Team learning capabilities: A meso model of sustained innovation and firm performance

This paper complements the cognition-oriented analysis of dynamic capabilities with a team-based approach focus on the learning that occurs in teams. Specifically, we argue that team learning capabilities intertwine with managerial cognitive capabilities to support the processes of sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring. We draw from previous literature on team learning to develop our categories based on the nature (reflection and action) and locus (internal and external) of the learning behavior. We develop four categories of team learning capabilities, namely contextual, vicarious, experiential, and reflexive learning, and elaborate on the heterogeneity of these capabilities. We then integrate them into the dynamic capabilities framework to show their particular relevance at different points throughout the sensing-seizing-reconfiguring pathway, and assess their potential impact on strategic change and firm performance.