Unveiling the modal capability lifecycle: the coevolutionary foundations of the firm’s effectiveness in capturing strategic opportunities

Moving from the assumption that firm strategy is a fundamentally dynamic process of coevolutionary gap bridging between capability space and opportunity space (i.e., the strategy gap), this theoretical paper focuses on some of the factors leading to a successful closure of the strategy gap. In more detail, drawing on the received concept of Capability Lifecycle (CLC), it introduces the notion of Modal Capability Lifecycle (MCLC). The MCLC is defined as the statistical prevalence, for a generic firm ‘F’ in a given time period, of capabilities that are in a particular stage (i.e., 80% of the capabilities of the firm ‘F’ could be in a founding stage rather than in the maturity one). Accordingly, the study advances a novel connection between the Modal Capability Lifecycle for the generic firm ‘F’ and its effectiveness and success in closing the strategy gap given the opportunity space conditions and ultimately in constantly securing a collection of strategic opportunities