Making sense of dynamic capabilities in international firms: Review, analysis, integration, and extension

In this work we review and analyze recent research in the international business field, with the purpose of clarifying, consolidating, and extending the constructs related to dynamic capabilities. We begin with an overview of dynamic capabilities research in the international context, noting unclear terminology, and unanswered questions concerning the international dimensions and the dynamism of capabilities. A systematic review follows, including 98 articles from 16 leading journals. Our analysis of these articles, produced a classification of 12 dynamic capabilities in international contexts—among which, we identify six “meta dynamic capabilities” and six “strategic dynamic capabilities.” To analyze and explain these constructs, we extract important conclusions from the relevant research about each dynamic capability, including examples from leading international firms. The integration and extension discussions further explore the meta and strategic dynamic capabilities along with implications for practice and policy. This work concludes with suggestions for future research, including foci on important methodological issues, from which a set of research questions are derived that link relevant contextual measures to the various dynamic capabilities.