Relações entre capacidade de absorção de conhecimento, sistemas de memória organizacional e desempenho financeiro

Abstract

Abstract : This study focuses on the important issue of measuring absorptivecapacity and its relations with other constructs, in the organizational context. The main purpose of this work is to examine the relationshipsbetween absorptive capacity (AC), organizational memory systems(OMS) and organizational financial performance (OFP). The theoricalperspective adopted defines and operationalizes AC as amultidimensional construct made up of two main subsets, one "potential" and other "realizized". Based on argum nts grounded inprevious studies, four hypotheses are developed, associating bothdimensions with the use of information technology (IT)-based OMS,and with OFD. The empirical study follows a cross-sectional surveydesign conducted in 101 companies from the software and IT servicessector in Florianopolis, Brazil. A confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)reveals the reliability and validity of the construct measurements.Structural equation modeling (SEM) is used to test the hypotheses. Theresults indicate that (i) the use of IT-based OMS positively affects thepotential AC of the organizations studied; however, (ii) no significantpositive relationship was found between the use of these memorysystems and the realized AC; on the other hand (iii) the potential AC ispositively and significantly associated with the realized AC; and (iv)this realized AC is significantly associated with the OFP, suggesting thata high level of realized AC has a positive impact on the financial resultsof the companies studied. This study contributes to linking the twointerdisciplinary research fields of organizational memory and AC byconducting an empirical analysis of the conceptual relations establishedby the scientific literature. The work concludes with a broaderdiscussion of the theoretical and practical implications of the findings,and future research trajectories are presented.