What Is Absorptive Capacity?

The competitive advantage of an enterprise comes from the uniqueness of its resources and capabilities. Absorptive capacity, which is composed of multiple capabilities based on knowledge, is one of the most important concepts in organizational research in the past ten years, and is an important tool for studying knowledge transfer.

Knowledge absorptive capacity

According to the above understanding of corporate absorptive capacity, seeing that corporate absorptive capacity is affected by corporate knowledge

Cohen et al.

Organizational mechanisms affecting knowledge absorption:

Learning does not happen naturally. Organizations should play a certain group role to promote learning through internal policies, organizational structures, and organizational paths. Among them, the communication mechanism and incentive mechanism are two key organizational mechanisms that affect the learning and innovation of enterprises.

(1) Communication mechanism and absorptive capacity

In essence, the acquisition and absorption of knowledge is a social process. In this process, the learning subjects embedded in a shared social context realize the transfer, integration and re-creation of knowledge through formal and informal exchanges and communication.

Organization-level communication mechanism

When Cohen and others analyzed the organizational factors that affect the absorptive capacity of an enterprise, they focused on the communication and communication structure between the external environment and the organization, and between various departments within the organization. This study collectively refers to these two levels as organizational level communication and communication. Cohen et al. Believe that the ability of an organization to communicate with the external environment mainly depends on whether the "gatekeeper" can identify relevant external knowledge and translate and translate it into knowledge that internal researchers can understand in order to integrate internal and external knowledge, thereby Enhance your company's potential absorptive capacity. However, this outward-looking communication that expands the boundaries of the organization must be complemented by inward-looking communication between the various departments within the organization, so that the personal knowledge of the "gatekeeper" can be transformed into organizational knowledge. The communication and exchange between the various departments in the organization can also provide opportunities for each other to learn from each other, stimulate the generation of new knowledge, and promote the improvement of the overall innovation ability of the organization, which is conducive to the development of the enterprise's actual absorption capacity. Therefore, this study proposes hypotheses.

Organization-level communication and communication can enhance a company's potential absorptive capacity.

Organization-level communication and communication can enhance the company's actual absorptive capacity.

Individual level communication mechanism

In addition to the communication and exchange at the organizational level mentioned by Cohen and others, Daghfous believes that the organizational mechanism should also assist and encourage individual employees to communicate, and promote the identification and integration of knowledge through measures such as creating information platforms. Therefore, a communication mechanism that promotes individual employee communication can increase the company's potential absorptive capacity. The actual absorptive capacity of an enterprise is manifested in the transformation and innovation of knowledge, and the transformation and innovation of knowledge requires a large number of individual interactions, especially when the transferred knowledge contains silent parts. Therefore, this study proposes hypotheses.

Personal level communication and communication can enhance a company's potential absorptive capacity.

Personal level communication and communication can enhance the company's actual absorptive capacity.

(2) Reward incentive mechanism and absorptive capacity

Classical and neo-classical economics believe that social behavior is driven by individual rationality and interests. Therefore, when studying the incentive mechanism for knowledge transfer and sharing, most scholars first consider external incentive incentives. Enterprise practice has verified the effectiveness of external incentives to promote corporate knowledge absorptive capacity (especially potential absorptive capacity). For example, Siemens ShareNet project and Samsung Life s knowledge mileage plan have used external incentives to significantly improve corporate acquisition and integration The amount of knowledge. However, the external motivation mechanism evokes only external motivations. For those tasks whose goals are difficult to formulate and need to be coordinated to complete and innovate, the motivation for knowledge transfer is factors such as sense of achievement and self-growth, not economic returns. In this case, the pure external reward incentive mechanism cannot achieve the desired effect, and it needs to be supplemented by internal incentive mechanism to improve the actual absorption capacity of the enterprise marked by innovation. Based on the above discussion, this study proposes hypotheses.

Rewards and incentives can enhance a company's potential absorptive capacity.

Rewards and incentives can enhance a company's actual absorptive capacity.

By combing the existing research and theories, this study outlines the relationship between the two dimensions of influencing factors of absorptive capacity, potential absorptive capacity and actual absorptive capacity and the competitive advantage of the enterprise. ^[3]

Based on the above discussion, the following suggestions are proposed for the influencing factors to enhance the knowledge absorption capacity of the enterprise:

1. Focus on talents and establish a talent training mechanism

Recruit employees with rich knowledge and experience, especially to emphasize the diversification of knowledge background, in order to promote the digestive ability of the enterprise and enhance the awareness of new knowledge. Devote great efforts to education and training, attach great importance to personnel training, conduct employee training and organizational learning on a regular basis, and transfer posts and exchange positions across departments and regions to cultivate the ability to fully engage in technology and management. Inter-departmental learning teams can also be formed within the enterprise to promote the diffusion and sharing of knowledge within the organization to increase the stock and breadth of the company's basic knowledge.

2. Match learning strategies with independent innovation

Starting from the enterprise technology strategy, set a relatively high benchmark for technological development, in order to increase the intensity that enterprises must learn new knowledge and new technologies. According to the characteristics of the evolution of technology itself, companies can use methods such as technology introduction, business cooperation, and business mergers and acquisitions combined with independent research and development to ensure the company's technological leadership, reduce the cost of absorption, and promote business growth in a timely manner.

3. Pay attention to R & D investment

Through a large amount of government and enterprise R & D investment, improve the hardware and software facilities of enterprises for scientific and technological research, enhance the level and ability of technological innovation, and enhance the ability of knowledge absorption. Enterprises should combine independent research and development and technology transfer strategies, and invest in research and development resources to improve the level of technology introduction. Enterprises can also establish strategic alliances with each other through cooperation with universities, especially research universities, and continuously improve their ability to absorb knowledge, which will greatly promote the development and promotion of new products.

4. The combination of establishing a learning organization and fostering corporate culture

In an atmosphere full of learning and forging ahead, it is more conducive to the construction of corporate culture and better promotes knowledge management. The establishment of a learning organization and the construction of corporate culture should be combined.

5. Establish a corporate knowledge exchange network

In technology search, establish your own technical information network to collect and transfer the latest research and development information, or you can send personnel to study in technology-leading companies. In terms of skills transfer, enterprises should attach importance to establishing strategic alliances and finding partners, and establish cooperative relationships with advanced enterprises, especially research universities and research institutes.