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The (proper) microfoundations of routines and capabilities: a response to Winter, Pentland, Hodgson and Knudsen

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2011

TEPPO FELIN  and
NICOLAI J. FOSS
TEPPO FELIN*
Affiliation:
Organizational Leadership and Strategy, Marriott School, Brigham Young University, Provo, UT 84602, USA
NICOLAI J. FOSS*
Affiliation:
Department of Strategic Management and Globalization, Copenhagen Business School, Kilevej 14, 2 fl., 2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark and Department of Strategy and Management, Norwegian School of Economics and Business Administration, Breiviksveien 40, N-5045, Bergen, Norway
*
*Email: teppo.felin@byu.edu
**Email: njf.smg@cbs.dk
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Abstract:

Sidney Winter (2011), Brian Pentland (2011), and Geoffrey Hodgson and Thorbjørn Knudsen (2011) take issue with the arguments in Teppo Felin and Nicolai J. Foss (2011), along with more generally critiquing the ‘microfoundations project’ related to routines and capabilities. In this rejoinder we argue that the responses of our critics reinforce a number of the points stated in our writings on the routines and capabilities literature. In response to their many points we address the following key issues in the debate: (1) lack of construct clarity; (2) universal mechanisms or comparative chauvinism; (3) models of mind and man; (4) levels of analysis; (5) agency and uncaused causes; and then further discuss (6) a rationalist alternative.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Institutional Economics , Volume 8 , Issue 2 , June 2012 , pp. 271 - 288
Copyright
Copyright © The JOIE Foundation 2011

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