which emphasizes the role of the active design of one's own resources and networks compared to the pure prognosis of the development. It systematically moves closer to the concept of entrepreneurship , which is also defined as the ability to innovate through flexible combination and strategic use of resources or production factors.

The concept of dynamic skills is seen by several authors as a long-awaited approach to integrating resource-based, market-based and strategy-oriented theories. It includes different strategic starting positions, development paths and processes as well as the necessary attention to environmental changes as well as the ability of corporate management to make flexible decisions that are not based on past experience and to make changes to the resource base. Such an integrative concept is also known as Dynamic Capabilities 2.0 .

variants

The concept of dynamic configuration of resources includes a. the distinction between noun capabilities , which the organization needs in an equilibrium or routine state to meet minimal requirements for performance and quality, where innovation does not take place, and dynamic capabilities, which are required to generate new products or business models, and quality and performance are significant to increase.

As Relational Capability means the ability to adapt to the changing needs its own resources, including the resources of partners and resources on the network. Acquisition-based Dynamic Capabilities is called the ability to supplement or replace one's own resources with acquisitions and thus adapt to changing requirements. These acquisitions must first be identified and reconfigured ( identification and reconfiguration capability ).

A further distinction is made between technical and evolutionary fitness , which can be measured on the one hand by the ability to increase efficiency and reduce costs, on the other hand by asserting and gaining competitive advantages, survivability and the long-term (sustainable) achievement of above-average profits. The latter skills cannot be achieved through technical fitness alone.

Practical use

With the help of the concept z. For example, it can be analyzed whether and why core competencies lead to a core competency trap due to a lack of learning processes , wear out due to a lack of constant activation or why previously learned strategies are no longer successful in new situations ( transfer trap ). Whether a strict distinction between resources and skills can be maintained appears to be questionable, since several authors regard intangible or immaterial resources (e.g. social capital ) as an important basis for building skills.

Using a playful simulation, Wollersheim and Heimeriks show that characteristic features of dynamic capabilities can be a more efficient use of resources, increasing coordination efficiency, more appropriate sequences of action and more considered procedures. The approach is therefore not only relevant for theories about the configuration of the value chain, but also for the analysis of the inter- or intra-organizational distribution of the value created between different stakeholders under the conditions of coopetition . This distribution is u. a. depending on the assessment of the appropriateness and on the negotiation of the prices of the resources used between the stakeholders and on the balance of power.

The theory has also been applied to the development of university resources in the internationalization process.

criticism

The relevant research, which follows the tradition of the resource-oriented approach, has not yet adequately determined what exactly is to be understood by dynamic capabilities, where they are to be located in the organization, how they arise and how precisely their benefits unfold. So far there have been no major longitudinal studies on the subject. It can be assumed that the development of dynamic skills correlates closely with entrepreneurial skills. However, the process that leads to successful problem solving, growth or the founding of new companies through creative resource combinations remains largely a black-box mechanism that has yet to be elucidated through qualitative studies. So far (as of 2019, with the exception of the well-researched IT area) there are only a few studies available.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Ilídio Barreto: Dynamic Capabilities: A Review of Past Research and an Agenda for the Future . In: Journal of Management . 36, January 2010. doi : 10.1177 / 0149206309350776 . Online (PDF). This article was one of the ten most cited articles of 2010 in the Strategic Management category.
  2. ↑ Constance E. Helfat et al., Dynamic Capabilities , Blackwell, Malden MA 2007, p. 4
  3. ^ DJ Teece, G. Pisano, A. Shuen: Dynamic Capabilities and Strategic Management. In: Strategic Management Journal 18 (1997) 7, pp. 509-533.
  4. ^ In Strategic Management Journal , Vol. 18, No. 7th
  5. ↑ B. Wernerfelt: A resource-based view of the firm . In: Strategic Management Journal . (5), 1984.
  6. ^ SG Winter: Understanding dynamic capabilities. In: Strategic Management Journal, vol. 24 (2003), pp. 991-995.
  7. ^ Gregory Ludwig, Jon Pemberton: A managerial perspective of dynamic capabilities in emerging markets: the case of the Russian steel industry. In: Journal of East European Management Studies, 16 (2011) 3, pp. 215-236. ISSN  0949-6181
  8. ↑ Jakob Borgmann: Dynamic Capabilities as Influencing Factors of Market Entry Timing. Springer Gabler, 2012.
  9. ↑ Eisenhardt, K .; J. Martin (2000), Dynamic capabilities: What are they? In: Strategic Management Journal (21), pp. 1105-1122.
  10. ↑ Gimun Kim, Bongsik Shin, Kyung Kyu Km, Ho Geun Lee: IT Capabilities, Process-Oriented Dynamic Capabilities, and Firm Financial Performance. In: Journal of the Association for Information Systems , Vol. 12 (2011), Iss. 7, Article 1, online: [1]
  11. ↑ JG d. Junco, JM Brás-dos-Santos: How different are the entrepreneurs in the European Union internal market? An exploratory cross-cultural analysis of German, Italian and Spanish entrepreneurs . In: Journal of International Entrepreneurship 7 (2009) 2, pp. 79–162.
  12. ^ Andreas Kraus: Dynamic Capabilities 2.0 - A New Step in Evolution . Dissertation, Autonomous University of Lisbon 2012.
  13. ↑ Zahra, SA; HJ Sapienza; P. Davidsson (2006), Entrepreneurship and Dynamic Capabilities: A Review, Model and Research Agenda. In: Journal of Management Studies 43 (4), pp. 917–955.
  14. ↑ Helfat et al., Pp. 121f.
  15. ↑ See the Rubbermaid case in Helfat et al. a., chap. 4th
  16. ^ Hall, R. (1991): The Contribution of Intangible Resources to Business Success. In: Journal of General Management (16) 4, pp. 41-52
  17. ↑ J. Wollersheim, K. Heimeriks: Dynamic capabilities and their characteristic qualities: Insights from a lab experiment. Organization Science , 27 (2016) 2, 233-248.
  18. ↑ Marta Najda-Janoszka: Dynamic Capability-Based Approach to Value appropriation. Jagiellonian University Press, Krakow 2017. ISBN 978-8-3233-4107-9 .
  19. ^ Dan Xiang: The Effect of Dynamic Capabilities on International Performance of Chinese Universities. In: Ershi Qi, Jiang Shen, Runliang Dou (eds.): Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Industrial Engineering and Engineering Management 2016: Theory and Application of Industrial Engineering. Atlantis Press, Amsterdam / Paris 2017.
  20. ^ MH Morris, PS Lewis, DL Sexton: Reconceptualizing entrepreneurship: An input-output perspective. In: SAM Advanced Management Journal , 59 (1994) 1, p. 21.
  21. ↑ See e.g. B. Ari Jantunen: Dynamic capabilities and firm performance. Dissertation, Lappeenranta University of Technology 2005; Raymond Guillouzo: Alliance Portfolio Management: A Model Based on Dynamic Capabilities. In: George WJ Hendrikse u. a. (Ed.): Management and Governance of Networks. Franchising, Cooperatives, and Strategic Alliances. Springer-Verlag 2017; David J. Teece: Dynamic Capabilities and the Multinational Enterprise. In: Bent Jesper Christensen, Carsten Kowalczyk (eds.): Globalization: Strategies and Effects. Springer Verlag 2017.

literature

  • F. Arndt: Assessing dynamic capabilities: Mintzberg's schools of thought. In: South African Journal of Business Management. (42) 1, 2011, pp. 1-13.
  • D. Berndt: Constituent characteristics of dynamic abilities. An exploratory study in specialty chemistry. Hamburg 2010, ISBN 978-3-8300-5140-4
  • CE Helfat, S. Finkelstein, W. Mitchell et al. a .: Dynamic Capabilities. Malden MA: Blackwell 2007
  • DJ Teece, SG Winter: Dynamic Capabilities: Understanding Strategical Change in Organizations. London: Blackwell 2007
  • SA Zahra, AP Nielsen: Sources of capabilities, integration and technology commercialization. In: Strategic Management Journal. (23) 5, 2002, pp. 377-398.