Abstract
The external sourcing of knowledge plays an important role for nurturing an organization’s innovativeness. In order to harness this resource, organizations need absorptive capacity (ACAP), i.e. the know-how to identify, assimilate, transform, and exploit external knowledge. Higher levels of ACAP will increase the performance of converting external knowledge to economic ends. But is this equally true for different forms of innovation orientation? The exploration of new knowledge and the deepening of familiar knowledge require different approaches and management regimes. We explore whether the impact of ACAP is different for exploration and exploitation. Preliminary results by Partial least square show that potential absorptive capacity positively moderates the effect of innovation orientation on innovation performance. Further data will allow testing for the above-mentioned difference.