Absorbing Knowledge from and with External Partners: The Role of Social Integration Mechanisms

Decision Sciences Journal (DSJ), vol. 50(1), pp. 7–45 (2018)

50 Pages Posted: 4 Mar 2018 Last revised: 28 May 2019

See all articles by Frederik von Briel

Frederik von Briel

UQ Business School

Christoph Schneider

University of Navarra, IESE Business School

Paul Benjamin Lowry

Virginia Tech - Pamplin College of Business

Date Written: February 20, 2018

Abstract

Dynamic capabilities that enable innovation are crucial to survival and success in today’s highly competitive business environment, because they enable organizational adaptation, transformation, and seizing of opportunities. Absorptive capacity is an important dynamic capability that enables organizations to leverage external knowledge for innovation purposes. In this theory-building paper, we address the fundamental research question of how organizations can leverage external partners as external sources of knowledge. We offer three primary contributions to the literature on managerial decision-making. First, by conceptualizing knowledge absorption as a collaborative, interorganizational endeavor, we extend the literature on absorptive capacity, thereby enabling its application to innovation-related contexts aside from R&D, to which it has traditionally been applied. Second, by focusing on social integration mechanisms as links between the capabilities, expertise, and knowledge of individuals, groups, and the organization as a whole, we heed calls to clarify the microfoundations of organizational capabilities. Third, although social integration is a multidimensional construct, few studies have addressed the influence of its individual dimensions. We outline how individual social integration dimensions exert differing influences on the individual knowledge absorption stages, thereby taking a first step toward unraveling the multidimensional nature of social integration and laying the foundation for future social integration research both in and beyond the absorptive capacity context.

Keywords: Innovation, Absorptive Capacity, Social Integration, External Partners, Organizational Capabilities, Knowledge Absorption, Collaboration, Mechanisms

Suggested Citation

von Briel, Frederik and Schneider, Christoph and Lowry, Paul Benjamin, Absorbing Knowledge from and with External Partners: The Role of Social Integration Mechanisms (February 20, 2018). Decision Sciences Journal (DSJ), vol. 50(1), pp. 7–45 (2018), Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3128352

Frederik Von Briel

UQ Business School ( email )

St Lucia, Queensland 4067
Australia

Christoph Schneider

University of Navarra, IESE Business School ( email )

Avenida Pearson 21
Barcelona, 08034
Spain

Paul Benjamin Lowry (Contact Author)

Virginia Tech - Pamplin College of Business ( email )

1016 Pamplin Hall
Blacksburg, VA 24061
United States

Do you have a job opening that you would like to promote on SSRN?

Paper statistics

Downloads
62
Abstract Views
513
Rank
671,911
PlumX Metrics