Rigidity and performance threshold: How routinization process affects dynamic capabilities

Dynamic capabilities view has been considered vital to the long-term survival and adaptation of organizations in dynamic environments. Although, rich literature has probed into how dynamic capabilities are able to address organizational inertia issues and facilitate change, there are still heated debates on questions on dynamic capabilities’ heterogeneity and performance. Current thinking was integrated in major researches of routines and dynamic capabilities and a rigorous modelling method was adopted to investigate how routinization process affects reconfiguration of ordinary capabilities. An interesting finding of this research is that there is a threshold effect both on routinization process and dynamic capabilities performance as a result of rigidity and knowledge accumulation. Firms in their effort of reconfiguration of ordinary capabilities should pay special attention on where they position the capabilities around such threshold. To achieve better effect and superior performance, different kinds of dynamic capabilities may be required. The implication of this study may help bridge the diverged views in the field of dynamic capabilities research, and open new avenues for future empirical research. Key words: Dynamic capabilities, routinization, rigidity, threshold effect.