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Cited by 994Innovation and Knowledge ManagementQuality and Supply ManagementSupply Chain and Inventory Management

Absorptive Capacity Configurations in Supply Chains: Gearing for Partner-Enabled Market Knowledge Creation1

Malhotra, Arvind, Gosain, Sanjay, El Sawy, Omar A.·2005·MIS Quarterly
DOI 10.2307/25148671
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Abstract

The need for continual value innovation is driving supply chains to evolve from a pure transactional focus to leveraging interorganizational partner ships for sharing information and, ultimately, market knowledge creation. Supply chain partners are (1) engaging in interlinked processes that enable rich (broad-ranging, high quality, and privileged) information sharing, and (2) building information technology infrastructures that allow them to process information obtained from their partners to create new knowledge. This study uncovers and examines the variety of supply chain partnership configurations that exist based on differences in capability platforms, reflecting varying processes and information systems. We use the absorptive capacity lens to build a conceptual framework that links these configurations with partner-enabled market knowledge creation. Absorptive capacity refers to the set of organizational routines and processes by which organizations acquire, assimilate, transform, and exploit knowledge to produce dynamic organizational capabilities. Through an exploratory field study conducted in the context of the RosettaNet consortium effort in the IT industry supply chain, we use cluster analysis to uncover and characterize five supply chain partnership configurations (collectors, connectors, crunchers, coercers, and collaborators). We compare their partner-enabled knowledge creation and operational efficiency, as well as the shortcomings in their capability platforms and the nature of information exchange. Through the characterization of each of the configurations, we are able to derive research propositions focused on enterprise absorptive capacity elements. These propositions provide insight into how partner-enabled market knowledge creation and operational efficiency can be affected, and highlight the interconnected roles of coordination information and rich information. The paper concludes by drawing implications for research and practice from the uncovering of these configurations and the resultant research propositions. It also highlights fertile opportunities for advances in research on knowledge management through the study of supply chain contexts and other inter-organizational partnering arrangements.

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  • Service innovation research emphasizes that value is created in use by multiple actors, making digital innovation a collaborative process of resource integration.

    “The emerging literature on service innovation (Barrett et al. 2015;Lusch and Nambisan 2015), including work on value cocreation (Grover and Kohli 2012;Sarker et al. 2012), underlines how value is created in use by many actors, suggesting that digital innovation is a collaborative effort of integrating resources (see Malhotra et al. 2005).”

    From Recombination in the open-ended value landscape of digital innovation (2018) · cites this paper as Malhotra et al. 2005

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Authors
Malhotra, A., Gosain, S., & El Sawy, O. A.
Affiliations
  • University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (US)
  • University of Maryland, College Park (US)
  • Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, U.S.A.
Venue
MIS Quarterly
Publisher
MIS Quarterly
Published
2005-03-01
Volume
29
Issue
1
Pages
145-188
ISSN
  • 0276-7783 (ISSN-L)
  • 2162-9730
DOI
10.2307/25148671
OpenAlex
W1533396945
Cited by
994
References
105
Citations by year
2026: 22 · 2025: 31 · 2024: 28 · 2023: 29 · 2022: 48 · 2021: 43 · 2020: 44 · 2019: 54 · 2018: 49 · 2017: 52 · 2016: 64 · 2015: 63 · 2014: 53 · 2013: 67 · 2012: 76
FWCI
121.84
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
MIS Quarterly (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Strategy and Management › Innovation and Knowledge Management
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Management Information Systems › Quality and Supply Management
  • Social Sciences › Business, Management and Accounting › Management Information Systems › Supply Chain and Inventory Management
Keywords
absorptive capacity, supply chain relationships, inter-organizational collaboration, information sharing, RosettaNet, operational efficiency, knowledge management

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