Dynamic Capabilities in IT-assisted Alliance Creation: A Study of Higher Education Institutions

Abstract: Dynamic capabilities, a relatively new concept in strategic management, are subject to a variety of streams and points of view in the available literature, where the focus is still mainly on debating the general concepts, overall frameworks and classifications. The current consensus is that dynamic capabilities are highly context-based, depending on firm types, timeframes and a variety of other factors. However, what current research fails to adequately address are studies of individual cases of particular types of firms in their specific business environments, as well as how dynamic capabilities and their foundations are created and how they evolve in a specific, limited context. What these individual cases can contribute to the overall area of research are refined tools and frameworks for context-specific creation of dynamic capabilities, and thus their importance cannot be ignored. This study uses qualitative research to observe a case of a commercial higher-education institution in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, a developing market. The organization is highly IT-reliant, and one of the main characteristics of the institution is its flexibility and adaptability to change. In the recent couple or years, the institution switched several crucial partners, whose resources it uses for teaching. These factors make this organization interesting for investigation of dynamic capabilities in the particular context of constant change. The study uses mainly observation, but is supplemented by an interview and questionnaires. The researcher spent time working at the institution during a crucial timeframe of alliance-switching, and this experience fuels the observation. The results, including a developed model, present a good way to observe dynamic capabilities in a particular context, one based on activities and foundations that fuel dynamic capabilities in organizations.