Design as a dynamic capability : a building capability framework

Design is increasingly adopted by organization as an innovation capability to renew and transform the firm and therefore acting as dynamic capability. However, few article address how firms build a new dynamic capability and especially in the case of the design capability. Based on a longitudinal case study of the building of design as an innovation capability within an insurance company, we suggest a capability-building framework: a capability is built by acquiring resources, deploying them in activities such as projects, capitalizing on the learning from one project to another, and thus building progressively knowledge that is then shared and diffused among the resources resulting in the renewal of their competences. This framework highlights a reinforcement dimension and distinguishes operations (Designing, spreading Design and managing Design) from building on these operations (building the Design expertise and transforming the organization through Design) in order to contribute to the firm’s resources renewal