Capability interactions and adaptation to demand-side change

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Wang, Tang; Aggarwal, Vikas A.; Wu, Brian
• 署名单位: State University System of Florida; University of Central Florida; INSEAD Business School; University of Michigan System; University of Michigan
• 刊物名称: STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT JOURNAL
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0143-2095
• DOI: 10.1002/smj.3137
• 发表日期: 2020
• 页码: 1595-1627
• 关键词: adaptation; capabilities; customer preferences; demand shock; SBIR

摘要

Research summary We examine how interactions among a firm's capabilities influence the extent and direction of firm adaptation under conditions of demand-side change. Our empirical context is the U.S. defense industry, within which we study firms receiving defense-related Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) awards around September 11, 2001, an event which constituted an exogenous demand-side shock in which technology-related preferences of customers were reshuffled. We find that under demand-side change, preexisting customer relationships have a double-edged effect: They facilitate extension-based adaptation when interacted with technology capabilities experiencing a decline in customer preferences, and they hinder novelty-based adaptation when interacted with technology capabilities experiencing an increase in such preferences. We also find that both types of technological capabilities together facilitate adaptation along the extension and novelty paths. Managerial summary Demand-side change, in which customer preferences for particular technologies are reshuffled, occurs in many industry settings. A deeper understanding of the factors shaping firm adaptation under this form of change can influence managers' decisions to implement strategies to plan for and react to such change. Using a sample of firms receiving defense-related SBIR awards around September 11, 2001, we show that the customer relationships a firm develops prior to demand-side change can have a double-edged effect on firm adaptation. Such relationships facilitate extension-based adaptation when combined with technology capabilities declining in customer preferences and hinder novelty-based adaptation when combined with technology capabilities increasing in customer preferences. In addition, the combination of the two technological capability types facilitates adaptation along both paths.