Exploring Meso-Level Dynamic Capabilities to Address the Capability Rigidity Paradox: A Longitudinal Case Study within the German Federal Armed Forces

Foreword
Acknowledgements
Contents
Abbreviations
List of Figures
List of Tables
1 Introduction
	1.1 Research Approach
	1.2 Research Contribution
	1.3 Structure of the Study
2 Theoretical Framework
	2.1 Dynamic Capabilities and the Capability Rigidity Paradox
	2.2 Macro-Level Capability Constructs and Hierarchies: The Innate Paradoxes
		2.2.1 Resources, Capabilities, and Dynamic Capabilities
		2.2.2 Capability Hierarchies
		2.2.3 Routines as the Core Building Blocks of Dynamic Capabilities
		2.2.4 Learning Mechanisms, Routines, and the Dynamic Capability View
	2.3 Methodological Debates and the Rise of Microfoundations
		2.3.1 Micro-Level Perspectives on Dynamic Capabilities
		2.3.2 Who is the Agent: Revisiting the Knowledge Core of Dynamic Capabilities
	2.4 Micro-Level Dynamism: The Managerial Turn Within Dynamic Capabilities Research
		2.4.1 Micro-Processes: An Interlude to the Managerial Turn
		2.4.2 Dynamic Managerial Capabilities: The Core of the Managerial Turn
		2.4.3 The Entrepreneur as a Dynamic Extension of the Managerial Turn
		2.4.4 The Managerial Turn: Falling Short of Explaining Dynamism?
	2.5 Framing the Empirical Study: Something Old, Something New, and a Connection
		2.5.1 Something Old: Strategy Process Research and the Integration of Different Agents
		2.5.2 Something New: Meso- and Multilevel Perspectives
		2.5.3 A Connection: The Strategy-as-Practice Lens
3 Empirical Methodology
	3.1 Empirical Setting: From an Overarching Research Project to the Culture Capability
		3.1.1 Identifying the Case
		3.1.2 Getting to Know the Organization, the Context, and the Culture Capability
		3.1.3 Military Organizations as Appropriate Setting for Strategic Management Research
	3.2 Research Design
		3.2.1 Grounded Design and Research Questions
		3.2.2 Longitudinal Case Study
		3.2.3 Ensuring the Quality of the Research Design
	3.3 Data Collection
	3.4 Analyzing the Data
4 Findings
	4.1 Findings Part I: Prologue and Development
	4.2 Findings Part II: Capability Development as a Process From 1990 Until 2017
		4.2.1 New Challenges and Experimental Problem Solutions
		4.2.2 Emerging Patterns and Forming Interconnections
		4.2.3 Emerging Capabilities and Stabilizing Structures
		4.2.4 Changing Strategic Mindset: Organization-Wide Transformations
		4.2.5 Preliminary Summary: Emergent Capability Development
	4.3 Findings Part III: Processes Regarding Sensing and Seizing
		4.3.1 Experiencing New Challenges: Dimension 1 (Frontline & Middle Management)
		4.3.2 Experimenting With (New) Resources: Dimension 2 (Frontline)
		4.3.3 Reallocating Internal Resources: Dimension 3 (Middle Management)
		4.3.4 Creating New Resources: Dimension 4 (Frontline)
		4.3.5 Facilitating Frontline Activities: Dimension 5 (Middle Management)
		4.3.6 Supporting Lower Level Activities: Dimension 6 (Top Management)
		4.3.7 Integrating New Resource Combinations: Dimension 7 (Middle & Top Management)
		4.3.8 Preliminary Interpretation: A Process Model of Capability Emergence
	4.4 Findings Part IV: Practices of Enacting an Adaptive Community
		4.4.1 Mutual Adjustment Part I: Practices of Knowledge-Sharing
		4.4.2 Mutual Adjustment Part II: Practices Facilitating Shared Interpretation
		4.4.3 Preliminary Interpretation: The Adaptive Community as the Meso-Level
5 Discussion
	5.1 The Micro-Level Perspective and the Capability Rigidity Paradox
	5.2 The Meso-Level Perspective and the Capability Rigidity Paradox
		5.2.1 Connecting Decoupled Pockets of Dynamism
		5.2.2 Advancing Current Concepts of Meso-Level Dynamic Capabilities
	5.3 Dynamic Capabilities Revisited: Multilevel Research to Back the Original Concept
6 Conclusions
	6.1 Limitations and Future Research
	6.2 Practical Implications
References