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

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.

COVID‐19 crisis andSMEsresponses: The role of digital transformation

“…It is common for SMEs to have only short‐term planning; IT management is oriented only at the operational level and not at the tactical and strategic levels (Pelletier & Cloutier, 2019). Moreover, they often lack infrastructure, tools, and techniques, which affects their absorptive capacity for adoption and integration of new knowledge ( absorptive capacity ; Saad, Kumar, and Bradford (2017). Beyond that, the absence of methods and procedure as well as of knowledge management (only tacit knowledge is often managed, nothing is formalized; Garengo et al, 2005; Moeuf et al, 2016) increases their dependence on tacit knowledge of key employees. Loss of Knowledge : SMEs rely very much on tacit knowledge, and so a loss of key employees (i.e., long‐term, experienced, and skilled staff) can make small business extremely vulnerable (Durst & Wilhelm, 2011), especially during this pandemic.…”

Supply chain sustainability performance measurement of small and medium sized enterprises using structural equation modeling

“…In other words, SMEs have low sustainability awareness (Prabawani 2013). Saad et al (2017) have already pointed out on the differences between SMEs and larger organizations as regards on how the former identify, assimilate, transform, and apply external knowledge that eventually may lead to their awareness, which in turn has positive impacts on their innovation performance (see also Zhai et al 2018).…”

Evolving Absorptive Capacity: The Mediating Role of Systematic Knowledge Management

“…Acquisition of new externally generated knowledge is essential for the development of knowledge within SMEs [43] and critical for operations [44]. Finding and identifying relevant external knowledge is crucial for the development of a firm's knowledge management and enhances organisational learning [45].…”