Absorptive Capacity and Integration with Partners in Ecosystems: Influence on Innovativeness and Business Model Innovativeness

The present study investigates the influence of firms’ absorptive capacity in successfully integrating with suppliers and customers and how that integration can contribute to their innovativeness and ability to capture value in the context of their ecosystem’s relationships. The study articulates the resource-based view and the analysis frameworks for ecosystems and business model innovation. Following a mixed-methods approach, a qualitative study looks to understand how firms identify relevant partners within their ecosystem, how their customers and suppliers contribute to the firm’s innovativeness, and how innovations devised in specific contexts may be extended to new markets, with possible effects in the business model. A sequential quantitative study with 126 firms draws on the insights of the qualitative analysis to develop a research model and the impact of absorptive capacity on the integration with suppliers and customers and on innovativeness and the impact of innovativeness on business model innovativeness. The model results reveal that absorptive capacity is a resource firms may deploy to deepen integration with suppliers and customers but is not a strong determinant of firm innovativeness. Customer integration and proactivity in understanding customers’ needs effectively mediate the effect of absorptive capacity in innovativeness. Furthermore, innovativeness positively influences the ability of firms to implement changes in their business model that contribute to capturing value from the ecosystem’s activities.