Dynamic Capability Building in the LEGO Group: Prospective Activities VS. Reflective Learning in Preparation for a Turbulent Digital Future

The competitive pressures arising from digitalization increasingly favour companies that are able to respond to market opportunities by reconfiguring and integrating digitally-enabled business capabilities. The corresponding organizational challenge to integrate technological as well as managerial knowledge from distinct sources has previously been addressed by the dynamic capabilities framework, which has received major attention in strategic management research during the past decades. Nevertheless, relatively little is known about the intentional creation of dynamic capabilities in preparation for future use. To this end, this paper reports on the digitalization journey of the LEGO Group to investigate the development of its Enterprise Architecture capability. The theoretical analysis approaches Enterprise Architecture as a meta-competence to focus on dynamic capability building. The theoretical model unveils how capability quality and performance are shaped by prospective activities and reflective learning from capability use as well as accumulated experience. Furthermore, the findings position Enterprise Architecture into the theoretical context of strategic management and emphasize the discipline’s orchestrating role for continuous transformation in the digital age.