Necessary and sufficient conditions for the absorptive capacity of firms that interact with universities

A complex concept, absorptive capacity was first introduced by Cohen and Levinthal (1989, 1990) and is connected to the Penrose theory of growth of firms ([1959] 2009) as it is related to a variety of firms’ internal resources and external aspects of their environment, such as sources of knowledge. Considering firms that interact with universities in the search for external knowledge, this paper aims to identify the necessary and sufficient conditions of these firms to reach certain levels of absorptive capacity. We conducted a survey of firms that interacted with engineering research groups at universities in the state of Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil). We applied the Fuzzy Sets Comparative Qualitative Analysis. The main results were: (1) the necessary and sufficient conditions for high-level absorptive capacity are a combination of high acquisition and assimilation and medium transformation and exploitation; (2) the necessary and sufficient conditions for medium or non-high absorptive capacity are obtained by medium levels of acquisition, assimilation, transformation and exploitation; and c) that there are a variety of paths to improving the absorptive capacity of firms. These findings are important to formulating more diverse, flexible and less costly public policies aimed towards improving firms’ absorptive capacity.