Beteiligte: | , , |
---|---|
In: | Marketing Science, 25, 2006, 5, S. 510-524 |
veröffentlicht: |
Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS)
|
Medientyp: | Artikel, E-Artikel |
Umfang: | 510-524 |
---|---|
ISSN: |
0732-2399
1526-548X |
veröffentlicht in: | Marketing Science |
Sprache: | Englisch |
Kollektion: | sid-55-col-jstoras4 sid-55-col-jstorbusiness1archive sid-55-col-jstorbusiness JSTOR Arts & Sciences IV Archive JSTOR Business I Archive JSTOR Business & Economics |
<p>The rapid rate of knowledge obsolescence in many high-technology markets makes it imperative for firms to renew their technological bases constantly. Given its critical importance, excellence in renewal of technological base would serve as a dynamic capability. Drawing on past literature, we identify this dynamic capability associated with acquiring and utilizing external technological know-how with the notion of absorptive capacity (AC). We ask the following questions: (a) What would cause some firms to have a higher AC than others? and, (b) What is the impact of AC on a firm's profitability? We build a conceptual framework suggesting that marketing, R&D, and operations capabilities have a significant positive impact on a firm's AC. We test our framework on a data set of firms in high-technology markets. Using an econometric technique called stochastic frontier estimation, we infer the AC of firms from an observation of the know-how they actually absorb. We find that firm-specific capabilities significantly impact AC. Also, we find that AC has a significant impact on profitability and that this impact is moderated by the pace of technological change: the greater the pace of change, the greater the impact.</p> |