Title: Creating and developing organisational capabilities – do we know more than we can say?

Authors: Anjali Bakhru

Addresses: Open University Business School, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK

Abstract: Organisational capabilities are increasingly distinguished from other firm resources as their distinctive contribution to organisational success is increasingly accepted with the resource-based view. Research has more recently begun to explore both the origins of capabilities and the processes through which they are developed over time, and the aim of this paper is to assess the literature to-date to establish what we understand about these complex processes. The paper shows that, while organisational capabilities are the outcome of idiosyncratic development paths, more is known about their trajectories of development than whether the process of developing capabilities shares common characteristics across firms. The paper concludes that more research is required to ascertain the microprocesses through which capabilities are built and developed.

Keywords: organisational capabilities; capability creation; capability development; resource-based view; RBV; resource-based theory.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLIC.2007.013829

International Journal of Learning and Intellectual Capital, 2007 Vol.4 No.1/2, pp.174 - 186

Published online: 30 May 2007 *

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