City of Vienna Competence Team

Research Priorities

Development of a conceptual framework model for Dynamic Capabilities for Sustainability

In addition to their economic legitimacy, companies are increasingly required to contribute to greater social and ecological sustainability. This requires strategic change on the corporate level, for example, in form of product, process or business model innovations. 

These demands  are contributing to increasing pressure for change in small, medium-sized and large companies. The required strategic change is usually associated with a significant input of resources and the implementation with economic risks. However, a strategic orientation according to sustainability criteria also opens access to new fields of activity, which can lead to product and service innovations or competitive advantages. 

The aim of the City of Vienna’s TransformS Competence Team is to harness the existing potential. Specifically, the project addresses the question of how Austrian companies can develop the necessary strategic change competencies for corporate sustainability (Dynamic Capabilities for Sustainability).

Dynamic Capabilities for Sustainability are strategic change competencies that enable a company to generate and implement economically, ecologically and socially sustainable product, process or business model innovations.

Questions

The following questions are addressed in the course of the research work by the City of Vienna Competence Team:

  • Which factors at the individual, organizational and institutional level favor the emergence of Dynamic Capabilities for Sustainability?
  • Which individual and organizational competencies are made up of Dynamic Capabilities for Sustainability?
  • Which effects do Dynamic Capabilities for Sustainability have on the entrepreneurial resource base and on cognitive or emotional structures?

The TransformS competence team will answer these and similar questions.