Exploring patterns of organizational capability alignment: a contingency approach

Saurabh Srivastava and Derrick E. D’Souza

Management Research Review, 2019, vol. 43, issue 3, 311-331

Abstract: Purpose - The purpose of the study is to investigate whether the alignment between organizational capabilities is idiosyncratic to an organization or a predictable pattern of alignments can be identified across organizations. Design/methodology/approach - Survey design is used to collect data from upper- and mid-level managers of organizations operating in the software industry. A total of 219 responses are used to test the study hypotheses. Partial least squares structural equation modeling and regression analysis are used for data analysis and hypotheses testing. Findings - Results suggest that the alignment between strategic thinking and absorptive capacity is different for organizations with a prospector-type strategic orientation compared to organizations with other types (defenders and analyzers) of strategic orientations. The study also finds that the pattern of alignment holds for each dimension of absorptive capacity. Originality/value - There is limited research on the alignment between the three types of organizational capabilities (metaphysical, dynamic and ordinary). This may have transcended from arguments that if organizational capabilities are truly idiosyncratic, they should not be expected to follow a predictable pattern of alignments across organizations. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to empirically investigate and provide evidence that the alignment between organizational capabilities is contingent on the strategic orientation of the organizations. The findings offer hope for the development of a generalizable theory of organizational capability alignment in organizations.

Keywords: Strategic thinking; Absorptive capacity; Organizational capabilities; Alignment; Strategic orientation; Prospectors (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eme:mrrpps:mrr-03-2019-0115

DOI: 10.1108/MRR-03-2019-0115

Access Statistics for this article

Management Research Review is currently edited by Dr Jay Janney and Prof Lerong He

More articles in Management Research Review from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().