Fujifilm’s Business Structure Transformation and Dynamic Capabilities: An Analysis from a Micro-Foundations Perspective

The micro-foundations of Fujifilm’s DCs that promote the renewal from “Kodak Following Capability” (from its founding to the 1970s) to “Ambidextrous Capability” (from the 1980s to the 1990s) consist of the sensing capabilities of President Onishi and the Kanzaibu, the seizing capabilities that set the direction of business scope and resource allocation in the corporate domain of I&I, and the transforming capabilities that realize the structural ambidexterity, promote changes in employees’ awareness and behavior through “Light, Small, Short, and Thin” management, and spontaneously generate emergent change activities. On the other hand, the micro-foundations of Fujifilm’s DCs that promote the renewal from “Ambidextrous Capability” to “New Business Creation Capability” (from 2000 onward) consist of the sensing capabilities of President Komori and the Kanzaibu, the seizing capabilities to set new business areas and the direction of resource allocation through the establishment of a new management philosophy and a vision, and through reviewing and organizing Fujifilm’s technologies, and the transforming capabilities that promote changes in employees’ awareness and behavior through the FF mind and FF method, and changes in internal mechanisms that facilitate the integration of technology and knowledge, as well as in mechanisms for acquiring knowledge and know-how from external sources. A case analysis of Fujifilm’s DCs reveals the following issues that are not clearly defined in Teece’s DCs concept: the need for capabilities to sense the internal environment in DCs, the heterogeneity of the micro-foundations, the possibility of updating DCs themselves, and the effectiveness of the emergent concept of DCs beyond the ability of top management.