Publications

Research Summary

THEME #1: BUILDING CAPABILITIES THROUGH TEAM FAMILIARITY

Are organizational capabilities simply the aggregation of individual skills and experience, or do they also depend on particular connections between individuals developed through prior work experience? Since a capability consists of the accumulated... View Details

1998
Conference Presentation

Networks and Firm Capabilities

By: Ranjay Gulati

April 1998 (Revised May 1998)
Background Note

Investing to Develop Future Capabilities

By: Robert S. Kaplan

Keywords: Investment

September 2000 (Revised December 2020)
Background Note

Identifying and Developing Capable Leaders

By: Clayton M. Christensen and Morgan McCall Jr

Presents a synopsis of High Flyers, by Morgan McCall. Offers a method for identifying and training managers with potential--to build management bench strength. View Details

Keywords: Leadership Development; Recruitment; Selection and Staffing; Human Resources; Talent and Talent Management

1995
Working Paper

Developing Organizational Capability to Compete

By: Michael Beer and R. A. Eisenstat

1994
Chapter

Core Capabilities and Core Rigidities

By: D. A. Leonard-Barton

Keywords: Core Relationships; Organizational Design; Performance Capacity

March 1994
Case

Intel Corp.: Leveraging Capabilities for Strategic Renewal

By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Ashish Nanda

Traces the history of Intel from its earliest days as a technology-driven memory company to its emergence as an increasingly market-focused microprocessor company with emerging systems capabilities. The focus is on the strategic, organizational, and management... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change and Adaptation; Adaptation; Management Skills; Management Practices and Processes; Strategy; Organizations; Information Technology Industry

June 2011 (Revised May 2012)
Case

Procter & Gamble: Marketing Capabilities

By: Rebecca M. Henderson and Ryan Johnson

P&G had become known and recognized as a marketing machine. It was the largest advertiser in the world, with 2010 spending of $8.68 billion. From the company's early exploitation of broadcast media (radio and television) for its soap products to more recent experiments... View Details

Keywords: Advertising; Change Management; Globalized Markets and Industries; Innovation Strategy; Brands and Branding; Marketing Communications; Expansion; Consumer Products Industry

Research Summary

Building Capabilities in Professional Service Firms

One of the most distinctive aspects of professional service firms is that the vast majority of the people who work in them are directly involved in serving clients. Long-term success in a professional service firm requires obtaining and developing the right... View Details

Summer 2016
Article

Dynamic Capabilities at Samsung: Optimizing Internal Co-opetition

By: Jaeyong Song, Kyungmook Lee and Tarun Khanna

This article presents a clinical study, based on a decade of ongoing research at Samsung Group, which describes how the Samsung Group and its mobile phone division competed successfully in smartphones. The ability to manage co-opetition—simultaneous forces of... View Details

Keywords: Competition; Business Divisions; Cooperation; Mobile Technology

1996
Book

Strategic Operations: Competing through Capabilities

By: R. H. Hayes, G. P. Pisano and D. M. Upton

Keywords: Operations; Competitive Strategy

August 1997
Article

Dynamic Capabilities and Strategic Management

By: Gary P. Pisano, David Teece and Amy Shuen

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Research Summary

THEME #2: BUILDING CAPABILITIES THROUGH VARIATION

Prior work has yet to establish definitively the role that variation (e.g. in individuals' activities or organizational processes) plays in the development of capabilities. Variation is usually either not considered (e.g., the learning curve examines... View Details

2015
Chapter

Deep Smarts as the Underpinnings of Dynamic Capabilities

By: Dorothy A. Leonard and Michelle Barton

Both ordinary and dynamic capabilities depend upon the deep smarts, i.e., business-critical, experience-based knowledge, held in the heads of an organization’s top talent. This chapter examines the links between individual and organizational capabilities and presents... View Details

Keywords: Management Skills; Experience and Expertise; Innovation and Invention

2013
Article

The Strategic Fitness Process: A Collaborative Action Research Method for Developing Organizational Prototypes and Dynamic Capabilities

By: Michael Beer

Organizations underperform and sometimes fail because their leaders are unable to learn the unvarnished truth from relevant stakeholders about how the design and behavior of the organization is misaligned with its goals and strategy. The Strategic Fitness Process (SFP)... View Details

Keywords: Organization Alignment; Dynamic Capabilities; Organization Design; Organizational Prototyping; Organizational Silence; Organizational Learning; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Strategic Planning; Organizational Design

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July 1996
Background Note

The GM's Organizational Challenge: Embedding and Leveraging Capability

By: Christopher A. Bartlett and Ashish Nanda

Describes how general managers can build organizational capability in their firms. View Details

Keywords: Management Skills; Managerial Roles; Management Teams; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Growth and Development Strategy