Knowledge asset similarity and business relational capital gains: evidence from European manufacturing firms

This paper leverages the concept of absorptive capacity to explore whether similar configurations of intellectual capital (IC) are associated with the performance of relational capital in firms. It proposes a novel implementation of graph theory to analyse similarities in knowledge assets. We use Community Innovation Survey data to examine 5813 manufacturing firms in 13 business sectors and 13 European countries. While firms rely on external relations to compensate for a lack of internal assets, we find that a company’s propensity to cooperate in innovation is associated with its own IC profile. In particular, firms with common knowledge assets are more likely to benefit from business relational capital. The main contribution of this study lies in a holistic approach to understanding how similarities in knowledge assets are linked to gains in business relational capital.