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Presentation for the International HRD Conference 2010 in Pecs, Hungary.
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“CORPORATE UNIVERSITIES” MAKING A STRATEGIC CONTRIBUTION BY ENHANCING ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY
DAAN ASSEN MSc MBA
WORKING PAPER
Introduction Our research Theoretical Concept Key concepts First findings
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Aim: understand the strategic contribution corporate universities can make to innovation in organisations
Research questions: What is a corporate university and what models of corporate
universities exist? How can corporate universities play a strategic role in organisational
learning? How do corporate universities contribute to strategic innovation?
Methodology:
Literature research (stage 1) Case studies (stage 2) – healthcare, industry Quantitative research (stage 3)
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OUR RESEARCH IN BRIEF
THEORETICAL CONCEPT
Organisation Context
Corporate University
Configuration
Potential absorptive capacity
Realised absorptive capacity
CORPORATE UNIVERSITY
Advanced Training Department
(operational)
Knowledge Backbone (tactical)
Knowledge Factory
(strategical)
Goal • Efficiency • Alignment • Competitive advantage
Relation to strategy
• Indirect, re-active • Direct, re-active • Direct, pro-active
Activities • Coordinating training activities
• Develop and rollout learning initiatives based on corporate strategy
• Strategic innovation in the corporation via learning and research
Rademakers (2005)
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ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY
Knowledge acquisition
Knowledge assimilation
Knowledge transformation
Knowledge exploitation
Cohen & Levinthal, 1990; Zahra & George, 2002
Dimension Description
Acquisition Refers to a firm’s capability to identify and acquire externally generated knowledge that is critical to its operations.
Assimilation Refers to the firm’s routines and processes that allow it to analyse, process, interpret and understand information obtained from external sources.
Transformation Refers to the firm’s capability to develop and refine the routines that facilitate combining existing knowledge and newly acquired assimilated knowledge.
Exploitation Refers to the routines that allow firms to refine, extend, and leverage existing competencies or to create new ones by incorporating acquired and transformed knowledge into its operations.
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ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY
Zahra & George (2002)
Corporate university is a misleading and ambiguous concept Several typologies and development models for corporate universities
exist Models and typologies are descriptive and provide limited guidance to
implementing a corporate university Research into corporate universities from a strategic management
perspective is lacking (e.g. contribution to strategic innovation) Absorptive capacity seems to be an interesting concept to measure a
corporate universities contribution to strategic innovation Absorptive capacity concept has an external orientation, although a
broader measurement instrument exists (Brettel et al, 2009)
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FIRST FINDINGS
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