Coevolution of Firm Absorptive Capacity and Knowledge Environment: Organizational Forms and Combinative Capabilities

Abstract

This paper advances the understanding of absorptive capacity for assimilating new knowledge as a mediating variable of organization adaptation. Many scholars suggest a firm's absorptive capacity plays a key role in the process of coevolution (Lewin et al., this issue). So far, most publications, in following Cohen and Levinthal (1990), have considered the level of prior related knowledge as the determinant of absorptive capacity. We suggest, however, that two specific organizational determinants of absorptive capacity should also be considered: organization forms and combinative capabilities. We will show how these organizational determinants influence the level of absorptive capacity, ceteris paribus the level of prior related knowledge. Subsequently, we will develop a framework in which absorptive capacity is related to both micro- and macrocoevolutionary effects. This framework offers an explanation of how knowledge environments coevolve with the emergence of organization forms and combinative capabilities that are suitable for absorbing knowledge. We will illustrate the framework by discussing two longitudinal case studies of traditional publishing firms moving into the turbulent knowledge environment of an emerging multimedia industrial complex.

A Network-based view of regional growth

“…This indicates that accessing knowledge depends not solely on the availability of external knowledge and sources, but also on factors internal to organisations. Absorptive capacity is mediated by the wider environment in which an organisation competes and operates, with organisations that are part of economic systems and networks such clusters and innovation systems more likely to be characterised by strong absorptive capacity (Van den Bosch et al, 1999;Giuliani, 2005). This suggests that knowledge is not in fact diffused evenly 'in the air', but flows principally through a core group of organisations with advanced absorptive capacities (Giuliani and Bell, 2005;Malecki, 2010a;Ter Wal and Boschma, 2011).…”

Capacidade de Absorção, Aprendizagem Organizacional e Mecanismos de Integração Social

“…Ou seja, ocorreu um processo recursivo iniciado pela introdução, assimilação e criação, que foi mediado por mecanismos de integração social que viabilizaram a transformação e utilização, para finalmente alcançar a exploração e institucionalização dos conteúdos. Verifica-se, portanto, além do papel da integração social, a ocorrência da recursividade delineada por autores como Van den Bosch et al (1999), visto que, ao absorver conhecimentos relativos ao Programa Paraná Digital, a instituição parece ter vivenciado um processo de aprendizagem em nível organizacional. A experiência levou os docentes ao desenvolvimento de novas práticas, gerando maior entendimento quanto ao uso de tecnologias para a educação, ampliando a sua capacidade de absorver novos conteúdos correlacionados ao que foi aprendido.…”

Multinational Corporations at the Base of the Economic Pyramid: A Strategic Analysis Framework

“…and Singh, 1998; Lane and Lubatkin, 1998;Van den Bosch, Volberda, and De Boer, 1999;Zahra and George, 2002). Lane and Lubatkin (1998), for instance, highlight the difference between a firm's absolute ACAP, which allows the firm to learn from its external environment as a whole, and its relative ACAP in a given alliance, which allows it to learn from a specific partner.…”