Dynamic capabilities? Unleashing their dynamics through a practice perspective on organizational routines

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The current conceptualization of dynamic capabilities entails a paradox, one that hampers the achievement of one of the framework’s main missions: While studies on dynamic capabilities claim to offer explanations of continuous, routine-based organizational change, their prevalent conceptualization of organizational routines is rather undynamic and less prone to change. Thus, we propose to draw on an alternative, practice-based understanding of organizational routines to unravel the “dynamics” of dynamic capabilities. The practice perspective captures and explains the internal dynamics of organizational routines and positions the performance of organizational routines as a source of both organizational stability and change. This perspective offers to deepen our understanding of the dynamics within dynamic capabilities as driver of routine-based organizational change. To foster a research agenda that advances our understanding of dynamic capabilities from a practice perspective on organizational routines, we provide onto-epistemological, theoretical, and methodological implications of such a “dynamic view” of dynamic capabilities.
Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Management Inquiry
Volume30
Issue number4
Pages (from-to)395-406
Number of pages12
ISSN1056-4926
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 10.2021

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2020.

    Research areas

  • Management studies - dynamic capabilities, organizational change, organizational routines, routine dynamics

DOI