Abstract:The importance of Absorptive Capacity has been stated in many previous researches. When small and medium-sized enterprises with poor management resources perform product development with an outside-in open innovation approach, one of the important factors determining the success or failure is Absorptive Capacity of the licensing-in company that form a foundation of technology learning. In this paper, we propose a method for evaluating the Absorptive Capacity of the company, and it is intended to propose a method for utilizing Absorptive Capacity as a measurement of "readiness" to external knowledge.