Microfoundations of Routines and Capabilities: Individuals, Processes, and Structure

2012/03/07 by Teppo Felin, Nicolai J. Foss, Koen H. Heimeriks +1 · 1,054 citations
Business, Management and Accounting · Decision Sciences · #Business #Business Strategy and Innovation #Complex Systems and Decision Making #Computer science #Dynamic capabilities #Economics #Innovation and Knowledge Management #Keynesian economics #Knowledge management #Microfoundations #Process management

paper · open access · doi:10.1111/j.1467-6486.2012.01052.x

published in Journal of Management Studies 49(8), 1351-1374 (Wiley)

openalex publication_date 2012/03/07 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/06

Abstract

abstract This article introduces the Special Issue and discusses the microfoundations of routines and capabilities, including why a microfoundations view is needed and how it may inform work on organizational and competitive heterogeneity. Building on extant research, we identify three primary categories of micro‐level components underlying routines and capabilities: individuals, social processes, and structure. We discuss how these components, and their interactions, may affect routines and capabilities. In doing so, we outline a research agenda for advancing the field's understanding of the microfoundations of routines and capabilities.

Citations

• The Mirage of Microfoundations
• Dynamic Capabilities: Routines versus Entrepreneurial Action
• Explaining the Premiums Paid for Large Acquisitions: Evidence of CEO Hubris
• A Garbage Can Model of Organizational Choice
• Architectural Innovation: The Reconfiguration of Existing Product Technologies and the Failure of Established Firms
• PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE: A PROFILE COMPARISON APPROACH TO ASSESSING PERSON-ORGANIZATION FIT.
• Reconceptualizing Organizational Routines as a Source of Flexibility and Change
• Prospect Theory: An Analysis of Decision under Risk
• Technology as an Occasion for Structuring: Evidence from Observations of CT Scanners and the Social Order of Radiology Departments

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Related

• Dynamics of Organizational Routines: A Generative Model
• What Are Microfoundations?
• Organizational Routines as Sources of Connections and Understandings
• Reconceptualizing Organizational Routines as a Source of Flexibility and Change
• Routine Dynamics and Fluid Technologies at Work