Dynamic capabilities: What do we 'actually' know

231 Pages·2013·2.06 MB·English

CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY

Alessandro Giudici

SENSING TOGETHER:
AN EXPLORATION OF THE SUPPORT
OF NETWORK INTERMEDIARIES
TO FIRMS’ AND ENTREPRENEURS’
SEARCH FOR NEW OPPORTUNITIES

SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
PhD Programme

PhD THESIS
Academic year: 2012-2013

Supervisor: Professor Patrick Reinmoeller
March 2013

CRANFIELD UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
PhD Programme

PhD THESIS
Academic year: 2012-2013

Alessandro Giudici

SENSING TOGETHER:
AN EXPLORATION OF THE SUPPORT
OF NETWORK INTERMEDIARIES
TO FIRMS’ AND ENTREPRENEURS’
SEARCH FOR NEW OPPORTUNITIES

Supervisor: Professor Patrick Reinmoeller
March 2013

This thesis is submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements
for the degree of Philosophiae Doctor

© Cranfield University, 2013. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced without the written permission of the copyright holder.
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ABSTRACT
This PhD thesis uses the lens of dynamic capability theory to explore how
network intermediaries can support firms and entrepreneurs in their search for new
opportunities, in the context of networking initiatives. Drawing on an extensive
assessment of the literature and on rich evidence from multiple sources, it presents two
interconnected empirical studies which offer several contributions to knowledge.
The literature review systematically assesses dynamic capability research and
contributes to it by demonstrating that, despite the challenges arising from a process of
conceptual reification signaled in the literature, the dynamic capability construct is
consolidating and needs more focused empirical investigation. It also identifies
promising research gaps and offers suggestions to advance dynamic capability theory.
Study 1 contributes to dynamic capability research by developing an outward-
looking relational perspective which details how firms can deploy and further develop
sensing dynamic capabilities in collaboration with network intermediaries. The study
also confirms the importance of organizational self-awareness, brings managerial
intentionality back to consideration, and sheds empirical light on the role of affective
processes in dynamic capability research.
Study 2 discusses how entrepreneurs participating in networking initiatives sensed
for new opportunities by strategically using a richer repertoire of networking behaviors
than prior research suggested. The study also contributes to entrepreneurship research
by demonstrating that the networking behavior of all actors – not just the
orchestrator/broker hosting the initiative – may be based on a combination of gaudens
and iungens approaches. In addition, it discusses how two activity-based mechanisms,
i.e. preparation and participation, may be influenced by hosts when designing
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networking initiatives to facilitate the emergence of new interorganizational
relationships. Finally, the study argues that the combination of structured preparation
and participation activities may support participants’ ambidextrous efforts to explore
and exploit opportunities in networking events.

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to Luigi, Enzo, Julián
and my family

Hic et Nunc
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This thesis tells the story of my long, often hard, but always fascinating journey on the
rollercoaster commonly called ‘the PhD’. Whereas the structure of my story is,
necessarily, rather traditional – there’s lots of literature, data, analysis, and – hopefully –
robust contributions to knowledge – these elements only partly account for the most
engaging part of my journey: a deepening of my existing social and professional
relations and the engaging discovery of new ones. The organic development of my
relations with family, friends, and colleagues – and with a good number of serendipitous
academic companions – have made my personal and intellectual life ever fuller of
passion. These opening lines do but a poor job in expressing the enormous thanks they
all deserve, and which I give from the bottom of my heart.
My first thanks go to my PhD supervisor, Patrick Reinmoeller, who has had the
expertise, the experience, and – crucially – the patience to accompany me on my
personal rollercoaster. Thoroughly understanding my character, he wisely kept me
engaged on a stream of parallel academic tasks: writing several articles and conference
papers, and also involved me in interesting learning projects, such as teaching MSc,
MBA, and executive classes, developing and testing teaching case studies and a bit of
consultancy work. Looking back, given the number of cul-de-sacs I turned into on my
PhD road, and my low boredom threshold for monothematic tasks, he kept my life busy
– and so incredibly interesting – so ‘squeezing’ something from each experience which
would be of value to my thesis. We also had good fun and built what has been a fruitful
working and friendly relation which I hope the future will strengthen further: so thank
you Patrick, really.
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My second thank you goes to two close academic friends, who have often sat next
to me during my journey – Umberto Bertini and Gianvito Lanzolla. Umberto was my
MSc thesis supervisor at the University of Pisa and he first urged me to undertake a
PhD, advice which honored me a lot. Gianvito – from Cass Business School – helped
me to improve my seminal PhD proposal substantially, and has mentored me in several
ways throughout the whole journey to develop both my research and teaching profiles.
Whereas my relation with Umberto and Gianvito started as purely academic, they
kindly offered me so much of their time and attention throughout the whole PhD
journey in a process of constant comparison which has fostered two friendships that I
regard as highly important for my wider life. Thank you, really.
The third thank you is for colleagues at Cranfield School of Management,
academics, staff, and fellow PhD students. My work has benefited greatly from the
advice of the members of my PhD panel – Cliff Bowman, Stephanie Hussels, and
Harvey Maylor; from detailed feedback offered by many other academic scholars –
David Baxter, David Buchanan, David Denyer, Joana Geraldi, Frank Horwitz, Mark
Jenkins, Elmar Kutsch, Donna Ladkin, Jonathan Lupson, Pietro Micheli, Emma Parry,
Colin Pilbeam, Tazeeb Rajwani, Richard Schoenberg, John Ward; from the outstanding
research support of many research officers – Wendy Habgood and Irena Pidlyskyj to
Sandra Bettison, Barbara Birtles, Joyce Coleman, Andrew Kirchner, Anna Newman-
Brown, Rebecca Piper, Alison Wilkerson, and Heather Woodfield; – and from the
encouragement of many PhD friends, some of whom have already progressed in their
academic or professional careers and some of whom are still ‘enjoying’ the rollercoaster
– Hendro Adiarso Tjaturpriono, Muhammad Akram Afzal, Richard Allen, Paolo
Antonetti, Mikko Arevuo, Doyin Atewologun, Carmine Basile, Julian Bauer, Angela
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Bond, Helen Bruce, Minjie Cai, Mehmet Cakkol, Corrado Cerruti, Morgan Chambers,
Shelly Chapman, Maria Andrea De Villa, Elena Doldor, Martin Douglas, Philip Drew,
Linda Florio, Tonci Grubic, Farooq Habib, Antonios Karatzas, Ian Kierans, Rea
Kgoroeadira, Nitish Khetavath, Yiarayong Klangboonkrong, Rajiv Maher, Anandadeep
Mandal, Yaser Masoudnia, Sutthipong Meeyai, Mohit Mehta, Dzung Nguyen, Ruth
Murray-Webster, Suman Neupane, Christina Palmer, Andrey Pavlov, Oxana Popkova,
Tiju Prasad Kodiyat, Joana and Mark Probert, Patricia Pryce, Manuel Rodriguez,
Emmanuel Said, Chandra Thapa, Neil Turner, and Katharina Windler. Finally, my
special thanks goes to David Partington, who gave me the chance to be accepted onto
the PhD program: I hope I have proved him right. Thank you all, really.
My fourth set of thanks goes to world-class colleagues from a number of other
institutions with whom I have had the opportunity to collaborate. I am indebted to
Michael Hitt, Duane Ireland, and Laszlo Tihanyi for warmly welcoming me as a visiting
researcher at the Mays Business School at Texas A&M University, and for allowing me
to benefit from several research and networking opportunities there, and to learn from
their guidance – in the case of Duane and Laszlo – on how to improve my research
output. My PhD ‘car’ has also received regular ‘top-ups’ of motivational and feedback
‘fuel’ from Paolo Aversa, Charles Baden-Fuller, Hans Frankfurt, Santi Furnari, Stefan
Haefliger, and Joost Rietveld from Cass Business School, and from Yiannis
Kouropalatis, Robert Morgan, and Costas Andriopoulos from Cardiff Business School,
who have all made me feel part of their thriving research and teaching communities. I
am also greatly grateful to Antonello Corvino, Silvio Bianchi Martini, Alessandra
Rigolini, and Ettore Spadafora from the University of Pisa; to Stefano Garzella and
Raffaele Fiorentino from the University of Naples Parthenope; and to Giambattista
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