When the going gets tough: How multinationals and local companies used dynamic capabilities during pandemic

This study uses dynamic capability (DC) lens to explore how multinational companies (MNCs) and their local competitors make use of DCs during pandemic to achieve competitive advantage. The paper deploys a qualitative research methodology and collects primary and secondary data from 8 companies (4 MNCs, 4 Locals) in the pharmaceutical industry of Pakistan. We find that multinationals and local companies rely on different sets of DC to effectively deal with the pandemic. While multinationals make use of branding, alliancing and effective deployment of their R&D capability, locals deployed seizing, reconfiguration and strong external relationship better. In the immediate aftermath of the pandemic local companies’ performance improved, while the MNCs struggled to maintain market share. MNCs’ headquarter appeared to be responsible for their underperformance. This paper contributes to the DC research and explains which DC are more relevant for multinationals and local companies in a developing country context during a crisis. It also highlights an underexplored moderator of multinationals performance in these locations – their global headquarters.