LAUSR.org creates dashboard-style pages of related content for over 1.5 million academic articles. Sign Up to like articles & get recommendations!

Building absorptive capacity through firm openness in the context of a less-open country

Photo by jordanmcdonald from unsplash

Abstract We explore the roles that potential and realized absorptive capacity play in enhancing firm performance, and examine external knowledge search strategies as antecedents of absorptive capacity. In this way,… Click to show full abstract

Abstract We explore the roles that potential and realized absorptive capacity play in enhancing firm performance, and examine external knowledge search strategies as antecedents of absorptive capacity. In this way, we endeavor to open the black box that sits between external knowledge search and performance, and suggest that the establishment of deep and broad relationships with external sources has differing impacts on potential and realized absorptive capacity for the firm. We argue that distinguishing clearly between potential and realized absorptive capacity may provide new insights into understanding why some companies are more successful than others at benefiting from external knowledge. A sample of 171 suppliers operating in the Iranian automotive industry is used to test the proposed theoretical model, through a two-stage least squares approach. Surprisingly, our results indicate that only the firm's capability to acquire and assimilate new ideas from the external environment (potential absorptive capacity) is related to performance for these firms operating in Iran, which been isolated from global markets due to international sanctions. Our findings emphasize the notion that potential and realized absorptive capacity represent distinct capabilities, with different antecedents and different impacts on firm performance.

Keywords: potential realized; absorptive capacity; performance; capacity firm; capacity; realized absorptive

Journal Title: Industrial Marketing Management
Year Published: 2019

Link to full text (if available)


Share on Social Media:                               Sign Up to like & get
recommendations!

Related content

More Information              News              Social Media              Video              Recommended



                Click one of the above tabs to view related content.