Architectural competence

The construct of architectural competence emerged in the early 1990s in works focusing on technological change (in this article we use the term competence and capabilities interchangeably). Architectural competences have had a profound impact on our understanding of the relationship between organizations and innovation and, more precisely, on the causes of subtle failures that might occur in incumbent firms. These works have also contributed to the emergence and/or development of a number of constructs and frames of strategy and innovation, including integrative capabilities, disruptive innovation and modular architectures. We shall touch on these issues and conclude with some critical remarks.