Hagen Worch

Closing the Capability Gap: Strategic Planning for the Infrastructure Sector:

In order to cope with arising challenges in infrastructure sectors, utility organizations must develop new strategic, organizational, and technological capabilities. Public utility service providers have often been seen as lacking the capacity to identify and/or implement the needed transformation processes. Instead, privatization has been proposed as a panacea to remedy this deficit. However, privatization projects are often not realized because they encounter strong political opposition. This article presents the results of strategic planning projects in three public wastewater organizations in Switzerland. This study suggests that if appropriate processes are implemented, public utility organizations are able to overcome their limitations in identifying the relevant capability deficits and select adequate strategies to compensate for the deficits. While these strategies may deviate substantially across utilities due to differences in the goals pursued, the widespread adoption of strategic planning methods by public utilities represents a viable alternative to privatization.

Strategic renewal and the change of capabilities in utility firms

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyze how strategic renewal affects the reconfiguration of capabilities. In the context of organizational change in a large utility firm, we examine the evolution of the capability structure, and explain the emergence and persistence of capability gaps.Design/methodology/approach – The paper uses an inductive multiple case study methodology to compare four processes of capability reconfiguration at Eskom, South Africas electricity supplier.Findings – The results show that strategic renewal unfolds through different processes, which vary in their impact. Some processes have an immediate effect in closing capability gaps. The impact of others is with a significant time lag. Most critical, however, are processes that widen capability gaps. As a result, firms may face severe and persistent performance deficiencies.Research limitations/implications – Prior research has only marginally addressed the relationship between strategic renewal and capability reconfiguratio...

Absorptive Capacity (of Organizations)

A firms competitive advantage originates increasingly from absorbing external knowledge. Absorbing external knowledge and the underlying learning processes are referred to as a companys absorptive capacity . In this article, we outline research trends on absorptive capacity. We apply a bibliometric analysis to describe the concepts historical development, define the intellectual core of the absorptive capacity concept, and discuss recent conceptualizations. Then, we identify two prominent streams in the absorptive capacity literature and provide a new approach on how to integrate them. Finally, we provide an outlook on possible themes in future research on absorptive capacity.