Foundations and Microfoundations of Dynamic Capabilities

Abstract

Following an evolutionary approach, the recognition of the firm as a set of recombinable productive resources has been an important reference for understanding their growth and competitiveness. This approach takes into account the firm’s competitiveness as a result of its capability to adapt to a changing and uncertain environment. The recognition of such an environment is based, in turn, on the subjective image built in the mind of the entrepreneur regarding possibilities for and obstacles to the company’s growth. Based on this image, or on their capacity to interpret the environment, entrepreneurs take decisions aimed at coordinating resources in such a way as to achieve their expectations. The aim of this paper is to discuss the concepts of interpretation and coordination as intrinsically relational economic activities, in which intersubjectivity can both limit and potentialize the rationality of agents.