关键词: 个体吸收能力, 组织吸收能力, 知识共享

Abstract:  How the absorptive capability elvoves from the individual level to the organizational level has always been the focal point in the field of mangement. The concept of absorptive capacity was first proposed by Cohen and Levinihal in 1990. The core of absorptive capacity is to reveal how enterprises acquire, assimilate, transform and utilize external knowledge. As an important dynamic capability of an enterprise, this concept has been widely used to explain the complex problems in macro-strategic formulation and micro-product innovation. According to Cohen and Leviniha, On the one hand, the absorptive capacity of enterprises depends on the individual absorptive capacity; on the other hand, it is not equal to the simple accumulation of individual absorptive capacity. Firstly, absorptive capacity originates from the individual in the enterprise, which is the starting point of the absorptive capacity of the organization; secondly, only by evoving the absorptive capacity from individual level to the organization level, can it have more theoretical value and practical significance. Although this issue has drawn attention since it was put forward, Volberda et al. (2010) have reviewed the research literature in the field of absorptive capacity and found that there is still no clear explanation on how absorptive capacity is formed from the interaction between individuals and organizations.The revelation of the above problems is not only of theoretical contrubutions, but also of great practical implications. Over the past 20 years, a number of Chinese local enterprises have begun to rise. As Chinese local enterprises, especially emerging enterprises, are in a weak and backward state, and they are facing double disadvantages of technology and market. It is an important innovation strategy for many Chinese local enterprises to achieve innovation catch-up by acquring and assimilating external knowledge. For example, although Huawei is a high-tech enterprise with strong innovation capacity, it does not adhere to original innovation, but actively advocates minimizing its own invention and creation in the process of innovation, emphasizing on focusing on the technological achievements of previous products and the absorption of external knowledge and technology. On the issue of how to improve the absorptive capacity, many enterprises are facing the paradox of individual-organization duality at the practical level. The core problem is how to upgrade the absorptive capacity of individuals with independent behavior preferences to organizational absorptive capacity through effective organizational management mechanism.How does individual absorptive capacity evovle to organizational absorptive capacity? Past studies have explained it from the perspectives of organizational structure, incentive mechanism and network structure. Unlike these relatively static perspectives, we adopt the view of inter-subject interaction to reveal this issue, and believe that inter-subject knowledge sharing is a mediator of the evolution from individual absorptive capacity to organizational absorptive capacity. This theoretical presupposition is based on Habermas’s theory of communication and action. Its core view is that only through communication and interaction among the subjects, can a certain social consensus be reached and knowledge binding on all participants be formed. We believe that when there is consensus among the subjects and collective constrained knowledge is formed, knowledge memory at the organizational level can be formed, thereby promoting individual absorptive capacity to move beyond the threshold of "ego" to a more macro organizational level. At the same time, the degree of organizational centralization affects the digestion and utilization of knowledge at the organizational level. Knowledge exchange platform based on information technology and organizational common vision affect knowledge sharing among individuals. As the influencing factors of organizational knowledge absorption and individual knowledge sharing, they will affect the dynamic evolution absorptive capacity from individual levels to organizational levels.To test the above theoretical assumptions, this paper applied the empirical research paradigm based on the data from 275 enterprises. The empirical results indicate that knowledge sharing among individuals mediats the effect of absorptive capacity in individual level on absorptive capacity in organizational level. The empirical results also show that knowledge exchange platforms and shared organizational vision positively affect knowledge sharing among individuals, and the degree of centralization of organizational decision-making negatively affects organizational absorptive capacity.By studying the evolution from individual absorptive capability to organizational absorptive capability, this paper aims to make several contributions. Firstly, this paper reveals the evolution mechanism of absorptive capacity from individual level to organinzation level with the mediating effects of inter-subject knowledge sharing. The duality between individual and organization is the basic problem in the field of organizational learning and knowledge management. As Nonaka pointed out, how individual knowledge rises to organizational knowledge is the core of knowledge management research. As for absorptive capacity, revealing the evolution mechanism of absorptive capacity from individual level to organizational level is not only a basic theoretical issue in the field of absorptive capacity, but also of great practical values.An important theoretical contribution of this study is that this paper confirms inter-subject knowledge sharing mediating the process of the absorptive capacity evolution from individual level to organizational level. Secondly, this paper reveals the mechanism that the cross-level evolution of absorptive capacity is affected by different levels of factors. In the individual level, knowledge exchange platforms and the common vision of organizations have positive effect on the knowledge sharing among individuals. At the organizational level, the degree of centralization of organizational decision-making negatively affects the absorptive capacity of the organization. This paper uncovers the antecents of inter-individual knowledge sharing and organizational absorptive capacity, which contributes to the studies of absorptive capacity.Finally, this paper reveals the effect mechanism of organizational absorptive capacity on product innovation performance. Zahra and George differentiate the absorptive capacity into potential absorptive capacity and realized absorptive capacity. Potential absorptive capacity is a kind of knowledge accumulated capacity for enterprises, and the knowledge resources provides knowledge assets for enterprise product innovation. Realized absorptive capacity emphasizes the enterprises’ capacity of knowledge transformation and utilization. The stronger is the realized absorptive capacity, the stronger is the capability of enterprises applying knowledge resources to conduct R&D activities for innovation; thus,the better is the promotion of product innovation performance.

Key words:  individual absorptive capacity, organizational absorptive capacity, knowledge sharing