We contribute to the dynamic capabilities perspective by proposing a conceptual model that explains how strategic orientation and environmental sensing co-evolve in a recursive process of establishing and reestablishing strategic fit. Organizations engage in environmental sensing to identify sources of environmental change and, if required to respond, make decisions that align with their strategic orientation. We introduce the concept of strategic-orientation adjustment, linked to the receding and resurfacing of an organization’s founding imprint, to explain how organizations respond to environmental pressures and adapt their strategic orientation. Our model offers novel insight into the dynamics underpinning the interplay between environmental sensing and the evolution of strategic orientation. Building on the literatures on organizational history and the microfoundations of dynamic capabilities, our article offers an alternative perspective to the configurational view of dynamic capabilities, strategic orientation, and strategic fit. We illustrate our theory using the cases of pioneering electric guitar-making companies Gibson and Fender.
ArgyresNSDe MassisAFossNJ, et al. (2020) History-informed strategy research: The promise of history and historical research methods in advancing strategy scholarship. Strategic Management Journal41(3): 343–368.
BasqueJLangleyA (2018) Invoking Alphonse: The founder figure as a historical resource for organizational identity work. Organization Studies39(12): 1685–1708.
10.
BirkinshawJZimmermannARaischS (2016) How do firms adapt to discontinuous change? Bridging the dynamic capabilities and ambidexterity perspectives. California Management Review58(4): 36–58.
11.
BishopIC (1977) The Gibson Guitar from 1950. Musical New Services. London: Musical New Services.
12.
BoekerW (1989) Strategic change: The effects of founding and history. Academy of Management Journal32(3): 489–515.
CarterW (2007) The Gibson Electric Guitar Book. Seventy Years of Classic Guitars. New York: Backbeat Books.
17.
CattaniGDunbarLMShapiraZ (2013) Value creation and knowledge loss: The case of Cremonese stringed instruments. Organization Science24(3): 813–830.
18.
DanneelsE (2010) Trying to become a different type of company: Dynamic capabilities at Smith Corona. Strategic Management Journal32: 1–31.
19.
DayGS (2025) Diagnosing the market-driven approach to innovation: Learning from practice. Strategic Management Review6(2): 1–40.
20.
De CuyperLClarysseBPhillipsN (2020) Imprinting beyond the founding phase: How sedimented imprints develop over time. Organization Science31: 1579–1600.
21.
DemersC (2007) Organizational Change Theories: A Synthesis. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
DumoulinR (2022) Fender et Gibson, de la concurrence au partage du marché. In: NavarretBBattierMBruguièreP, et al. (eds) Quand la Guitare [S’]Électrise. Paris: Sorbonne Université Presses, pp. 179–208.
26.
EisenhardtKMartinJA (2000) Dynamic capabilities: What are they?Strategic Management Journal21(10–11): 1105–1121.
27.
ElsbachKDStiglianiI (2018) Design thinking and organizational culture: A review and framework for future research. Journal of Management44(6): 2274–2306.
28.
FainshmidtSWengerLPezeshkanA, et al. (2019) When do dynamic capabilities lead to competitive advantage? The importance of strategic fit. Journal of Management Studies56(4): 758–787.
GatignonHXuerebJM (1997) Strategic orientation of the firm and new product performance. Journal of Marketing Research34: 77–90.
31.
GinsbergAAbrahamsonE (1991) Champions of change and strategic shifts: The role of internal and external change advocates. Journal of Management Studies28(2): 173–190.
32.
GuoHWangCSuZ, et al. (2020) Technology push or market pull? Strategic orientation in business model design and digital start-up performance. Journal of Product Innovation Management37: 352–372.
33.
HakalaH (2011) Strategic orientations in management literature: Three approaches to understanding the interaction between market, technology, entrepreneurial and learning orientations. International Journal of Management Reviews13(2): 199–217.
34.
HallbäckJGabrielssonP (2013) Entrepreneurial marketing strategies during the growth of international new ventures originating in small and open economies. International Business Review22(6): 1008–1020.
35.
HarveyJF (2022) Microfoundations of sensing capabilities: From managerial cognition to team behavior. Strategic Organization. Epub ahead of print 21 November. DOI: 10.1177/14761270221142959.
36.
HelfatCE (2022) Strategic organization, dynamic capabilities, and the external environment. Strategic Organization20(4): 734–742.
37.
HelfatCEPeterafMA (2015) Managerial cognitive capabilities and the microfoundations of dynamic capabilities. Strategic Management Journal36(6): 831–850.
JeanRJBSinkovicsRRKimD (2017) Antecedents and outcomes of supplier innovativeness in international customer–supplier relationships: The role of knowledge distance. Management International Review57(1): 121–151.
41.
JiangWRoasatiFChaiH, et al. (2020) Market orientation practices enhancing corporate environmental performance via knowledge creation: Does environmental management system implementation matter?Business Strategy and the Environment29(5): 1899–1924.
42.
KellerAKonlechnerSGüttelWH, et al. (2022) Overcoming path-dependent dynamic capabilities. Strategic Organization. Epub ahead of print 8 September. DOI: 10.1177/14761270221125807.
43.
KhanHKhanHAbosagI, et al. (2023) Examining the efficacy of non-market and market driving activities of B2B international firms. Industrial Marketing Management111: 97–108.
44.
KumpBEngelmannAKesslerA, et al. (2019) Toward a dynamic capabilities scale: Measuring organizational sensing, seizing, and transforming capacities. Industrial and Corporate Change28(5): 1149–1172.
45.
LangleyASmallmanCTsoukasH, et al. (2013) Process studies of change in organization and management: Unveiling temporality, activity, and flow. Academy of Management Journal56(1): 1–13.
46.
LoryM-CSabatierMTouchéM (2006) Guitares Jacobacci–Un Atelier de Lutherie à Paris 1924-1994. Paris: Somogy Editions d’art; Musée des Musiques Populaires de Montluçon.
MarquisCTilcsikA (2013) Imprinting: Toward a multilevel theory. The Academy of Management Annals7(1): 195–245.
53.
MintzbergH (2023) Four forms that fit most organizations. California Management Review66: 30–43.
54.
MishraCS (2023) Managerial ability and strategic orientation. Review of Managerial Science17: 1333–1363.
55.
NarverJCSlaterSF (1990) The effect of a market orientation on business profitability. Journal of Marketing54(4): 20–35.
56.
NarverJCSlaterSFMacLachlanDL (2004) Responsive and proactive market orientation and new-product success. Journal of Product Innovation Management21: 334–347.
57.
NavarretB (2013) Caractériser la guitare électrique: Définitions, organologie et analyse de données verbales. PhD Dissertation, University of Paris, Paris.
58.
NayakAChiaRCanalesJI (2020) Noncognitive microfoundations: Understanding dynamic capabilities as idiosyncratically refined sensitivities and predispositions. Academy of Management Review45(2): 280–303.
RavasiDRindovaVStiglianiI (2019) The stuff of legend: History, memory, and the temporality of organizational identity construction. Academy of Management Journal62(5): 1523–1555.
63.
RiviereMUpsonJW (2023) Orientation and action: SME responses to customers and competitors in an international competitive business context. The International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Epub ahead of print 22 February. DOI: 10.1177/14657503231156875.
64.
SørensenHE (2009) Why competitors matter for market orientation. European Journal of Marketing43(5/6): 735–761.
65.
SchilkeO (2014) On the contingent value of dynamic capabilities for competitive advantage: The nonlinear moderating effect of environmental dynamism. Strategic Management Journal35(2): 179–203.
66.
SchilkeOHuSHelfatCE (2018) Quo vadis, dynamic capabilities? A content-analytic review of the current state of knowledge and recommendations for future research. Academy of Management Annals12(1): 390–439.
67.
SchindehutteMMorrisMHKocakA (2008) Understanding market-driving behavior: The role of entrepreneurship. Journal of Small Business Management46: 4–26.
68.
SchultzMHernesT (2013) A temporal perspective on organizational identity. Organization Science24(1): 1–21.
69.
SchultzMHernesT (2020) Temporal interplay between strategy and identity: Punctuated, subsumed, and sustained modes. Strategic Organization18(1): 106–135.
70.
SéguretCPeyrardA (2020a) L’Encyclopédie de la Guitare–Tome 1–Fender Guitares, Basses & Amplis 1945–1975. Bas-en-Basset: Gaelis Edition.
71.
SéguretCPeyrardA (2020b) L’Encyclopédie de la Guitare–Tome 3–Gibson–Électriques, Guitares, Basses & Amplis. Bas-en-Basset: Gaelis Edition.
72.
SimsekZFoxBCHeaveyC (2015) “What’s past is prologue”: A framework, review, and future directions for organizational research on imprinting. Journal of Management41(1): 288–317.
73.
SuddabyRCoraiolaDHarveyC, et al. (2020) History and the micro-foundations of dynamic capabilities. Strategic Management Journal41(3): 530–556.
74.
TangTYZhangSKPengJ (2021) The value of marketing innovation: Market-driven versus market-driving. Journal of Business Research126: 88–98.
75.
TaylorAHelfatCE (2009) Organizational linkages for surviving technological change: Complementary assets, middle management, and ambidexterity. Organization Science20(4): 718–739.
76.
TeeceDJ (2007) Explicating dynamic capabilities: The nature and microfoundations of (sustainable) enterprise performance. Strategic Management Journal28(13): 1319–1350.
77.
TeeceDJPeterafMLeihS (2016) Dynamic capabilities and organizational agility: Risk, uncertainty, and strategy in the innovation economy. California Management Review58(4): 13–35.
TushmanMLRomanelliE (1985) Organizational evolution: A metamorphosis model of convergence and reorientation. Research in Organizational Behavior7: 171–222.
83.
ViranyBTushmanMLRomanelliE (1992) Executive succession and organization outcomes in turbulent environments: An organizational learning approach. Organization Science3(1): 72–91.
WeberLMayerK (2014) Transaction cost economics and the cognitive perspective: Investigating the sources and governance of interpretive uncertainty. Academy of Management Review39(3): 344–363.
WenzelMDanner-SchröderASpeeAP (2021) Dynamic capabilities? Unleashing their dynamics through a practice perspective on organizational routines. Journal of Management Inquiry30(4): 395–406.
88.
WheelerT (1974) The Guitar Book: A Handbook for Electric and Acoustic Guitarists, rev edn. New York: Harper & Row.
89.
WildenRDevinneyTMDowlingGR (2016) The architecture of dynamic capability research identifying the building blocks of a configurational approach. Academy of Management Annals10(1): 997–1076.
ZabelCO’BrienDNatzelJ (2023) Sensing the Metaverse: The microfoundations of complementor firms’ dynamic sensing capabilities in emerging-technology ecosystems. Technological Forecasting and Social Change192: 122562.
92.
ZajacEJKraatzMSBresserRK (2000) Modeling the dynamics of strategic fit: A normative approach to strategic change. Strategic Management Journal21(4): 429–453.
93.
ZámborskýP (2021) A blueprint for succeeding despite uncertain global markets. Journal of Business Strategy42(3): 168–176.
94.
ZámborskýPSullivan-TaylorBTischD, et al. (2022) Antecedents of risk and uncertainty management capabilities: Insights from multinational enterprises in New Zealand. Journal of Management & Organization28(3): 632–658.
95.
ZhouKZLiCB (2010) How strategic orientations influence the building of dynamic capability in emerging economies. Journal of Business Research63: 224–231.
96.
ZyglidopoulosS (1999) Initial environmental conditions and technological change. Journal of Management Studies36: 241–262.
