Hiroko Nagano: Living in an Era of Change
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Hiroko Nagano
Other : Professor, Faculty of Business Administration, Rissho UniversityÎçÒ¹¾ç³¡ alumni. Specialization: History of Management Theory, Strategic Management.
Hiroko Nagano
Other : Professor, Faculty of Business Administration, Rissho UniversityÎçÒ¹¾ç³¡ alumni. Specialization: History of Management Theory, Strategic Management.
In recent years, the environmental changes surrounding us have become increasingly intense, and companies are required to respond flexibly to them in order to survive. As a hint for this, the concept of dynamic capabilities is attracting attention in the field of strategic management.
According to Professor David J. Teece of the University of California, Berkeley, in addition to ordinary capabilities for streamlining activities based on a specific business paradigm, companies can possess capabilities at a more meta-level. These are dynamic capabilities for modifying or updating the business paradigm itself.
If a company operates based solely on ordinary capabilities, its business paradigm will eventually be weeded out. This is because as corporate decision-making becomes inward-looking and the gap with the environment widens, there is a possibility of deviating from the company's unique value standards while pursuing cost reductions. Therefore, it is necessary to critique the business paradigm itself through dynamic capabilities and to integrate, build, and reconfigure internal and external resources and capabilities.
In other words, it is necessary to clarify the gap between the existing business paradigm and the environment or the company's unique value standards, and to reconstruct a new business paradigm to fill that gap. Furthermore, when multiple business paradigms are presented as options, it is also necessary to make a choice based on the company's unique value standards.
Therefore, in the framework of dynamic capability theory, it is suggested that companies cannot respond flexibly to environmental changes without having firm value standards and making value judgments. This is because if value standards are unclear, the company will ultimately be at the mercy of environmental changes, making long-term value creation impossible.
The establishment of identity and transformation involving self-criticism may seem contradictory at first glance, but it is very interesting that the former is indispensable for the latter. Although dynamic capability theory is aimed at organizations, I myself would like to live in this era of change while continuing to grow my knowledge without losing sight of my own identity.
*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.