Don’t run before you can walk! The importance of fostering threshold capabilities in securing market-level survival

The positive association between dynamic capabilities and sustainable competitive advantages has been well-studied throughout the extant literature. In contrast, relatively little is known about threshold capabilities, namely, the intangible assets that entrepreneurs utilise to survive within their markets. As such, the contribution of this conceptual paper is to integrate threshold capabilities into the dynamic capabilities sub-set of resource-based theory. This is achieved via reviewing the existing literature pertaining to threshold capabilities and their performance outcomes, as well as the types of entrepreneurs that are most likely to be interested in fostering such intangible assets. Additionally, illustrations of threshold capabilities are described to differentiate them from dynamic capabilities and other intangible assets. These conceptualisations are important, since they shed light on vital organisational capabilities that have been largely overlooked by other scholars. This article ends with some directions for future research.