Determinants of Absorptive Capacity: Contrasting Manufacturing vs Services Enterprises

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the determinants and the consequent of absorptive capacity from the resource‐capability‐performance framework in the Taiwanese manufacturing and service industries. Structural equation modeling is applied to verify the conceptual model. In both of the Taiwanese manufacturing industry and the Taiwanese service industry, this study verifies that resource commitment and resource flexibility are two antecedents of absorptive capacity, and that new product development performance or service innovation performance is its consequent. Besides, the empirical results show that absorptive capacity plays a partial mediator in the manufacturing industry but a full mediator in the service industry. If companies would like to raise their new product development performance or service innovation performance, they have to enhance their resource commitment, resource flexibility, and absorptive capacity. Moreover, this study finds that the resource commitment of small and medium enterprises is significantly less than that of large enterprises in Taiwanese manufacturing industry. This study also finds that resource flexibility of established companies is significantly higher than that of younger companies in Taiwan.