‘Untangling Absorptive Capacity’ – The Salient Context of Projects

Abstract

This paper advances the understanding of absorptive capacity by disentangling its four distinct sub-dimensions. Most of the studies in extant literature have treated absorptive capacity as unidimensional concept and as a firm-level construct without paying due attention to its organizational antecedents. Based on the observation that deliberated inter-unit knowledge transfer processes are mostly executed through projects in practice, we suggest that project specific characteristics (i.e., task, time and team) should be considered as salient and relevant antecedents of absorptive capacity. In that regard, we discuss how scope of task, composition of team and perceptions of time have varying and somewhat conflicting effects on acquisition, assimilation, transformation and exploitation dimensions of absorptive capacity.