Publications
Publications
- 2020
- HBS Working Paper Series
Team Learning and Superior Firm Performance: A Meso-Level Perspective on Dynamic Capabilities
By: Jean-François Harvey, Henrik Bresman, Amy C. Edmondson and Gary P. Pisano
Abstract
This paper proposes a team-based, meso-level perspective on dynamic capabilities. We argue that team-learning routines constitute a critical link between managerial cognition and organization-level processes of sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring. We draw from the literature to develop four categories based on the orientation (exploration/exploitation) and locus (internal/external) of learning in teams: reflexive, experimental, contextual, and vicarious learning. We integrate these categories into the dynamic capabilities framework, propose that their relative importance differs along the sensing-seizing-reconfiguring pathway, and assess their impact on innovation and strategic change. Our framework contributes by adding a meso lens to research on dynamic capabilities, thereby offering an explanation for how senior managers’ cognitive abilities can produce superior firm performance, through learning in teams.
Keywords
Dynamic Capabilities; Innovation; Strategic Change; Teams; Team Learning; Groups And Teams; Learning; Innovation And Invention; Change; Performance
Citation
Harvey, Jean-François, Henrik Bresman, Amy C. Edmondson, and Gary P. Pisano. "Team Learning and Superior Firm Performance: A Meso-Level Perspective on Dynamic Capabilities." Harvard Business School Working Paper, No. 19-059, December 2018. (Revised January 2020.)
About The Authors
