This article analyses how dynamic capabilities are enacted in micro-enterprises and what role different parties and managerial time allocation play in this enactment. Drawing upon three in-depth case studies of micro-enterprises, we make three theoretical contributions. First, after arguing that micro-enterprises are likely to enact individual- or group-level dynamic managerial capabilities rather than organisation-level dynamic capabilities, we counter Teece’s warnings about the vulnerable nature of dynamic managerial capabilities. Second, we identify that how managers allocate their own time, is a core micro-foundation of dynamic managerial capabilities; we illustrate that failure to allocate time to capability enactment can lead to capability vulnerability. Finally, we introduce the notion of ‘self-damaging dynamic managerial capabilities’ – these being capabilities that damage established micro-foundations.

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Research uncovering the behavioural and cognitive foundations of capability development has gained traction in recent years. However, the emotional foundations of capability development have not been adequately addressed. This is an important gap; if emotions impact decisions and actions of key organisational actors, this suggests an influence on capability development processes in organisations, with implications for their survival and evolution. In this paper, we therefore explore ‘how do the emotions of key strategists enable and/or hinder capability development?’ Our in-depth qualitative research, based on five small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), shows that emotions of key strategists, including emotional tensions and ambivalence, have multi-faceted effects on capability development depending on the activation level of pleasant and unpleasant emotions experienced. This adds to extant understanding of idiosyncratic foundations of capability development and extends conversations regarding the internal dynamics behind organisational survival and evolution.

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Characterising COVID-19 pandemic as a ‘state of exception’, we might expect great hero models of leadership to come to the fore. Instead, drawing on a thematic analysis of 246 news articles, this paper illustrates something different: communities, companies, individuals picked-up the leadership mantle but were reluctant to frame their practices under a leadership rhetoric. The paper explores spontaneous initiatives and leaderly actions that were made visible during the pandemic and proposes practice-based implications for redrawing leadership conceptualisations. These practices, coined as unleading, are characterised under four dimensions: unconditionality and social intention; purposeful action in the absence of an achievement motivation; sensing and attending to local conditions; and confident connecting and collaborating. The analysis and discussion of the four dimensions affirm that while leading and unleading are always present when organising, they are more or less visible and practiced depending on organisational, social and individual circumstances. The paper concludes by surfacing questions and reflections for the future of unleading and implications for leadership theorising and practice.