Dynamic capabilities, expert and entrepreneurial learning

Abstract

This article focuses on how managers sense and seize opportunities for learning and developing dynamic capabilities in organisations. An approach of building process theory from cases traces learning events in the technological innovation approaches of three securities custodians facing an increasingly dynamic market. The article extends and elaborates the dynamic capability learning framework (Lecler, 2013) which proposes that managers recognise learning opportunities through two types of learning, expert and entrepreneurial, with variants for technological and organisational problem solving. The concept of entrepreneurial learning is further elaborated to help explain differences in the learning patterns found. Distinctive characteristics of the two types of learning are proposed pertaining to opportunity recognition and realisation, and the problem solving strategy. The framework helps to analyse data in terms of four learning patterns: expert honing and aligning, and entrepreneurial shaping and configuring. Further, entrepreneurial learning is suggested to facilitate dynamic capability development in a highly dynamic environment.