Abstract
Abstract The objective of this study is to analyze the relationship between absorptive capacity, intellectual capital and innovation. The main purpose of this research is to demonstrate that absorptive capacity can leverage the relation between intellectual capital and innovation potential. The method was a single case study using exploratory and descriptive research strategies and applying both quantitative and qualitative techniques. The case study investigated was a Brazilian corporation that has been doing business in the paper and corrugated cardboard industry for 72 years. The paper describes a case analysis demonstrating that adoption of practices associated with absorptive capacity has potential to foster intellectual capital, which is particularly important for development of innovations. These practices include assimilation of new technologies; creating capacity to utilize existing internal knowledge held by employees; use of benchmarking; application of technical knowledge; and registration of patents. Triangulation of data provided evidence confirming that the relationship between absorptive capacity and intellectual capital is a driver of innovation in the firm investigated. Additionally, this relationship is better explained by the mediating role of absorptive capacity, which is capable of potentiating intellectual capital to foster innovation.
Highlights
Environmental dynamism places ever-growing demands on firms to find new organizational structures
We suggest that when a firm develops and manages CA, this process can contribute to development of new capabilities, such as innovation, thereby conferring factors of competitive differentiation that place them at the forefront of problem solving
Based on the data collected during the quantitative phase and the results from the in loco research a need was perceived to understand the perceptions of people at the strategic level of the organization with regard to the same variables about which tactical level management had been questioned during the quantitative phase
Summary
Environmental dynamism places ever-growing demands on firms to find new organizational structures. These structures must be capable of simultaneously generating several different sources of internal and external information to support decision-making processes. In this theoretical context, management of intellectual capital defined as a valuable internal resource can contribute to driving innovation capacity. It is not a new discovery that management of intellectual capital can potentiate innovation, but it still remains necessary to elucidate how the relationship between the two can be promoted in such a way as to adapt to this dynamic scenario. The objective of this study is to analyze how intellectual capital can be developed through AC and potentiate innovation as a result
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