Absorptive and Desorptive Capacity

Résumé du livre

Absorptive capacity (AC) has been among the most crucial constructs in the study of management for the last twenty years. In this conceptual paper, we propose and explore an important and distinct complement to this construct - desorptive capacity (DC). While AC is a learning capacity, DC is a teaching capacity. It describes the capability of an intended knowledge sender to identify knowledge relevant to a knowledge receiver, to adapt it for transfer, and to transmit it via appropriate channels. Understanding DC and its interaction with AC becomes more important in the era of open and collaborative innovation. Our findings suggest that there is a complementarity between AC and DC within one firm. We also find a substitution effect between AC and DC among firms. Collaborating firms improve the fitness of their respective AC and DC over time, but this tends to come at the risk of increasing unfitness with others. Therefore, it implies path-dependency in knowledge transactions is not always self-inflicted; it can emerge from ongoing knowledge collaboration, or it could be seeded strategically by partners. We argue that developing DC as well as AC can better equip firms than just focus on one capacity.