Strategic Management Quarterly

Dynamic Managerial Capabilities and Competitive Advantage
Bruce W. Bellner, Donald MacLean

Abstract
The literature on dynamic capabilities (DCs) has received wide attention in the field of strategic management. Although studies have tended toward the organizational level, some have begun to examine action at the managerial level via the concept of dynamic managerial capabilities (DMCs). The purpose of the study, which involved inductive theory building in the underdeveloped DMC literature, was to investigate empirically what DMC managers used in practice to create competitive advantage during episodes of significant external environmental change. A multi-case study was conducted with CEOs from five small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the finance/insurance and real estate sectors. The results were further developed in a survey study. They show that DMCs employed by managers include learning-based and innovation-based capabilities, and involve managers engaging in participative leadership. These capacities are mutually interdependent and reinforcing, are technically and evolutionarily fit, and also impact on ordinary and other dynamic capabilities toward achieving advantage.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/smq.v3n3a1