Managers’ knowledge and customer-focused knowledge management as dynamic capabilities: implications for innovation performance

There has been tremendous growth in research on Dynamic Capabilities (DCs) since its inception. However, some aspects such as micro-foundations, path dependence, moderator influences, and applicability in countries such as India have not been explored with sufficient clarity. We contribute by simultaneously examining the impact of managers’ knowledge and Customer-Focused Knowledge Management, respectively, in the process leading to innovation performance. Using survey data from Indian managers, we find support for the theoretical model. We also find support for the moderating impact of intra-firm causal ambiguity. We contribute by showing that a combination of dynamic managerial capabilities and DCs can help organizations in identifying paths to competitive advantage that have higher likelihood of being actionable and lower likelihood of stickiness and irreversibility. We discuss findings, articulate contributions, limitations, and directions for future research.