Firms are
increasingly collaborating with outside partners to access external
knowledge that will enable them to successfully innovate and remain
competitive in the marketplace. To apply external knowledge, they must
have a distinctive capacity to absorb knowledge. One of the main
influencing factors for absorptive capacity is a knowledge-friendly
organizational culture, because the knowledge absorbing behavior of
individuals can be better coordinated through implicit values and norms
than through structural coordination instruments. When focusing on an
organization's overall behavior, it is important to investigate in
detail how a knowledge-friendly organizational culture influences
absorptive capacity. Therefore, the author analysis the relationship
between organizational culture and absorptive capacity and shows how a
knowledge-friendly organizational culture should be designed to support
the absorption of external knowledge in SMEs. © Springer Fachmedien
Wiesbaden 2014. All rights are reserved.