Absorptive Capacity and Sustainable Competition: Case Study of a Logistic Company in Vietnam

Pham, Dinh Doan (2021) Absorptive Capacity and Sustainable Competition: Case Study of a Logistic Company in Vietnam. Doctoral thesis, Asia e University.

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Abstract

Absorptive Capacity is a popular concept that has been studied as the key source of sustainable competitive advantage of firms. Scholarly works on this issue are diverse and employs multitude of approaches and theories. However, despite many studies carried out, controversies remained with regards to issues related to the focus, factors contributing and diverging views on how Absorptive Capacity as a social construct is related to competitive advantage. This study was conducted to probe deeper into how Absorptive Capacity contributes to sustainability of firm’s competitive advantage. It was carried out as a case study to address a growing concern that past studies had failed to provide a collective understanding and a unified operationalization of the concept of Absorptive Capacity, implying that the construct might have been reified and taken for granted. In addition, there were growing calls for more research on Absorptive Capacity to be conducted in its natural setting to gain greater insights of real life complexity and that issues related to Absorptive Capacity development can be captured and understood. Data was collected through interviews, observations of events and social practices of organizational members and analysis of both historical and current documents. Theoretically, the study adopted strategic management viewpoints and the Resource Based View and Dynamic Capability View provided the theoretical frameworks for analysis. The focus was on building a theory based on the complexity of Absorptive Capacity in real-life setting.The principle finding of this study is that Absorptive Capacity contributes to building of organizational resilience. The Company profited from external information by correctly identify, acquire, process and assimilated into its existing knowledge stock before being exploited for commercial gains. Second, the study found that Absorptive Capacity is a two-stage sequential process. The first is context dependent whilst the second was problem dependent. However, rather than both being linear, the first stage was more cyclical. Third, the transition from the knowledge updates to exploitation was not immediate. The time taken for relevant external information to be captured and assimilated into the firm’s knowledge reservoir is contingent upon its knowledge management structure and the timing gap between the making of decisions to actual implementation depended more on its management and decision making structures. Four, six factors were found to contribute to the development of Absorptive Capacity. Finally, this study suggests a new improved model of Absorptive Capacity development to extend the intellectual discourse on this topic.

Item Type:	Thesis (Doctoral)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Logistic company, vietnam
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HD Industries. Land use. Labor
Depositing User:	Aida Rashidah Maajis
Date Deposited:	07 Apr 2021 07:54
Last Modified:	07 Apr 2021 07:54
URI:	http://ur.aeu.edu.my/id/eprint/863

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