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The dialectics of competency acquisition: pollution prevention in electric generation
Author(s) -
Marcus Alfred,
Geffen Donald
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
strategic management journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 11.035
H-Index - 286
eISSN - 1097-0266
pISSN - 0143-2095
DOI - 10.1002/(sici)1097-0266(1998120)19:12<1145::aid-smj6>3.0.co;2-b
Subject(s) - macro , industrial organization , dialectic , business , knowledge management , computer science , philosophy , epistemology , programming language
Abstract Strategy researchers now recognize that distinctive competencies are critically important for sustained competitive advantage. The processes by which such competencies are acquired, however, has only started to be examined. Connections between macro‐industrial system level properties and micro‐developments in proprietary technology at the firm level need to be made. This paper argues that system‐wide properties, such as long‐standing elementary and opposing logics in societal forces like governments and markets, and micro‐developments, such as the firm's capacity to search for talent, technology, and ideas and to harmonize what it learns internally, can contribute in significant ways to the creation and acquisition of new competencies. Based on the case of pollution prevention in electric generation, it shows how the system‐wide properties channel and direct the paths that the acquisition of new competencies take and how they interact with micro‐developments at the firm level. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.