The interplay and growth implications of dynamic capabilities and market orientation

This article clarifies the growth implications of a firm's dynamic capability deployment conditional on its market orientation. We develop a framework based on an abductive research approach that is grounded in existing research and draws on data from business-to-business service firms. We outline that frequency, timeliness, and speed are the three relevant temporal qualities that characterize dynamic capability deployment and that affect firm growth conditional on the firm's market-driving vs. market-driven orientation. While proficiency in all three temporal qualities is beneficial irrespective of a firm's type of market-orientation, we substantiate that market-driven firms with their exploitative, reactive conduct benefit even more from rapidly going through the processes of sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring than market-driving ones do. Also, while market-driven firms benefit from frequently deploying sensing dynamic capabilities, market-driving firms with their explorative, proactive conduct benefit even more from a timely and frequent deployment of seizing and reconfiguring processes than market-driven ones do.