Introduction

A common explanatory approach for organizational success or failure addresses the necessity for organizations to achieve and maintain a so-called ‘system-environment fit’.1 However, environments are changing sometimes drastically and fast.2 Hence, a variety of research streams argue that social systems such as organizations are required to adapt to these changes.3 Otherwise, a fit between the organization and the environment cannot be maintained and organizational performance fails to appear. For example, evolutionary theory-based implications for corporate management are, inter alia, that the first priority to strive for is not profit but adaptation and survivability.4 Building on this insight, Teece, Pisano and Shuen (1997) stated that the long-term prosperity of organizations can only be achieved if they are capable of proactively adapting to their changing environments through generating and exploiting internal as well as external firm-specific competences.5 Accordingly, organizations need dynamic capabilities.6