Absorptive Capacity and Technology Knowledge: Enhancing Relational Capital

• Author: Antonio‐Juan Briones‐Peñalver,Carlos Lopez Cano Vieira,Juan‐Gabriel Cegarra‐Navarro
• Published date: 01 October 2015
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/kpm.1494
• Date: 01 October 2015

■Research Article

Absorptive Capacity and Technology

Knowledge: Enhancing Relational Capital

Carlos Lopez Cano Vieira

1

, Antonio-Juan Briones-Peñalver

2

*and

Juan-Gabriel Cegarra-Navarro

2

1

Universidade do Algarve, Portimao, Portugal

2

Universidad Politécnica de Cartagena, Facultad de Ciencias de la Empresa, Calle Real 3, 30201, Spain

The purposes of this study are to examine the relationship between absorptive capacity and relational capital and to

identify a potential stock of technology knowledge (T-knowledge) that can act as a catalyst for these relationships. We

also examine the relative importance and significance of ‘intentional unlearning’as a bridge between ‘relational

capital’and ‘T-knowledge’and the existence and enhancement of relational capital. These relationships are examined

through an empirical investigation of 125 Portuguese companies.

Portugal is facing an extremely difficult economic situation and thousands of jobs have been lost. As a result, the

ability for organisations to create, transfer, assemble, integrate and use relational capital as leverage is fundamental

to achieving a competitive advantage or, indeed, survival. Associação Empresarial da Região do Algarve (NERA) is

a non-profit organisation of an inter-sectoral nature associated with the Portuguese Industrial Association

representing the Algarve.

Analysis of the data indicates that if the organisation considers the establishment of a stock of T-knowledge as a prior

step to the enhancement of unlearning, then unlearning has a positive influence on the conditions that stimulate the

enhancement of relational capital. Our main conclusion is that creation of relational capital by NERA members will

depend to a significant extent on how managers acquire, analyse, interpret, and understand new external knowledge.

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

INTRODUCTION

The concept of absorptive capacity (ACAP) may be

defined as a company’s‘ability to recognise the

value of new information, assimilate it, and apply

it to commercial ends’(Cohen & Levinthal, 1990).

Szulanski (1996) further considers that ACAP also

encompasses the learning ability and problem solv-

ing skills that enable a company to assimilate

knowledge and create technology knowledge

(T-knowledge). The term T-knowledge refers to

those capabilities that potentially enable technology

users to find the right answer in the right place at

the right time with the support of a specific techno-

logy (Cegarra et al., 2012). In the case of information

and communications technology, this T-knowledge

includes knowledge of operating systems and appli-

cation software, as well as knowledge of computer

hardware and the ability to instal and remove

peripheral devices, instal and remove software

programmes and create and archive documents

(Nohria & Gulati, 1996; Sharma, 2000).

Relational capital is one of the three primary com-

ponents of intellectual capital and is the value inherent

in a company’s relationships with its customers, com-

petitors, and other external stakeholders. It should be

noted here that while ACAP recognises the value of

new, external information, assimilate it and apply it

to commercial ends (Cohen & Levinthal, 1990; Zahra

& George, 2002), T-knowledge is ‘knowledge’about

organisational technologies such as administrative

and communication tools, as well as best practices

for operationalising these technologies (Nohria &

Gulati, 1996; Sharma, 2000). Because relational

capital depends on both external connectivity and

technological networks, ACAP and T-knowledge are

two different routes to interpret the meaning of the

external knowledge and to exploit it to improve

customer service.

The current business environment is characterised

by a shift from the old order of predictability,

*Correspondence to: Antonio-Juan Briones-Peñalver, Universidad

Politécnica de Cartagena, Facultad de Ciencias de la Empresa, Calle

Real 3, 30201 Spain

E-mail: aj.briones@upct.es

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Knowledge and Process Management

Volume 22 Number 4 pp 305–317 (2015)

Published online in Wiley Online Library

(www.wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/kpm.1494