Individuals and Absorptive Capacity: A Supervenient Model

Abstract

Despite the centrality of individuals in the discussion of absorptive capacity, limited attention has been paid to how organizations’ absorptive capacity depends on that of individuals. To fill this void, we use supervenience—a concept borrowed from philosophy—and research on individual cognition to conceptualize the role of individuals in organizational absorptive capacity. In particular, we employ supervenience to explain how organizations absorb new knowledge through individual interactions. The model provides new insights into how individual-level cognition explains variance in absorptive capacity across organizations. Our approach helps to expand future empirical research in the field.