Handbook of Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management, Second Edition

Introduction

Knowledge and learning have become central to a firm’s innovativeness and competitiveness (Argote and Ingram, 2000; Bogner and Bansal, 2007; Van Wijk et al., 2008). Since valuable, relevant knowledge is often located outside firms’ boundaries, the ability of firms and their units to acquire knowledge from external constituents has become a critical capability. The importance of the ability to acquire external knowledge has rendered absorptive capacity arguably one of the most prominent constructs examined in organizational research. Two papers by Cohen and Levinthal (1989, 1990) are generally heralded as the seminal contributions and have since been cited extensively in journals associated with a variety of disciplines, ranging from economics to sociology to psychology. According to the Social Sciences Citation Index, more than 4000 studies have cited the two seminal articles, and if the current popularity of the construct is a harbinger of the future, many more are to be expected.

Following Cohen and Levinthal (1989, 1990), absorptive capacity emerges as a by-product of research and development, and the stock of knowledge developed confers on firms the ability to recognize the value of new external knowledge, assimilate it, and apply it to commercial ends. These three capabilities play a critical role in a firm’s innovativeness and influence the speed, frequency, and magnitude of innovation (Lewin et al., 2010). Even though prior research has produced a wealth of ...