Tendencies of the Absorptive Capacity and Its Correlation with Innovation and the Incubated Companies’ Performance

Abstract

This study aims at mapping the scientific production of absorptive capacity (ACAP) and identifying how these studies analyse the correlation of ACAP with company innovation and with organisational performance. For such, a bibliometric study was carried out, and it used criteria that selected the main articles that have been published on absorptive capacity in two research bases—ISI Web of Science and Scopus—within a temporal cut from the past 5 years (2014–2018). With the help of the HistCiteTM and VOSviewer software, it was possible to select the articles that addressed the correlation of absorptive capacity with company innovation and organisational performance in the incubated companies’ context. By analysing these articles’ findings, it can be concluded that the absorptive capacity is an antecedent of innovation in companies and has a positive correlation with organisational performance. The studies’ tendencies show that the factors which help with the external knowledge intake are social networks, bonds with agents and partner proximity. However, the incubated companies need the incubators’ support to help with these factors, since they are novice companies and do not keep in touch with important partners. They also need to know how to explore and transform external knowledge into internal benefits.