Absorptive capacity and knowledge management in small and medium enterprises

Studies on knowledge management have generated an awareness that it is fundamentally important for small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) to be able to exploit sources of knowledge outside the firm by means of external relationships, but this understanding has not been followed up by an adequate theoretical and empirical research effort to analyse the role of relationships in an SME’s knowledge management processes. The present contribution first sketches this gap on the grounds of the available literature reviews. Then it proposes a framework – focusing the concept of absorptive capacity – with a view to filling this theoretical gap. Finally, based on the proposed framework, two specific topics of considerable importance to SMEs are discussed: (i) how capabilities are developed in the start‐up phase of a new venture; and (ii) knowledge processes in geographical clusters.