An investigation into the development of the absorptive capacity of manufacturing SMEs

Mohammed Saad, Vikas Kumar and John Bradford

International Journal of Production Research, 2017, vol. 55, issue 23, 6916-6931

Abstract: To sustain their competitive advantage in a highly competitive landscape, SMEs, in spite of their limited resources, need to effectively learn. The ability to access and successfully use knowledge is at the heart of absorptive capacity. The main purpose of this empirical study is to investigate the importance of awareness as an antecedent dimension of the concept of absorptive capacity of manufacturing SMEs from aerospace and advanced engineering industry in the UK. The study will also attempt to explore the impact of awareness on the other dimensions of absorptive capacity. Awareness is related to the importance, motivation and interest of learning and innovating. Our study, which focuses on internal processes adopts a mixed method approach and is based on the data collected from 43 SMEs. Our finding suggests that awareness as an antecedent dimension can play a vital role in helping SMEs to improve their knowledge-based resources through changes within their internal organisational and cognitive processes.

Date: 2017
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/00207543.2017.1327728 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:tprsxx:v:55:y:2017:i:23:p:6916-6931

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/TPRS20

DOI: 10.1080/00207543.2017.1327728

Access Statistics for this article

International Journal of Production Research is currently edited by Professor A. Dolgui

More articles in International Journal of Production Research from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().