“CORPORATE UNIVERSITIES” MAKING A STRATEGIC CONTRIBUTION BY ENHANCING ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY

DAAN ASSEN MSc MBA

WORKING PAPER

 Introduction  Our research  Theoretical Concept  Key concepts  First findings

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  Aim: understand the strategic contribution corporate universities can make to innovation in organisations

  Research questions:   What is a corporate university and what models of corporate

universities exist?   How can corporate universities play a strategic role in organisational

learning?   How do corporate universities contribute to strategic innovation?

  Methodology:

  Literature research (stage 1)   Case studies (stage 2) – healthcare, industry   Quantitative research (stage 3)

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OUR RESEARCH IN BRIEF

THEORETICAL CONCEPT

Organisation Context

Corporate University

Configuration

Potential absorptive capacity

Realised absorptive capacity

CORPORATE UNIVERSITY

Advanced Training Department

(operational)

Knowledge Backbone (tactical)

Knowledge Factory

(strategical)

Goal •  Efficiency •  Alignment •  Competitive advantage

Relation to strategy

•  Indirect, re-active •  Direct, re-active •  Direct, pro-active

Activities •  Coordinating training activities

•  Develop and rollout learning initiatives based on corporate strategy

•  Strategic innovation in the corporation via learning and research

Rademakers (2005)

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ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY

Knowledge acquisition

Knowledge assimilation

Knowledge transformation

Knowledge exploitation

Cohen & Levinthal, 1990; Zahra & George, 2002

Dimension Description

Acquisition Refers to a firm’s capability to identify and acquire externally generated knowledge that is critical to its operations.

Assimilation Refers to the firm’s routines and processes that allow it to analyse, process, interpret and understand information obtained from external sources.

Transformation Refers to the firm’s capability to develop and refine the routines that facilitate combining existing knowledge and newly acquired assimilated knowledge.

Exploitation Refers to the routines that allow firms to refine, extend, and leverage existing competencies or to create new ones by incorporating acquired and transformed knowledge into its operations.

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ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY

Zahra & George (2002)

  Corporate university is a misleading and ambiguous concept   Several typologies and development models for corporate universities

exist   Models and typologies are descriptive and provide limited guidance to

implementing a corporate university   Research into corporate universities from a strategic management

perspective is lacking (e.g. contribution to strategic innovation)   Absorptive capacity seems to be an interesting concept to measure a

corporate universities contribution to strategic innovation   Absorptive capacity concept has an external orientation, although a

broader measurement instrument exists (Brettel et al, 2009)

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FIRST FINDINGS