Individual and collective absorptive capacities of new external knowledge: The case of Tunisian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)

摘要

This article attempts to address a company’s absorptive capacity as a dynamic capability made up of a set of organizational learning capacities. We consider the different levels of organizational learning and distinguish between individual and collective absorptive capabilities.Unlike most previous studies, knowledge sharing is considered, here, as a crucial and a full dimension of the company’s absorptive capacity. An operationalization is proposed and a measure scale is constructed for the five absorptive capacity dimensions that are distinguished in thiswork. The Empirical study of 104 Tunisian small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) validates the absorptive capacity conceptualization proposed in this article. It also outlines the main characteristics of this capacity in the Tunisian context.