Capability Transfer Systems: How Business Formats Develop Entrepreneurial Competence
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.66203/directiva.01203Keywords:
capability transfer systems, entrepreneurial competence, entrepreneurial learning, knowledge transfer, absorptive capacity, dynamic capabilitiesAbstract
Entrepreneurial competence has traditionally been explained as an outcome of individual learning, experiential accumulation, and entrepreneurial action. While this perspective has generated important insights, it provides only a partial explanation of competence development in contemporary entrepreneurial environments where individuals increasingly operate within organizational arrangements that provide structured access to knowledge, routines, developmental resources, and support mechanisms. Despite extensive research on entrepreneurial learning and organizational knowledge transfer, limited attention has been devoted to explaining how organizational systems contribute to entrepreneurial competence formation. Addressing this gap, this conceptual paper develops the Capability Transfer Systems (CTS) framework by integrating insights from entrepreneurship, organizational learning, knowledge transfer, absorptive capacity, dynamic capability, and business format research. The framework conceptualizes organizations as entrepreneurial development infrastructures that systematically facilitate competence formation through standardized knowledge templates, capability codification, and guided entrepreneurial practice. A process model is proposed to explain how entrepreneurial competence emerges through successive stages of knowledge access, capability absorption, capability internalization, competence formation, and entrepreneurial action. The study advances a new theoretical explanation of organizationally facilitated entrepreneurial competence formation, extends existing understanding of capability development, and establishes a foundation for future research on how organizations create entrepreneurs across diverse entrepreneurial contexts.
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