Dynamic Capabilities for Sustainable Technologies in the Steel Industry: A Multiple Case Study

In recent years, fostering sustainability within organizational and supply chain processes across all sectors has emerged as a central issue, driven by intensifying global environmental concerns. This paper sheds light on how companies in the steel sector can develop specific capabilities to implement suitable technologies for sustainable development. Adopting the dynamic capability theory, the study investigates three European steel companies that are highly committed to sustainability. Qualitative data from interviews show which types of dynamic capabilities they used for each technology to be adopted. The results reveal, first, that companies rely more on sensing, seizing, or transforming capabilities depending on the maturity level of the technologies, and second, that companies are increasingly involving new business partners outside their traditional supply chain in the implementation of sustainable technologies. This research offers a framework to enable companies to adopt sustainable technologies by leveraging a specific classification of dynamic capabilities.