The notion of capability in literature

Abstract

The term “capability” has been part of the natural language over centuries. During the last two decades, an increasing number of new theories, conceptualizations, and paradigms in many different disciplines were created based on capability-oriented thinking. Among the reasons for the increasing use of capabilities is that enterprises are confronted with a lot of different challenges triggered by fast-shifting business models and short technology life cycles. To deal with those challenges, enterprises develop and implement strategies. In this context, organizations have to take appropriate actions, which can be planned, designed, and implemented as capabilities, i.e., enterprises require specific capabilities in order to be able to implement strategies efficiently and achieve a specific value. But what exactly are capabilities of an enterprise? There are plenty of books, journals, and conference proceedings dealing with the notion of capability. This chapter investigates and summarizes how the term “capability” is used in different domains and how the notion of “capability” is described in the literature.