Friday, 23 June 2017
Council Room, Birkbeck’s Main Building, Malet Street
Following the seminal work by Cohen and Levinthal the concept of absorptive capacity has been used extensively in innovation studies. Yet its conceptualization and its operationalization are far from agreed on in the literature. While most works apply the concept at the firm level – the level to which was originally applied to by Cohen and Levinthal – an increasing number of works have tried to apply it at the macro level. Whichever the level it is applied at, the concept and its operationalization have implications for policies at either the macro or micro level or at both.
This workshop aims to stimulate discussion on as many as possible of the following issues:
- Conceptualization at macro and micro levels: what do we mean by absorptive capacity and why is it relevant?
- How do we operationalize the concept? Is operationalization to be different at macro and micro levels?
- What are the policy implications of absorptive capacity and how are they related to our conceptualization and operationalization?
- Other related areas as suggested by invited speakers
Workshop programme
| 10:00 – 10:15 | Registration and Coffee |
| 10:15 – 10:30 | Welcome Address by Helen Lawton Smith, Director of the Centre for Innovation Management Research, Birkbeck |
| 10:30 – 11:15 | Presentation: Developing indicators of absorptive capacity, Marion Frenz and Grazia Ietto-Gillies, Centre for Innovation Management Research, Birkbeck |
| 11:15 – 12:00 | Presentation: Realizing potential: the effect of absorptive capacity on organizational performance under environmental dynamism and exposure, Abderaouf Bouguerra, Warwick Business School, Warwick University |
| 12:00 – 13:00 | Lunch |
| 13:00 – 13:45 | Presentation: The appropriation of absorptive capacity: a cross-country analysis on the role of institutions, Lance Cosaert, Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University |
| 13:45 – 14:30 | Presentation: Knowledge context, learning and innovation: an integrating framework, Stephen Roper, Enterprise Research Centre and Warwick Business School, Warwick University |
| 14:30 – 15:00 | Coffee |
| 15:00 – 16:30 | Round-table discussion: Absorptive capacity: measurements and implications for policy, Chair: Daniele Archibugi, Centre for Innovation Management Research, Birkbeck
Participants: Davide Castellani, University of Reading; Slavo Radosevic, University College London, Ray Lambert, Centre for Innovation Management Research, Birkbeck, |
| 16:30 – 17:00 | Summing up and farewell, Jeremy Howells, Kellogg College, University of Oxford |
Organizers
- Marion Frenz, m.frenz@bbk.ac.uk
- Grazia Ietto-Gillies, g.iettogillies@yahoo.co.uk
