An Original Contribution to Understanding the Microfoundations of Dynamic Capabilities in Nigerian Family Businesses

Dynamic capabilities theory explains how firms build, integrate, and reconfigure resources to achieve competitive advantage, but its microfoundations, the individual-level and managerial processes that generate dynamic capabilities, have not been investigated for Nigerian family businesses, where governance and decision-making structures differ fundamentally from publicly listed or Western family firm equivalents. This study makes an original contribution by developing a Microfoundations of Family Business Dynamic Capabilities Framework (MFBDCF) for Nigerian family firms, drawing on dynamic capabilities theory, behavioural theory of the firm, and family business governance theory. The MFBDCF introduces original microfoundation constructs specific to Nigerian family business contexts: Patriarchal Sensing Authority (the concentration of environmental scanning and opportunity recognition in founding patriarch or matriarch), Filial Implementation Dynamics (the role of second-generation family members in translating sensing into operational reconfiguration), and Extended Family Capability Pooling (the mobilisation of extended family network resources in capability development). Research methodology combines an in-depth longitudinal case study of 15 Nigerian family businesses across Lagos, Kano, and Enugu (spanning manufacturing, real estate, trade, and financial services) over 3 years with a quantitative survey of 250 family businesses testing the MFBDCF's propositions. Mixed-method triangulation using narrative analysis of interview data and structural equation modelling of survey data confirms all three original microfoundation constructs as significant contributors to family business dynamic capability development. The study constitutes the first systematic microfoundational investigation of dynamic capabilities in African family businesses.

Keywords: dynamic capabilities, microfoundations, family businesses, Nigeria, resource reconfiguration