Purpose – This paper aims to ask the question of the contingency of a firm’s absorptive capacity upon the type of expected outcome. Thus, this paper looks at different expected outputs in terms of more or less radical innovations and sees if there are consequences on the absorptive process...

Relying on the extensive study of a multi-national Company, this work proposes a process view of the way firms balance tensions between exploring new knowledge and exploiting old one. First, ideas are generated throughout the organization. These ideas are funneled towards specific project teams...