FACULTY AND RESEARCH

The abolition of centralized economy systems in Eastern and Central European countries is an unprecedented situation in which firms, markets, social and institutional systems undergo a process of complete reconstruction. Changes in their economic environment make Polish post-socialist firms to invent strategies and organizational designs adapted to the post-rupture context of economic transition. On the basis of a long-term case study of three ex-socialist Polish firms which have survived the first decade of the economic transition, we analyze how these firms adapt to the new social-economic environment and more precisely how they build new competencies. Two additional questions are also addressed: first, the role of history and path dependence in the process of building new competencies and second, the co-evolution of competence-building with the environment. The analysis of data based on the methodology proposed by Huberman and Miles (1991) focuses on: the role of actors, the processes of competence-building and competence-building driving forces. The main conclusion drawn is that the regulation capacity is a key component of dynamic capabilities and a mediating variable of building new competencies. Therefore, in the post--rupture deconstruction context strategic renewal necessitates the emergence of a new regulation process based on deeply modified signification, domination and legitimization structures (Giddens, 1987). We suggest that this result could be extended to other post-rupture contexts marked by rapid environmental change.