Potential and Realized Absorptive Capacity in Colombian Firms: The Mediating Role of the Organizational Climate for Innovation

Francoise Contreras,Ghulam Abid,Juan C Espinosa,Ignacio Aldeanueva

doi:10.1177/21582440211052549

Abstract

The absorptive capacity is related to knowledge evaluation and acquisition (Potential Capacity), as well as to the transformation and exploitation of such knowledge (Realized Capacity). This research aims to analyze the absorptive capacity in Colombian companies and to investigate whether the Realized capacity can be predicted from the Potential capacity. Likewise, due to the importance of the context on the absorptive capacity development, the mediating role of the organizational climate for innovation was tested. Through a cross-sectional study, a total of 260 employees from different companies completed the Absorptive Capacity Scale and the Organizational Climate for Innovation Scale. The results showed that Potential absorptive capacity is needed for Realized absorptive capacity, additionally, organizational climate for innovation exerted a mediator role in this transition. These findings highlight that companies should have an organizational climate that allows them to acquire and transform knowledge in order to increase their innovativeness and be more competitive. Further studies should analyze the organizational innovation in relation to the proposed and tested model, while considering employees from different industrial sectors.

Highlights

Innovation and its importance to companies is not a recent topic for scholars
Positions, firm size, and company type were controlled to verify their possible influence on the studied variables, namely, Potential absorptive capacity (ACAP), Realized ACAP, and Organizational Climate for Innovation (OCI)
This study confirms the importance of fostering Potential ACAP in Colombian firms to achieve Realized APAC and generate innovation

Summary

Introduction

Innovation and its importance to companies is not a recent topic for scholars. companies’ perception of the nature of the innovation process has changed in the last decades (Zou et al, 2018). Companies need to develop their abilities to recognize existing knowledge and create new combinations to innovate and compete in a globalized world This capacity to acquire and transform knowledge is called absorptive capacity (ACAP). Zahra and George (2002) defined ACAP as companies’ ability to share, integrate, and adopt new knowledge They proposed a model where ACAP can be Potential and Realized. The former represents the firms’ ability to evaluate and acquire external knowledge, whereas the latter refers to firms’ ability to transform and exploit such knowledge. In this context, companies need to acquire external knowledge (Potential ACAP) but they need to exploit it (Realized ACAP) to obtain innovative outcomes. Despite their importance, the organizational and individual variables that moderate the transition from Potential to Realized ACAP have not been sufficiently studied

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