University–industry linkages and absorptive capacity: an empirical analysis of China's manufacturing industry

We analyze the contribution of universities to innovative performance in China's manufacturing sector. Our empirical analysis is based on a matched data set comprising about 20,000 large- and medium-sized companies aggregated at the three-digit industry level and information on university knowledge output for 31 provinces between 1998 and 2004. We show that universities’ impact on commercial innovation varies with the type of activity performed and is contingent on the manufacturing sector's investment in absorptive capacity. In addition, our results confirm organizational theory stating that there is a complementary relationship between capabilities to acquire and assimilate external knowledge on the one hand and the capacity to transform and exploit this knowledge on the other.     

Absorptive capacity and firm performance: an integrative framework of benefits and downsides

Research underscores the important role a firm's absorptive capacity plays in developing knowledge, promoting open innovation, managing alliances, facilitating organisational learning, creating strategic variety, and enhancing financial performance. However, prior research often overlooks how absorptive capacity could increase a firm's costs associated with building this capacity, perpetuate and even increase inertia because of reduced variety and limited organisational search, handicap internal knowledge development, and complicate knowledge sharing. Research also ignores the growing complexity of absorptive capacity, a factor that could reduce a firm's gains from exploiting external knowledge. Our discussion builds on the knowledge-based view to provide an integrative framework for the performance effects of absorptive capacity. Based on different benefits and downsides of absorptive capacity at multiple levels of analysis, it points to an inverted U-shaped relationship between absorptive capacity and a firm's financial performance, highlighting several promising avenues for future research.     

A model of innovation and learning with involuntary spillovers and absorptive capacity

We develop a model of innovation and learning that incorporates explicitly the need for a firm to conduct its own research and development (R&D) in order to realize involuntary spillovers from other firms’ R&D activity and the development of absorptive capacity of research firms over time. The conclusions of the model follow directly from the functional forms that are used to describe the generation and absorption of technological knowledge. The first proposition formally characterizes the steady-state rate of growth of technology for the model. The analysis also shows how some of the key features of two distinct, pure modes of organization of the production of new knowledge, the R&D model and the new localized knowledge model, are implied by our model by simply drastically changing the relative magnitude of two exogenous parameters: the ease of learning and the pace of knowledge advance. The second proposition formally characterizes the connections implied by the model between involuntary spillovers and absorptive capacity. Analysis of the long-term interactions between involuntary spillovers of knowledge and absorptive capacity provides the essential insights into an understanding of the elements of a self-sustained process of endogenous growth. The third and last formal proposition of this paper accommodates firm-level arguments and the crucial role of a firm's absorptive capacity in taking advantage of its location in clusters, as implied by the theoretical model.     

Knowledge spillovers,absorptive capacity and total factor productivity in China’s manufacturing firms

Applying the stochastic frontier framework, this study explores the diffusion and absorption of technological knowledge in China’s manufacturing firms, based on a panel of more than 10,000 local and foreign-invested firms over the period 1998–2001. Our empirical approach allows us to distinguish between technological progress (TP) and technical efficiency (TE) in analysing whether R&D, exports and the presence of foreign direct investment simultaneously enhance TP through knowledge spillovers in a single framework and whether different types of domestic absorptive capacity moderate external knowledge spillovers in relation to TE. The results show that there are positive inter-industry productivity spillovers from R&D and foreign presence, whereas evidence of intra-industry productivity spillovers from FDI to Chinese firms is less robust. We find evidence that absorptive capacity is one of the key determinants to quantitatively explain intra-industry differences in productivity of local Chinese firms. The findings have important policy implications.     

企业吸收能力研究进展

自1990年科恩和利文索尔(Cohen and Levintha)对吸收能力作出开创性研究以来,吸收能力正在成为国际学术研究的新兴领域。本文对近20年来国际上有关吸收能力的研究进行综述:通过对吸收能力内涵的讨论,探讨了吸收能力的维度构成及各维度的定义;在对目前吸收能力代表性理论研究评析的基础上,得出了一个更简洁、合理的吸收能力机制模型,并对该模型的作用机制进行分析;最后指出吸收能力未来的研究方向。     

Inbound open innovation in biopharmaceutical firms: unpacking the role of absorptive capacity

In this study, we extend recent attempts to clarify the role of antecedents of absorptive capacity in realising purposive inflows of external knowledge in the biopharmaceutical industry. By assuming that internal R&D resources contribute to absorptive capacity as a multidimensional concept, we propose a framework for the integrated analysis of the interactions between the different antecedents of absorptive capacity and inbound open innovation of biopharmaceutical firms. Our analysis relies on a set-theoretic approach and uses fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to study a set of selected Italian biopharmaceutical firms. The analysis reveals that biopharmaceutical companies with a diversified R&D business domain and an extended entrepreneurial scientific network are likely to adopt an inbound open innovation strategy.     

Which skills contribute most to absorptive capacity,innovation and productivity performance? Evidence from the US and Western Europe

ABSTRACT

Skills are widely recognised as central to absorptive capacity, that is, firms’ ability to identify and make effective use of knowledge, ideas and technologies that are generated elsewhere. But identification of the specific levels of education and skills that contribute most to the development of absorptive capacity is often hampered by the use of skill measures as proxies for absorptive capacity itself. Drawing on a cross-country industry-level dataset, we retain separate measures of key components of absorptive capacity, namely, skills, R&D investments and openness to foreign trade and investment. We then estimate a system of structural equations in order to evaluate the extent to which different levels of skill contribute to innovative output (measured by growth in patenting) and subsequently to growth in productivity. We find important roles for both high-level skills and upper intermediate (technician-level) skills in converting the knowledge sourcing opportunities provided by openness into innovative output. In final stages of production (making use of innovative output), productivity growth in countries near to the technological frontier is enhanced not just by high-level and upper intermediate skills but also by the skills of the workforce as a whole.     

联盟组合中焦点企业的网络能力对创新绩效的影响——吸收能力的中介作用

结合社会网络理论和资源基础理论,基于联盟组合中焦点企业的视角,构建了网络能力、吸收能力影响创新绩效的理论模型,并对我国战略性新兴产业242家企业进行了问卷调查和实证分析.研究结果表明:网络能力的4个维度(网络规划能力、网络构建能力、关系管理能力和位置占据能力)对创新绩效均有显著正向影响;网络能力的4个维度对吸收能力的两个维度(潜在吸收能力和实际吸收能力)也均有显著正向影响;吸收能力的两个维度对创新绩效均有显著正向影响;潜在吸收能力和实际吸收能力在网络能力的4个维度与创新绩效的作用关系之间均起到部分中介作用,而且实际吸收能力的中介作用强于潜在吸收能力的中介作用.     

How does cultural intelligence influence the relationships between potential and realised absorptive capacity and innovativeness? Evidence from Poland

Cultural intelligence underpins the interaction between firms and their cultural environments as the domain of external sources that are explored and utilised for innovation through absorptive capacity. This research seeks to answer the question of if and how cultural intelligence moderates the links between innovativeness and potential and realised absorptive capacity. We test our hypotheses based on data from 215 firms operating in Poland. We demonstrate that cultural intelligence strengthens the linkage between potential absorptive capacity and innovativeness that highlights cultural intelligence as an important enabler of exploring new and diverse external knowledge sources. We discuss cultural intelligence concept in relation to strategic management and reveal its contingent role in innovativeness.     

知识溢出、吸收能力与本土供应商创新绩效——基于珠三角制造业企业的实证分析

笔者利用珠三角制造业企业调查问卷进行实证研究,重点考察吸收能力、知识溢出对本土供应商创新绩效的影响。研究结果表明:跨国公司的显性和隐性知识溢出对供应商技术创新有明显促进作用;供应商的吸收能力对知识溢出和创新绩效有正向调节作用,即供应商的吸收能力不仅有利于其技术创新,而且强化知识溢出对其创新绩效的促进作用;隐性知识溢出在吸收能力的正向调节作用下,对创新绩效的作用更明显。此外,笔者对国内市场导向和出口导向型供应商进行了分组检验。     

Information technology and firm performance: mediation role of absorptive capacity and corporate entrepreneurship in manufacturing SMEs

ABSTRACT

The success of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) depends on dynamic capabilities, as it provides opportunities to remain competitive and perform well in the dynamic business environment. Although several studies show the significant positive impacts of dynamic capabilities on firm performance, our knowledge of the underlying mechanism through which IT capabilities affect the firm performance is not yet clear. Applying the dynamic capability view, this study investigates the intervening role of absorptive capacity and corporate entrepreneurship. The data of 417 respondents is collected from medium-sized manufacturing sector SMEs in Punjab, Pakistan. The research hypotheses have been analysed through the structural equation modelling method by using the Smart-PLS software. The research findings show that absorptive capacity and corporate entrepreneurship partially mediates the relationship between IT capabilities and firm performance. Furthermore, the sequential path of IT technical skills, absorptive capacity, corporate entrepreneurship, and firm performance is highly significant as compared to other paths.     

先前知识、国际知识吸收能力与国际机会识别研究

随着经济全球化的发展以及我国“一带一路”战略的提出,我国企业界开始掀起了一股国际化经营的热潮。由此,作为企业国际化经营首要环节的国际机会识别开始成了社会各界关注的热点问题。本文基于国际知识吸收能力的视角研究了管理者先前知识对国际机会识别的作用机制问题。基于265份国际化企业管理者的调查问卷,本文采用层次回归分析和结构方程模型分析相结合的方法对变量间的关系假设进行检验,结果发现：(1)先前知识对国际机会识别具有显著的正向促进作用；(2)国际知识吸收能力在先前知识与国际机会识别关系中起重要中介作用；(3)环境动态性在国际知识吸收能力与国际机会识别关系中起负向调节作用。     

区域吸收能力研究综述

对区域吸收能力概念的来源进行了简要探讨,并对区域吸收能力的决定因素及其度量指标、政策选择以及门槛效应等方面的研究进行了评述,最后总结了目前国内研究存在的不足,提出今后的研究可从借鉴社会学中的概念来确定新的区域吸收能力度量指标、深入研究外向知识溢出与区域吸收能力的关系、发展具有微观基础的理论模型并采用先进的计量模型等方向入手。     

International R&D Spillovers,Absorptive Capacity and Relative Backwardness: A Panel Smooth Transition Regression Model

We investigate how a country's absorptive capacity and relative backwardness affect the impact of international R&D spillovers on domestic Total Factor Productivity (TFP). To account for nonlinearities, we adopt a Panel Smooth Transition Regression approach, where a country's TFP elasticity to the foreign R&D stock is allowed to change smoothly across various identified extreme values, and the change is related to observable transition variables: human capital (capturing the country's absorptive capacity) and relative backwardness. The results suggest that absorptive capacity is positively associated with international R&D spillovers. In contrast with previous results, relative backwardness is instead found to have a negative and significant impact on international knowledge spillovers.     

Absorptive capacity of demand in sports innovation

We propose a stylized and tractable neo-Schumpeterian model of sectorial transformations in which demand-side knowledge constraints inhibit innovation diffusion and industrial change, causing structural instability. Evolutionary competition in the model implies that innovation can overshoot the absorptive capacity of demand, leading to a slowdown in sectorial dynamism and even to structural collapse. Closed-form analytical results prove the existence of a unique stationary state in the dynamic model that is (globally) asymptotically stable. We show how the dynamic paths and the stationary rest-point depend on the trade-off between innovation and demand absorptive capacity parameters. To illustrate the plausibility and relevance of our results, we examine the Australian windsurfing industry in which diminished demand absorptive capacity (in the terms of the model) was a factor underlying sectoral collapse. We discuss how development of absorptive capacity of demand presents a collective action problem for an industry sector, and the role of demand-side factors as constraints in industry and innovation policy.     

Transformational leadership and absorptive capacity: an analysis of the organisational catalysts for this relationship

Research analysing the antecedents of a firm’s absorptive capacity suggests that transformational leadership (TL) is one of its main determinants. However, the few studies focusing on the relationship between these two variables do not explicitly assess why transformational leaders facilitate knowledge acquisition, sharing and retention inside firms. This paper suggests that the reason is that the former contributes to the creation of an organisational context that favours learning processes. We test our research model on a sample of 467 Spanish industrial firms. Findings provide evidence that TL is positively related to the firm’s absorptive capacity and that this relationship is mediated by some organisational learning facilitators: experimentation, risk-taking, interacting with external environment and dialogue.     

Absorptive capacity,knowledge sharing,and innovative behaviour of R&D employees

This study explores the interrelationship between absorptive capacity and knowledge sharing, which are innovation-specific antecedents of innovative behaviour. By differentiating the two sub-dimensions of absorptive capacity, potential and realised absorptive capacity, previous contradictory findings on the relationship between absorptive capacity and knowledge sharing are reconciled. To verify the research hypotheses, the survey responses from 138 R&D employees of a multinational electronics company are analysed through structural equation modelling. The results show that both sub-dimensions of absorptive capacity directly influence innovative behaviour. However, knowledge sharing’s effect on innovative behaviour is indirect through realised absorptive capacity. The research findings imply employees’ absorptive capacity and knowledge sharing among them should be nurtured simultaneously to facilitate innovative behaviour. In addition to providing employees with many opportunities to be exposed to external knowledge, internal communications among employees and exploratory trials exploiting external knowledge along with internal knowledge should be encouraged.     

The performance effect of two different dimensions of absorptive capacity and moderating role of holding-cash

This study identified two different dimensions of absorptive capacity and examined the relationship between absorptive capacity and a firm’s financial performance. Further, we measured absorptive capacity using both the inputs and outputs involved in its development simultaneously, and investigated the complementary role of holding-cash in the performance effect of two dimensions of absorptive capacity. Our results showed that a firm’s homogeneous absorptive capacity has a positive effect on its short-term performance, while a firm’s heterogeneous absorptive capacity may hinder its short-term business performance. However, a high level of either homogeneous or heterogeneous absorptive capacity is not always useful to a firm’s long-term financial performance. Finally, cash, as a slack resource, was found to be more useful for the performance effect of heterogeneous absorptive capacity than for that of homogeneous absorptive capacity in the short term.     

企业边界依赖、吸收能力与创新：多案例研究

本文将组织边界理论与企业演化理论相结合,从路径依赖视角,界定和测量企业边界依赖这个构念,分析企业边界依赖包括能力边界依赖、心理边界依赖和知识边界依赖这3个重要的理论维度,运用多案例研究方法,通过对三家企业的深入研究,探讨了企业存在边界依赖行为,揭示了企业边界依赖、吸收能力与创新绩效之间存在的关系.研究发现,能力边界依赖、心理边界依赖和知识边界依赖对企业吸收能力的提高有着重要的影响作用,进而有利于企业取得渐进性创新和根本性创新.     

既有知识资产对企业持续性创新与破坏性创新的影响

基于文献研究和逻辑推理,探讨了企业既有知识资产与企业创新发展之间的关系。得出以下推论和假设:企业既有知识资产对持续性创新和以外部市场为目标的破坏性创新具有推动作用;企业既有的高嵌入性知识资产以及与之密切相关的低嵌入性知识资产对以企业自身市场为目标的破坏性创新具有阻碍作用,用于防御外部破坏性创新的既有低嵌入性知识资产对以企业自身市场为目标的破坏性创新具有推动作用;环境动荡性和独占性以及企业吸收能力对上述影响关系具有调节作用。