| This study examined the absorptive capacity construct at the team level: its definition, the inter-relationships among its dimensions, its influence on the innovation characteristics of radicalness and technology recency, and its relationship to R&D resources. Absorptive capacity was defined as a team's capability to complete the entire process from recognition of valuable, new, external knowledge through assimilation, internal sharing, and application to commercial ends.; Survey data were collected from 96 innovation project teams and analyzed using AMOS and PLS. The results supported the value dimension's hypothesized positive relationship to the share and assimilate dimensions. The apply dimension mediated the effect of the other dimensions, except value, on innovation radicalness and it mediated the effect of the other dimensions, except assimilation, on technology recency.; Archival data were collected from patents corresponding to each of these projects. The percent of external sources in the cited references was positively correlated with perceptual measures for the apply dimension and overall absorptive capacity; however, construct validity could not be similarly validated for the other archival proxies. Analysis of a larger patent sample (N = 402) using logistic and OLS regression supported the hypothesized relationships among the value, share, and assimilate dimensions, but not the mediation role for the apply dimension. |
