TY - JOUR
T1 - The dialectics of competency acquisition
T2 - Pollution prevention in electric generation
AU - Marcus, Alfred
AU - Geffen, Donald
PY - 1998/12
Y1 - 1998/12
N2 - Strategy researchers now recognize that distinctive competencies are critically important for sustained competitive advantage. The processes by which such competencies are acquired, however, has only started to be examined. Connections between macro-industrial system level properties and micro-developments in proprietary technology at the firm level need to be made. This paper argues that system-wide properties, such as long-standing elementary and opposing logics in societal forces like governments and markets, and micro-developments, such as the firm's capacity to search for talent, technology, and ideas and to harmonize what it teams internally, can contribute in significant ways to the creation and acquisition of new competencies. Based on the case of pollution prevention in electric generation, it shows how the system-wide properties channel and direct the paths that the acquisition of new competencies take and how they interact with micro-developments at the firm level.
AB - Strategy researchers now recognize that distinctive competencies are critically important for sustained competitive advantage. The processes by which such competencies are acquired, however, has only started to be examined. Connections between macro-industrial system level properties and micro-developments in proprietary technology at the firm level need to be made. This paper argues that system-wide properties, such as long-standing elementary and opposing logics in societal forces like governments and markets, and micro-developments, such as the firm's capacity to search for talent, technology, and ideas and to harmonize what it teams internally, can contribute in significant ways to the creation and acquisition of new competencies. Based on the case of pollution prevention in electric generation, it shows how the system-wide properties channel and direct the paths that the acquisition of new competencies take and how they interact with micro-developments at the firm level.
KW - Competence acquisition
KW - Corporate environmental management
KW - Innovation and change
KW - Strategy process research
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U2 - 10.1002/(SICI)1097-0266(1998120)19:12<1145::AID-SMJ6>3.0.CO;2-B
DO - 10.1002/(SICI)1097-0266(1998120)19:12<1145::AID-SMJ6>3.0.CO;2-B
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:0001443183
SN - 0143-2095
VL - 19
SP - 1145
EP - 1168
JO - Strategic Management Journal
JF - Strategic Management Journal
IS - 12
ER -