Tangible resources and the development of organizational capabilities

Capabilities theory concerned with how firms develop organizational capabilities to improve firm competitiveness prioritizes intangible resources as antecedents of capabilities. This theory takes organizational capabilities to consist of routines that evolve over time by being enacted in their organizational contexts. Extant theory has largely left tangible resources as antecedents unstudied, thereby neglecting potentially important insight into how capabilities develop. This paper uses an explorative approach and qualitative data from product development in two world-leading Nordic firms to study tangible antecedents of organizational capabilities development. Our findings contribute to research by expanding the scope of antecedents to organizational capabilities, with implications for explaining the competitiveness of firms.