The combination of external new knowledge and organizational capability has become a cornerstone in the internationalized enterprises. Sources of knowledge acquisition are among the most valuable resources that an internationalized firm can achieve competitive advantage. This study aims to explore this phenomenon between knowledge sources and competitive advantage in the context of internationalized small and medium enterprises (SMEs) mainly by a quantitative approach. Based on contextual nature of resource–capability–competitive, absorptive capacity has long been a critical construct in organizational studies, as well as referring relational embeddedness as potential drivers of absorptive capacity, which is moderated by learning orientation. This study also investigates the mediating effect of absorptive capacity in terms of knowledge absorption and integration on international competitive advantage. To gain insights and provide essential implications for internationalized SMEs from the global economy, this study adopted purposive sampling to collect 211 valid responses. Via the partial least-squares structural modeling, the relationships among relational embeddedness, potential and realized absorptive capacity, and competitive advantage were measured. The results suggest that relational embeddedness positively influences potential and realized absorptive capacity with moderating effect of learning orientation. Potential and realized absorptive capacities have full mediating effect between relational embeddedness and competitive advantage. This study concludes insights and implications for research and practice.

Higher education policy and manpower training have failed to meet the requirement of rapidly changing society and employers' expectation in Taiwan, resulting in a significant gap between university education and employment. Student employability should also be a focus of all higher education institutions, although whether a high degree of student learning outcomes can represent a high degree of student employability is still unclear. This study explores the relationships among pedagogy for employability, the problem-based teaching mode, absorptive capacity, and student employability in higher education institutions (HEIs). Based on analysis of a total sample of 553 undergraduates from 16 Taiwanese HEIs using structural equation modeling, the results show that the influences of pedagogy for employability and the problem-based teaching mode on absorptive capacity and student employability are positively statistically significant. Based on the findings, specific suggestions and managerial implications for HEIs, curriculum and instruction planning, and future research are provided.