THE ANALYSIS OF DYNAMIC CAPABILITIES IN A COMPETENCE-ORIENTED ORGANIZATION

The crucial determinants of innovation reside in the interaction betwe en technological and organizational processes. The former influence th e creation, shape and renewal of a firm's skills and capabilities, thu s representing the basic foundation for the latter which, in turn, can be a powerful driver for reshaping a firm's competence base. In this paper, first a general framework of competence analysis is presented a nd applied to a case study from the healthcare industry. In order to b etter understand and explore the nature of mutual interactions between component and architectural dynamic competences, the focus is then sh ifted to the new product development domain. A description of the orga nizational dimensions of integration (both internal and external) is p rovided, which represents the basic foundation for-the renewal of the organization's dynamic capabilities. Finally, the implications of adop ting a competence-oriented organizational scheme for R&D management ar e briefly discussed. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserve d.