Developing and Sustaining Capabilities – A Look into the Black Box

Management studies suggest that developing and sustaining dynamic and operational capabilities is important in achieving competitive advantage. The process of developing capabilities is an underdeveloped research area and new insight is needed to understand how capabilities can be developed as well as sustained. This paper will show that the implementation of practices leads to dynamic and operational capabilities, therefore shedding light into the black-box of developing capabilities. Our research, based on a cross-case analysis, supports propositions relating to the importance of implementing practices in the development of capabilities and the resulting influence on competitive advantage.