Technology transfer across organizational boundaries:Absorptive capacity and desorptive capacity

摘要

This article focuses on the concept of desorptive capacity and discusses its implications for outward technology transfer performance in industrial firms. The absorptive capacity refers to a firm's ability to acquire and utilize external knowledge. It focuses exclusively on inward technology transfer and on the recipient in technology transfer processes. The complementary notion of desorptive capacity refers to a firm's outward technology transfer capabilities. The authors integrate the perspectives of the technology source and recipient by discussing potential interactions of absorptive and desorptive capacity in interorganizational technology transfer.