Omidvar, Omid, Edler, Jakob and Malik, Khaleel (2017). Development of absorptive capacity over time and across boundaries: The case of R&D consortia. Long Range Planning, 50 (5), pp. 665-683.
Abstract
Absorptive capacity (AC) has been identified as the ability of firms to acquire, assimilate, and apply external knowledge, and thus as a pre-condition for learning from knowledge environment. However, extant literature has focused on AC as (1) a static and (2) a firm-centred concept. In particular, there is little conceptual framing and empirical evidence of how AC develops over time and across boundaries. Taking R&D consortia as the unit of analysis and based on insights from three in-depth case studies of collaborative R&D, our contribution is a framework for AC development over time and across inter-organizational, intra-organizational, and practice boundaries at different stages of collaboration in R&D consortia. Using this framework, we identify a set of mechanisms which enable the development of AC and we discuss the preconditions for these mechanisms. For R&D managers, our research implies that in order to enhance effectiveness of knowledge transfer and learning in R&D consortia they need to develop a strategy that (1) supports learning and AC development throughout the whole cycle of the collaboration, not only by focusing on intra-firm capabilities, but in particular by providing flexible interfaces for overcoming a variety of interaction and learning boundaries between heterogeneous R&D partners, and (2) enables the integration of created and acquired knowledge within the organization once the collaboration is over.
Publication DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lrp.2017.02.007 |
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Divisions: | College of Business and Social Sciences > Aston Business School > Marketing & Strategy College of Business and Social Sciences > Aston Business School |
Additional Information: | © 2017, Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |
Uncontrolled Keywords: | Absorptive capacity,Boundaries,Case study,R&D consortia,Geography, Planning and Development,Finance,Strategy and Management |
Publication ISSN: | 1873-1872 |
Last Modified: | 04 Oct 2024 07:16 |
Date Deposited: | 15 Feb 2018 08:08 |
Full Text Link: |
https://curve.c ... 29daab121e77/1/ |
Related URLs: |
http://www.scop ... tnerID=8YFLogxK
(Scopus URL) |
PURE Output Type: | Article |
Published Date: | 2017-10-01 |
Published Online Date: | 2017-03-15 |
Accepted Date: | 2017-03-14 |
Authors: |
Omidvar, Omid
(
0000-0002-5232-7940)
Edler, Jakob Malik, Khaleel |
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License: Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives
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