External knowledge search,absorptive capacity and radical innovation in high-technology firms

Open innovation and absorptive capacity are two concepts based on the idea that companies can leverage the knowledge generated externally to improve their innovation performance. The aim of this paper is to analyse the joint effect of open innovation and absorptive capacity on a firm's radical innovation. Open innovation is expressed in terms of external search breadth and depth strategies and absorptive capacity is described by distinguishing between potential and realized absorptive capacity. In order to test our hypotheses, we carried out empirical research in firms operating in high-technology industries. The results indicate that internal routines and processes for absorbing external knowledge help explain radical innovation as they show a significant effect of potential and realized absorptive capacity. Also, there is a moderating effect of absorptive capacity on open innovation. Specifically, potential absorptive capacity exerts a positive effect on the relationship between external search breadth and depth and radical innovation. Realized absorptive capacity moderates the influence of external search breadth. These findings confirm the complementary nature of absorptive capacity and open innovation search strategies on radical innovation.     

The Effect of Absorptive Capacity on Innovativeness: Context and Information Systems Capability as Catalysts

The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between absorptive capacity and company innovativeness and to identify potential contexts and capabilities that can act as catalysts for these relationships. We also examine the relationship between absorptive capacity and the existence and enhancement of innovativeness. These relationships are examined through an empirical investigation of 286 large Spanish companies. Our results show that absorptive capacity is an important dynamic determinant for developing a company's innovativeness. Moreover, this relationship is best explained by two related constructs. First, the company's unlearning context is a crucial determinant for both potential capacity and realized absorptive capacity. Second, the results also indicate a tangible means for managers to enhance their absorptive capacity through information systems capabilities.     

中国企业吸收能力对竞争优势的影响

以企业资源基础理论为基础,从企业吸收能力这一概念入手.剖析企业吸收能力与企业竞争优势的关系,研究组织管理机制对企业吸收能力构建和发展的影响.依据吸收能力经典文献对吸收能力的前因进行重新梳理和归类,对现有文献中各种思路有一定的整理和明示作用;通过模型的构造和分析,采用实证研究方法.在286个中国企业样本的基础上进行统计分析;通过研究两种吸收能力的4类影响因素,辨识出中国企业在吸收能力培养和发展方面的优势和弱势,通过实证方法全面衡量和验证潜在吸收能力与实际吸收能力两者之间以及两能力与企业竞争优势的关系.研究结果表明,潜在吸收能力和实际吸收能力均是中国企业竞争优势的重要来源,其中代表创新的实际吸收能力对竞争优势的贡献更大.探讨中国企业应用外部知识的特点和规律,为中国企业如何提高知识学习效果和效率提供理论根据与实践建议.     

Developing Absorptive Capacity Theory for Public Service Organizations: Emerging UK Empirical Evidence

A strong public policy focus on high performance means that utilizing management knowledge effectively is at a premium for UK public service organizations. This study empirically examined two English public agencies to explore the inter‐sectoral transfer of a strategic management model originally developed in the private sector – absorptive capacity – which is one way of conceptualizing an organizational competence in such knowledge mobilization. Two theoretical contributions are made. First, a new absorptive capacity framework for public service organizations is developed which recognizes the participation of public agency project teams during an innovation process proceeding over time with phases of co‐creation, testing, metamorphosis and diffusion. Second, our novel framework modifies an early influential model of absorptive capacity. Counter to this model, we argue that realized absorptive capacity requires agency from skilled and embedded actors to turn ‘curbing routines’ into ‘enabling routines’ in all four stages. Project (middle) managers have flexibility in their roles to seize episodic moments of opportunity to innovate and achieve service delivery goals, and to build absorptive capacity capability. Absorptive capacity capability develops organically over time. Future research directions are discussed.     

吸收能力、研发合作创新激励与补贴政策

本文在前人的研究基础上建立了一个具有吸收能力的非合作研究与发展博弈模型,比较了有和没有吸收能力情况下的R&D投资影响,结果表明有吸收能力的企业R&D投资要更高,接着探讨了产品替代与互补关系下的技术溢出选择对产业的影响和社会最优选择的R&D投资水平及其补贴激励政策。     

外部搜寻、联结强度、吸收能力与创新绩效的关系

从企业边界理论和知识基础观出发,研究搜寻宽度和搜寻深度对组织探索式创新绩效和应用式创新绩效的影响;引入联结强度和吸收能力作为情景变量,探讨二者对主效应的调节作用;利用三项交互方法,探讨外部搜寻战略、联结强度和吸收能力三者的交互作用对创新绩效的影响;以281家本土制造业企业为样本,利用分层回归分析和三项交互分析方法进行实证研究。 研究结果表明,搜寻宽度与探索式创新绩效正相关,与应用式创新绩效呈倒U形关系,搜寻深度与应用式创新绩效正相关;联结强度负向调节搜寻宽度与探索式创新绩效之间的关系,正向调节搜寻深度与应用式创新绩效之间的关系;实际吸收能力正向调节搜寻宽度与探索式创新绩效之间的关系,潜在吸收能力正向调节搜寻深度与应用式创新绩效之间的关系;搜寻宽度、联结强度和实际吸收能力三者交互项与探索式创新绩效负相关,搜寻深度、联结强度和潜在吸收能力三者交互项与应用式创新绩效正相关。 通过探讨外部搜寻、联结强度和吸收能力的三项交互作用对创新绩效的影响,发现搜寻宽度和搜寻深度对创新绩效的显著差异化影响,有助于从一个新的视角解释外部搜寻与创新绩效之间的“关系争论”;已有外部搜寻研究往往忽略组织间的联结机制,通过引入联结强度,弥补了联结机制的缺失;区别于已有吸收能力的直接效应研究,将吸收能力作为调节变量分情景讨论,丰富了吸收能力的权变视角研究。研究结果有助于加强外部搜寻理论研究,并一定程度上有利于指导中国企业具体创新实践。     

Replication of Measures in Information Systems Research: The Case of IS SERVQUAL*

The Information Systems (IS) discipline should recognize potential pitfalls in replication of research studies. This response to a note appearing in this issue by Van Dyke, Prybutok, and Kappelman (1999) aims to serve two purposes. First, this note will address the problems we have with the Van Dyke et al. (1999) attempted replication of our own previous work. Second, we hope it serves to establish more generally an awareness in the IS field for the potential to create and accept the “illusion of replicability” when this has not really been established.     

Exploring the antecedents of potential absorptive capacity and its impact on innovation performance

This paper builds upon the theoretical framework developed by Zahra and George [Absorptive capacity: a review, reconceptualization, and extension. Academy of Management Review 2002;27:185–203] to empirically explore the antecedents of potential absorptive capacity (PAC), i.e. the ability to identify and assimilate external knowledge flows. Based on a sample of 2464 innovative Spanish firms, we find evidence that R&D cooperation, external knowledge acquisition and experience with knowledge search are key antecedents of a firm's PAC. Also, during periods of important internal reshaping, when there are significant changes in strategy, design of the organization and marketing, firms exert more effort to accumulate PAC. Finally, we find that PAC is a source of competitive advantage in innovation, especially in the presence of efficient internal knowledge flows that help reduce the distance between potential and realized capacity.     

Enriching Absorptive Capacity through Social Interaction

Absorptive capacity is frequently highlighted as a key determinant of knowledge transfer within multinational enterprises. But how individual behaviour translates into absorptive capacity at the subsidiary level, and how this is contingent on subsidiaries' social context, remains under‐addressed. This not only limits our understanding of the relationship between individual‐ and organizational‐level absorptive capacity, but also hampers further research on potentially relevant managerial and organizational antecedents, and limits the implications we can draw for practitioners who seek to increase their organization's capacity to put new knowledge to use. To address this shortcoming we conduct an in‐depth comparative case study of a headquarters‐initiated knowledge transfer at two subsidiaries of the same multinational enterprise. The findings demonstrate that social interaction is a prerequisite for subsidiary absorptive capacity as it enables employees to participate in the transformation of new knowledge to the local context and the development of local applications. The findings also illustrate how organizational conditions at the subsidiary level can impact subsidiary absorptive capacity by enabling or constraining local interaction patterns. These insights contribute to the absorptive capacity literature by demonstrating the scale and scope of social interaction as a key link between individual‐ and organizational‐level absorptive capacity.     

Task-Structure Relationship of Information Systems Development Subunit: A Congruence Perspective*

Several studies have examined the influence of organizational context (e.g., organization size, environment, strategy) on information systems (IS) performance/success. But very few studies have examined IS structure, and those studies have focused on a particular element of IS structure (e.g., decentralization). Thus, the multidimensional structural configuration of IS as an organizational subunit has escaped research attention. Further, the nature of the task to be performed by the IS subunit as a contextual factor has been virtually ignored in the IS research literature. In this paper, we first develop a congruence model for the task-structure relationship in an information systems development (ISD) subunit setting. Then we test this model as a multivariate relationship followed by subordinate bivariate analyses. Analysis of data from 41 hospitals’ ISD subunits reveals that a congruence relationship between task context and the structure of an ISD subunit is present. Our findings also show that an exclusive association exists between uncertainty in the task environment and the decision-making structure. Likewise, the association between equivocality of task content and the control structure of the ISD subunit is also exclusive. Implications of these findings for decision makers and researchers are discussed.     

Combinations of absorptive capacity metaroutines: The role of organizational disruptions and time constraints

This paper explores absorptive capacity metaroutines in a financial organization that experienced a large-scale misappropriation episode. We selected an instrumental case and collected individual semi-structured interviews, on-site nonparticipant observations, and documents to better understand the combination of absorptive capacity in organizational contexts. Findings revealed that the magnitude of organizational disruptions and time constraints influenced absorptive capacity metaroutines. The magnitude of organizational disruptions related to the intensity of required change for innovation adoption and the persistence of outcomes, while time constraints influenced the degree of involvement and cohesiveness of organizational members. In addition, findings showed that the combination of absorptive capacity metaroutines experienced asymmetries and had incremental and cumulative features. This work extends current theorizations of absorptive capacity conceptualized from a micro-foundation perspective as a collection of external and internal metaroutines and provides a means to start understanding potential factors that influence the combination of absorptive capacity metaroutines. Implications for theory and practice are discussed, and suggestions for future research are offered.     

企业知识吸收能力与绩效的关系研究

在资源基础理论的基础上,通过对我国不同行业近200家企业的问卷调研,运用实证分析剖析企业知识吸收能力,揭示了知识转化和创新能力与绩效之间的关系,认为在探讨企业的知识吸收能力上,应该重视企业内部支持与外部支持的影响作用,并阐明在知识吸收能力中,知识转化能力会在很大程度上影响企业的绩效水平,而其知识创新能力的影响不明显。     

The Relationship Between Information System Planning Sophistication and Information System Success: An Empirical Assessment*

Literature on information systems (IS) planning implicitly assumes that a sophisticated IS planning process leads to greater IS success. This paper questions the exclusive reliance on this traditional belief. Instead, because IS planning requires significant organizational resources, prior IS success is essential to convince top management of the importance of IS planning sophistication. Therefore, IS success may influence IS planning sophistication. Several theoretical arguments are advanced in support of this explanation. Data from a survey of 236 academic institutions are used to empirically assess the two alternative directions of the relationship between IS planning sophistication and IS success. Four structural models including the alternative causal directions are evaluated. Two of these models are supported. Together, they imply that for a high level of IS planning sophistication, either the previous ISs should have been successful or the organization should possess advanced information technology capabilities. Thus, empirical results suggest that the explanation presented here (i.e., IS success facilitates IS planning sophistication) provides an equally good alternative to the more traditional explanation (i.e., IS planning sophistication facilitates IS success).     

Organizational learning in SMEs’ internationalization: A moderated mediating effect of absorptive capacity

We examine both mediation and moderation effects on the direct relationship between internationalization speed and firm performance in the context of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Building on prior studies that focus either on the direct speed–performance linkage or the moderating role played by knowledge, we suggest that an important source of performance variations is organizational learning. Grounded in the organizational learning perspective, we argue that firm strategies regarding speed and earliness of internationalization provide the SMEs with opportunities to develop their absorptive capacity, and thus enhance their performance. Using survey data from 343 SMEs in Australia and New Zealand, our empirical results suggest that absorptive capacity is associated with internationalization speed in a reversed U-shape relationship and that in turn absorptive capacity mediates the direct speed–performance relationship. Moreover, this mediating effect is moderated by earliness of internationalization. By demonstrating the moderated mediating effect of absorptive capacity as a novel mechanism to achieving superior performance, we enhance the understanding of how firms succeed internationally.     

Relative capacity: Retaining knowledge outside a firm's boundaries

Besides internalizing external knowledge, companies may maintain knowledge in interfirm relationships over time. Thus, interorganizational relations may be regarded as an extended knowledge base to which a firm has privileged access. We merge research into knowledge management, absorptive capacity, learning, and dynamic capabilities to analyze knowledge retention outside a firm's boundaries. Prior research into knowledge management has focused on internally storing knowledge, whereas research into knowledge transactions has primarily studied the internalization of external knowledge. The need to dynamically manage knowledge in interfirm relations over time – without necessarily internalizing this knowledge – has been relatively neglected. Therefore, we develop the foundations of the dynamic capability-based concept of relative capacity as a complement to absorptive capacity and transformative capacity in external knowledge retention. Relative capacity contributes to explaining interfirm differences in knowledge strategies, alliance strategies, organizational boundaries, open innovation, and performance. To guide further research, propositions are advanced regarding the antecedents and consequences of relative capacity.     

组织冗余的利用对中国企业创新产出的影响

从冗余的控制权的角度将企业已吸收的冗余划分为分散冗余和组合冗余,分析了这两种冗余的利用对企业创新的影响,构建了一个包含冗余、吸收能力与创新之间关系的结构方程模型,并运用在607家企业进行的问卷调查所获取的数据实证检验了这个模型。结果显示,分散冗余和组合冗余分别与产品创新和过程创新存在显著的正相关关系,不同的冗余与不同的吸收能力之间存在一定的匹配关系,这种关系能够导致不同的创新产出。结果表明,中国企业的冗余与西方企业的冗余一样,都能够促进企业的创新产出,因此,广泛采用一刀切式的“减员”手段未必是中国企业“增效”的最有效率的策略。     

技术创新型企业研发投资的三阶段博弈——基于吸收能力的观点

将Lars Wiethaus模型中的吸收能力提出了简化表达,研究竞争企业在吸收能力、研发水平、研发投资之间的关系.提出了三阶段博弈模型,首先,企业选择吸收能力;然后,企业决定R&D支出;最后.企业进行古诺特产量竞争.采用逆向归纳法求解.通过理论研究和数值模拟得出:研发不舍作时,单个企业的最优吸收能力与对手企业的技术外溢水平有关;吸收能力较小时,企业在研发投入上陷入了"囚徒困境"问题;研发合作会内部化企业的"搭便车"行为;研发合作时的研发成果、利润都要比不合作时要高.     

外商直接投资技术溢出效应模型及实证研究

以内生经济增长理论为基础,从全要素生产率、FDI溢出效应以及吸收能力3个方面探究FDI技术溢出机制,构建了FDI技术溢出的基本模型和基于吸收能力的溢出模型,并以长春市12年的序列数据进行实证研究.研究结果表明:长春市的FDI存在正的溢出效应,在一定程度上促进了全要素生产率的提高;吸收能力和技术溢出存在二次函数的非线性关系,当吸收能力达到一定的临界值时,FDI技术溢出效应最大.     

学习型联盟中R&D方式与最优投资水平分析——吸收能力的观点

研发方式和R&D投资水平是学习型联盟决策的主要内容,而传统的组织学习理论忽视了联盟成员的吸收能力在学习型联盟决策中的重要作用。本文首先根据学习型联盟成员吸收能力的特点和影响因素,给出了吸收能力的一般表示方法。并通过三阶段的博弈模型分析了吸收能力对联盟成员的研发投入、研发方式决策等方面的影响。     

基于XBRL的财务信息标准博弈分析

运用两阶段斯塔克伯格博弈模型研究了XBRL在利益相关者之间的扩散问题,分析了XBRL技术标准的采用对主体企业和利益相关者交易价格、交易量、市场份额以及利润的影响。结果表明:当部分利益相关者采用XBRL时,主体企业的总交易量变大;对采用者来说,交易价格变高,交易量变大,市场份额增大,当采用者数量较少时利润减少,而当采用者数量足够多时利润增加;对未采用者来说,交易价格变低,交易量变小,市场份额缩小,利润总额降低。对主体企业来说,部分采用而不是所有利益相关者都采用XBRL技术标准才是最佳结果,也就是存在最优的采用者数量使得主体企业在XBRL技术扩散中获得最大利润。