Dynamic Capabilities? Unleashing Their Dynamics through a Practice Perspective on Organizational Routines

• Published in: Journal of management inquiry Vol. 30; no. 4; pp. 395 - 406
• Main Authors: Wenzel, Matthias, Danner-Schröder, Anja, Spee, A. Paul
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.10.2021; SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
• Subjects: Corporate histories; Organizational change; organizational change; routine dynamics; dynamic capabilities; organizational routines
• ISSN: 1056-4926; 1552-6542
• DOI: 10.1177/1056492620916549

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.