Title: Unveiling the modal capability lifecycle: the coevolutionary foundations of the firm's effectiveness in capturing strategic opportunities

Authors: Marcello M. Mariani, Giovanni Battista Dagnino

Addresses: University of Bologna, Via Capo di Lucca, 34, I-40126 – Bologna, Italy. ' University of Catania, Corso Italia, 55, I-95129 – Catania, Italy

Abstract: Moving from the assumption that firm strategy is a fundamentally dynamic process of coevolutionary gap bridging between Capability Space (CS) and Opportunity Space (OS), this article seeks to link the whole ageing process of firm|s capabilities to the strength of the Strategy Gap (SG) bridging process (i.e., the degree of reduction of the gap between the CS and the OS). In particular, drawing on the received concept of Capability Lifecycle (CLC), the article introduces the notion of Modal Capability Lifecycle (MCLC). The MCLC is defined as the statistical prevalence, for a generic firm |F| in a given time period |t|, of capabilities that are in a particular stage (e.g., 80% of the capabilities of the firm |F| could be in the founding stage rather than in the maturity one). Accordingly, the study advances a novel connection between the evolution of the MCLC for the generic firm |F| and its effectiveness and success in bridging the SG, given the OS conditions.

Keywords: capability space; opportunity space; dynamic gap bridging; capability lifecycle; CLC; modal CLC; MCLC; coevolution; strategic management; resource-based view; RBV; dynamic capabilities; resource-based theory.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLIC.2007.013827

International Journal of Learning and Intellectual Capital, 2007 Vol.4 No.1/2, pp.132 - 146

Published online: 30 May 2007 *

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