Harmonizing Habits and Self-Determination: When Personalism Meets Dynamic Capabilities

After decades of advancements, research on capabilities dynamization has come to two antagonistic positions. The first one understands dynamic capabilities as higher-order collective routines (e.g., R&D, product development, post-merger integration), premised on a central role of individual habits. It is criticized by those scholars who see learned, semi-automatic routines as insufficient to engender the radical regeneration in organizational capabilities required in dynamic environments (e.g.,Schreyögg & Kliesch-Eberl, 2007; Teece, 2007). The second position understands capabilities dynamization as the outcome of rapid learning and the tailored and logically-structured solutions advanced by organizational leaders (e.g., ad-hoc problem solving, improvisation, single and cognitively sophisticated solutions). It is premised on a central role of managerial autonomy and self-determination. This position is criticized for doing away with the proven routine-based selection patterns and operating rules that allow organizations to both observe and handle environmental developments (e.g., Helfat et al., 2007; Winter, 2003). We claim that this conundrum results from somehow incomplete “models of humans” espoused by each position. In this conceptual paper we propose a new model, based on Personalism, which provides the foundations for parsimoniously integrating the two opposite positions by harmoniously integrating habits and self-determination. We describe the basic elements of capabilities dynamization premised on this alternative “model of humans” and call for a Person-centric view of strategy and organizations (Ghoshal, 2005; Ghoshal, Bartlett & Moran, 1999).

BIO
Carlo SALVATO is an associate professor of strategic management and entrepreneurship at Bocconi University in Milan, Italy. He obtained a PhD in business administration and management from Bocconi University and a PhD in entrepreneurship and management from Jönköping International Business School, Sweden. His current research focus is on the microfoundations and evolution of entrepreneurial capabilities, with a focus on closely-held firms. He has published research on the emergence and evolution of organizational routines, social capital as an antecedent of entrepreneurial capabilities, determinants of entrepreneurial behaviour in family firms, and exit as a component of entrepreneurial processes. Carlo has authored papers in journals such as Organization Science, Journal of Management Studies, Journal of Management, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, Entrepreneurship and Regional Development, Family Business Review. He is also associate editor of the Family Business Review and serves in the Board of Review of the Journal of Business Venturing.