This model set out  how to get the future right i.e how to position today’s resources properly for tomorrow.According to Teece , three types of managerial activities can make a capability dynamic: sensing (which means identifying and assessing opportunities outside your company), seizing (mobilizing your resources to capture value from those opportunities), and transforming (continuous renewal). This model may be suitable for SMEs and startups.You can also see the following articles

http://liu.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:707586/FULLTEXT01.pdf

http://vbn.aau.dk/ws/files/177420199/Dynamic_capabilities_in_SMEs_The_case_of_LBD_Birte_Przybyl.pdf

http://www.cek.ef.uni-lj.si/magister/coh570.pdf

http://www3.druid.dk/wp/20080011.pdf

Thank you Chijioke

Really helpful material.

Hi Samia, I agree that the initial launch of the concept was not tailored towards SMEs or startups. However, at the same time it was not per se meant for incumbents, multinationals or other types of organizations.

What one needs to keep in mind is that dynamic capabilities are capabilities, which are one or multiple routines, purposefully directed towards enhancing the competitive edge (e.g. Helfat et al., 2007-  Book; Helfat and Winter, 2011 -  SMJ). So routines are a prerequisite for dynamic capabilities. SMEs and startups can also establish routines as these are repositories of knowledge (Nelson and Winter, 1982 - book) and these can be accumulated also over a timespan of e.g. 3 years or so, whereas SMEs do not have to be young per se. Routines as a matter of fact can be complex but also non-complex (e.g. Eisenhardt and Martin, 2000 - SMJ; Feldman, 2000 - ASQ; Bingham and Eisenhardt, 2011 - SMJ), which once again would be a reason why especially smaller, less complex organizations would be possible to possess dynamic capabilities.

I would also highly recommend you the article of Teece (2012) in JOM about routines vs entrepreneurial action within the context of dynamic capabilities

Thank you Emre for your extensive feedback.

It's exactly the age of the enterprise and its small size the two aspects of startups that make me question the possibility of applying the dynamic capabilities model, since routines, processes and behaviors develop normally over time.  I wonder if it would it be possible to apply this model without conducting any longitudinal study. 

Hi Samia, I don't think a longitudinal study is needed as you do not necessarily have to follow an organization over time in the process of developing the routine. You can jump in a moment where the routine is already developed. The first question is, do the organizations you want to focus on posses routines. An easy way to do is conduct preliminary interviews with startups and see whether they have indeed routines developed. Literature on routines may also already provide insights in how long a period routines take to establish. Furthermore, routines within startups may take the shape of simple rules rather than complex routines (e.g. Eisenhardt and Martin, 2000; Bingham and Eisenhardt, 2011; 2014) in which case it is even more likely that young firms might have routines. Personally, unless it is a really young firm (e.g. 2 weeks), most companies will have developed routines. Also, even though larger companies tend to be more routinized and formalized, this is not per se always the case. As a matter of fact, many small to medium organizations that have been there  for many years are also very routinized. In that sense, size is not that much of an inhibiting factor of your research.

The second question is, if your company has routines, whether it will have dynamic capabilities as well, because having DCs implies that they have been reconfiguring the organizational resources a couple of times already, as otherwise it can't be called a capability (e.g. Helfat and Martin, 2014). Also this you can ask beforehand, or control for in survey by asking whether they indeed have reconfigured themselves over the past few years.

Another avenue you may pursue is that of Dynamic Managerial Capabilities (e.g. Adner and Helfat, 2003; Helfat and Martin, 2014). Sometimes, an organization might not be routinized whereas a manager might still be. Think of cases in which the startup is established by an entrepreneur that has 20 years of experience already. Of course then the scope shifts from organizational to individual routines.

A final advise would be to, if you don't see any relevance of routine-based literature, that you pursue with non-routine drivers of change, such as ad hoc problem-solving (Winter, 2003).

How I see it, there are many ways to pursue, especially in the entrepreneurship literature, it just depends on which choices you want to make!

Excellent feedback. this helped me validate my choice of considering the DCs a startrup might have developed either as an organization or as an individual entrepreneur, as in the early stage of the life of a strartup, the frontier between the enterprise and the entrepreneur is blurring.

thank you Emre

Hi Samia,

I read all the comments and I am grateful that I came across this discussion. Look at the Company Innovative Leadership Model. It evaluates exactly the companies' innovativeness capability (when it comes to startups) and it is based on some common rules for long-term innovation sustainability (when it comes to routine).

Article Company Innovative Leadership Model

Hi Samia, I think the framework about dynamic capabilities from Teece is a base to understand this phenomenon, for that reason, it is possible to use it in different contexts. You could relate dynamic capabilities with entrepreneurship skills.

Good luck with your study!   

Thank you Zornista for your  article. it would be greet to discuss it with you later on.

 Thanks your Andres, I think combining the entrepreneurship skills with the  dynamic capability model is mandatory in the context of startups.

Samia, Teece et al.'s (1997) dynamic capabilities model capability was developed to look into how organisations and their management use their human and material resources as part of their response to a changing and dynamic business environment. The idea that organisations, both big and small, including start-ups face a multitude of challenges and therefore, need to try and reconstitute their internal and external skills, facilities and competences to respond effectively to their volatile environments is befitting of all manner of firms, especially those with resource constraints. Interesting...