The effects of absorptive capacity on operational performance within the context of customer-supplier relationships

Companies evolve in an environment characterized by constant innovation and where knowledge is recognized as a strategic resource. Relationships among various business partners constitute a pool of valuable, rare, and inimitable knowledge. The literature nevertheless reveals that the exchange of knowledge is difficult to convert into performance improvement within the framework of customer-supplier relationships. How can this be explained? In this article, we propose a conceptual integrative model suggesting how suppliers can improve their performance through the acquisition of knowledge within the framework of relationships developed with their customers. At the heart of this model, absorptive capacity emerges as a key variable distinguishing firms that have difficulty exchanging knowledge from those with a real aptitude for recognizing the value of new external information, assimilating it, and applying it to maintain a competitive advantage. By adopting the supplier's perspective, this paper offers an innovative perspective on the study of links between absorptive capacity (relative and absolute), knowledge acquisition, and performance improvement.