Absorptive Capacity, External Knowledge Search, and Radical Innovation: A fsQCA Analysis

Radical innovation requires firms’ ability to utilize external knowledge in the innovation process. Taking a fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) approach, this study explores the relationship between a firm’s absorptive capacity, external knowledge search strategies, and radical innovation from a holistic perspective. The results verified the complex complementarities between external knowledge search and absorptive capacity in affecting radical innovation and indicated a number of different configurational paths for high radical innovations. This study extends the theoretical framework of absorptive capacity, resolves competing findings in external knowledge search literature, and provides different pathways to high radical innovations.