Isabelle G. A. Hahn-Notter How Firms Turn Knowledge into Valuable Outputs

About this book

In today’s dynamic environment firms are under constant pressure to improve their performance and find new, innovative ways of competing. To be able to adapt to change, the sourcing and processing of knowledge is pivotal. Developing absorptive capacity, namely processes to acquire, assimilate, transform, and exploit knowledge, is thus decisive for firms, to be able to attain and sustain a competitive advantage. This book provides an analysis and synthesis of the research on firms’ absorptive capacity over the last thirty years. Building on theory and empirical studies, the three meta-analyses included, paint a clearer picture of absorptive capacity’s effects, how it can be developed and how its underlying processes work together in producing new innovations. This book holds interesting avenues for future research, and valuable insights for managerial practice, indicating how absorptive capacity impacts different performance indicators and how different forms of knowledge may help develop absorptive capacity and therefrom new innovations.