Dynamic capabilities; what are their role in social media?

Dynamic capabilities are a firm’s processes that use resources – specifically the processes to integrate, reconfigure, gain and release resources – to match and even create market change. This definition is what Eisenhardt gave in an article from 2000.  In other words (also taken from this articel) Dynamic capabilities thus are the organizational and strategic routines by which firms achieve new resource configurations as markets emerge, collide, split, evolve and die.


The term has been adapted widely in academic circles, and as far as I know, in business as well. But what does it mean is social media?

Integrate resources include product development, social media enables this through "mobsourcing" (see post from October 7th). Further, it includes making strategic decisions (pooling various expertise to make strategic choices). Using social media, you can pool from a vastly bigger pond. Lastly, this include resource allocation routines, by building an internal social media platform this can be achieved more effectively. That might not be a given, but at least it increases the chance of people with resources meeting needing people in your organization.


Reconfigure resources within the firm include using transfer processes like replication and brokering. Here, the internal platform might come in handy again. Having a internal "marketplace" would allow your employees to trade man hours, materials and know how better. Naturally, there is a trade off between time spent and gain here. It's important not to collaborate because we can, all though saying yes we can and shake hands with everybody around you seems tempting, collaboration needs to be motivated by a desire to perform better. This needs to be the goal of reconfigure your resources, you don't move your living room furniture around because you can (I at least hope so), you move it because it might end up better in some way. Maybe you want more space or a different lighting or you want to get something new and have to make room for it.Still, you need a purpose, if you're moving stuff around to keep yourself busy, you might as well be stay-at-home dad/mom.


Gaining and releasing resources include knowledge creation routines and alliance and acquisition routines. Using social media will more easily allow you to absorb knowledge and communicate with your surroundings. Before, you talked to the people you met through others. This is the way it's done today, and I'm not advocating a world where we all stay at home behind our computer screens like the movie "Surrogates". But there is another opportunity out there. Social media allows you to find and contact a vastly bigger number of people. All the knowledge is there, you don't need to create it yourself. But you need to create "within" your organization. The transaction is the challenge, to a greater extent when there is so much information floating around, available to all at all times. How do we create knowledge in our organization when using the tautological concept of social media?

Seen in this perspective, social media can be a tool to create dynamic capabilities.