The impact of knowledge management and social capital on dynamic capability in organizations

Abstract

The Holy Grail in strategic management is the Dynamic Capability (DC) of organizations to realize sustainable competitive advantage. This requires organizations to continuously sense market changes and adapt their resources and routines accordingly, for which they are heavily dependent on knowledge. Knowledge as an antecedent for DC is, however, understudied. Inspired by the recognition of knowledge as an antecedent for DC, this paper sets out to uncover how organizations can foster DC from a knowledge management (KM) perspective. In an empirical survey on 55 knowledge-intensive organizations, we studied DC in organizations from two key perspectives on knowledge: formal, through the adoption of KM policies, and informal, through the availability of social capital. Our research results show that, although a formal KM approach strengthens DC, the availability of social capital appears unrelated to DC. The paper concludes with a practical outlook on advancing DC.