Extending the Microfoundations of Capability Development and Utilization: The Role of Agentic Technology and Identity-Based Community

Abstract

Scholars often simplify the treatment of capability development and utilization by focusing on individual-, process-, or structural-level factors independently. However, by following a microfoundation perspective to the treatment of capabilities this chapter endeavors to consider these levels collectively. In doing so, the chapter connects well-known managerial processes, such as resource orchestration, with novel yet increasing salient factors of agentic technologies (which act as another individual-level factor that constrains, complements, or substitutes for human agency) and identity-based community (which acts as another structural-level factor that conditionally provides the firm resources to promote its ideology-centric utility function). The integration of these three factors within the microfoundation literature promotes the investigation of research questions relevant to contemporary organizations. The chapter contextualizes potential questions in each section, including separate treatments of each factor as well as their collective consideration.