In the strategic management tradition, dynamic capabilities are interpreted as grounded in high-level routines, while in the routine dynamics framework routines are seen as inherently dynamic. Despite the apparent convergence of constructs and interests, these two approaches to understanding routines and the dynamism that they embody and engender have not been building on each other. In this chapter I analyse commonalities and differences between the two views in relation to their ontologies, their focal interests, and their levels of theory, measurement and analysis. I also describe how the two views contribute—although from different angles—to answering the same questions on routines emergence and change, on their role in inhibiting and promoting creativity and novelty, and in maintaining pattern and variety. Finally, I provide directions for future research on routine participants, ecologies of routines, and routines performance, which build on both views, without necessarily integrating them.

In this chapter, we compare Routine Dynamics and Strategy as Practice based on an extended literature review. Routine Dynamics and Strategy as Practice are distinctive communities of thought in organization studies that exhibit a number of striking parallels: both subscribe to the overall “practice turn” in the social sciences, seek to bring the human being back in, and focus predominantly on the level of action involved in organizational routines and strategy, respectively. In our comparison of similarities and differences of Routine Dynamics and Strategy as Practice, we focus on their empirical domains, underlying theoretical perspectives, research frameworks, levels of analysis, and empirical methods employed. Based on that, we discuss what Routine Dynamics can learn from Strategy as Practice and vice versa. We conclude with some general reflections on the future relation between the two research communities and develop an agenda for future research that facilitates cross-fertilizations between the two research communities.