Organization Architecture and Dynamic Capabilities: Network Microfoundations of Competitive Advantages in Dynamic Markets
55 Pages Posted: 1 Jun 2013
Date Written: May 30, 2013
Abstract
This paper contributes to dynamic capabilities research by investigating how features of organization architecture provide a basis for superior firm performance and sustainable competitive advantage in dynamic markets. Using a simple model of organization architecture composed of networked employees with distinctive knowledge and dynamic markets composed of a flow of heterogeneous opportunities, I explore how knowledge mobilization mechanisms leveraging network ties – transfer, collaboration, and recombination – underlie dynamic capabilities. Prior theory predicts that the performance of these substitute network mechanisms increases with market dynamism, but produces unsustainable advantages under imitative conditions. By contrast, I find different performance effects of unpredictability and complexity, and a complementary impact of using transfer and recombination mechanisms together that can generate sustainable advantages, suggesting design conditions for dynamic capabilities.
Keywords: Dynamic Capabilities, Organization Architecture, Opportunities, Dynamic Markets
JEL Classification: D21, D23, D2, D8
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