Organizational Culture and Absorptive Capacity: The Meaning for SMEs

Firms are increasingly collaborating with outside partners to access external knowledge that will enable them to successfully innovate and remain competitive in the marketplace. To apply external knowledge, they must have a distinctive capacity to absorb knowledge. One of the main influencing factors for absorptive capacity is a knowledge-friendly organizational culture, because the knowledge absorbing behavior of individuals can be better coordinated through implicit values and norms than through structural coordination instruments. When focusing on an organization’s overall behavior, it is important to investigate in detail how a knowledge-friendly organizational culture influences absorptive capacity. Therefore, the author analysis the relationship between organizational culture and absorptive capacity and shows how a knowledge-friendly organizational culture should be designed to support the absorption of external knowledge in SMEs.

Contents
The Impact, Meaning and Challenges of External Knowledge Absorption
The Conceptual Principles of Absorptive Capacity and Organizational Culture
A Model of External Knowledge Absorption
Implications for a Knowledge-Friendly Culture

Target Groups
Students and lecturers of innovation management
Decision makers in knowledge management