KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER: CONTRIBUTIONS FROM KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND THE ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY

Abstract

This paper studies the influence of knowledge management (km) and the absorptive capacity (acap) in promoting greater commitment and willingness within organizations towards inter-firms knowledge transfer, which ultimately results in better performance in terms of inno-vation. Hence, understanding the elements that provide effectiveness to inter-firms knowledge transfer could help companies exchange important knowledge among each other and thereby improve their knowledge stocks, thus leading to better innovation performance. Methodologically, this is a descriptive study, developed through a bibliometric analysis of the 60 most cited articles on knowledge management and absorptive capacity available in the Web of Science database. Using vosviewer software, we performed a cluster analysis in order to group the articles dealing with knowledge transfer, which allowed identif ying the theoretical foundations of the works cited. This research also identified some potentializing, mediating and consequential elements for inter-firm knowledge transfer and acap. Our propositions serve as guidelines for managers to develop strategies that result in better innovation performance for their organizations.