Beneath the Surface: Exploring the role of Individuals Learning in the Emergence of Absorptive Capacity
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2015Metadata
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Original version
Breunig, K. J., & Martinkenaite, I. (2015, September). Beneath the Surface: Exploring the Role of Individuals Learning in the Emergence of Absorptive Capacity. In European Conference on Knowledge Management (p. 178). Academic Conferences International Limited.Abstract
Drawing on the micro
-
foundations view of strategy, we examine
the role of individuals
in
organizational learning
and reveal the micro
-
macro interactions underpinning the emergence of
a firm
-
level
absorptive capacity. Whereas most
of the
absorptive capacity
research
focuses
on interaction of external and
internal envi
ronments, we emphasise
the
interplay between organizational and individual levels of absorptive
capacity.
W
e
find
that the nature of knowledge, the role of individuals and their social interactions are explicitly
addressed
in the seminal works of Cohen and
Levinthal
. However, these micro
-
level considerations
are
insufficiently problematized in subsequent research. This neglect has resulted in limited explanations of how
absorptive capacity emerges as an organizational
-
level phenomenon. Based on
an
explorato
ry,
longitudinal case
study, we re
-
conceptualize absorptive capacity as a set of
three,
sequentially
inter
-
linked learning processes in
which individual and organization interact and suggest three propositions for further empirical research.