Toward a routine-based view of interfirm rivalry

Abstract

Although organizational routines have attracted increasing attention in strategy and organization research, they have received surprisingly limited attention in competitive dynamics scholarship. Our essay seeks to advance a routine-based view of interfirm rivalry by bridging the competitive dynamics and routine literatures. We put forward a conceptual model of the routine-based view of interfirm rivalry that is centered on “competitive action routines.” The model clarifies the roles that managers play in driving a firm’s competitive behavior, challenges the assumption of routine-based rigidity in competitive behavior, and adds nuance to our understanding of managerial cognition in competitive dynamics. Moreover, the routine-based view offers new insights regarding the awareness-motivation-capability framework, and amplifies previous calls to broaden the methodological repertoire of competitive dynamics research.