Dynamic managerial capabilities in micro-Enterprises: Stability, Vulnerability and the role of managerial time allocation

This paper analyses how dynamic capabilities are enacted in micro-enterprises and what role different parties and managerial time allocation play in this enactment. Drawing upon three in-depth case studies of micro-enterprises, we make three theoretical contributions. First, after arguing that micro-enterprises are likely to enact individual or group level dynamic managerial capabilities rather than organisation-level dynamic capabilities, we counter Teece’s warnings about the vulnerable nature of dynamic managerial capabilities. Second, we identify how managers’ allocation of their own time is a core micro-foundation of dynamic managerial capabilities and show how failure to allocate time to capability enactment can lead to capability vulnerability. Third, we introduce the notion of ‘self-damaging dynamic managerial capabilities’; these being capabilities that damage established micro-foundations.