The Need for Absorptive Capacity Alleviates the Free-Rider Problem in Knowledge Production

Published Online:https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2024.06471

References

  • Alchian AA, Demsetz H (1972) Production, information costs, and economic organization. Amer. Econom. Rev. 62(5):777–795.Google Scholar
  • Alexander PA (1996) The past, present, and future of knowledge research: A reexamination of the role of knowledge in learning and instruction. Ed. Psych. 31(2):89–92.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Aoki K, Feldman MW (2014) Evolution of learning strategies in temporally and spatially variable environments: A review of theory. Theoret. Population Biol. 91:3–19.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Argote L (1999) Organizational Learning: Creating, Retaining and Transferring Knowledge (Springer Science & Business Media, New York).Google Scholar
  • Argote L, Ingram P (2000) Knowledge transfer: A basis for competitive advantage in firms. Organ. Behav. Human Decision Processes 82(1):150–169.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Argote L, McEvily B, Reagans R (2003) Managing knowledge in organizations: An integrative framework and review of emerging themes. Management Sci. 49(4):571–582.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Argote L, Guo J, Park SS, Hahl O (2022) The mechanisms and components of knowledge transfer: The virtual special issue on knowledge transfer within organizations. Organ. Sci. 33(3):1232–1249.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Arrow K (1962) Economic welfare and the allocation of resources for invention. Universities-National Bureau Committee for Economic Research & Committee on Economic Growth of the Social Science Research Council, ed. The Rate and Direction of Inventive Activity: Economic and Social Factors (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ), 609–626.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Bernstein E, Shore J, Lazer D (2018) How intermittent breaks in interaction improve collective intelligence. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 115(35):8734–8739.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Bittermann A, McNamara D, Simonsmeier BA, Schneider M (2023) The landscape of research on prior knowledge and learning: A bibliometric analysis. Ed. Psych. Rev. 35(2):58.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Boyd R, Richerson PJ (1995) Why does culture increase human adaptability? Ethology Sociobiology 16(2):125–143.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Boyd R, Richerson PJ, Meinzen-Dick R, De Moor T, Jackson MO, Gjerde KM, Harden-Davies H, et al. (2018) Tragedy revisited. Science 362(6420):1236–1241.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Brahm F, Poblete J (2024) Organizational culture, adaptation, and performance. Organ. Sci. 35(5):1823–1848.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Brown T, Mann B, Ryder N, Subbiah M, Kaplan JD, Dhariwal P, Neelakantan A, et al. (2020) Language models are few-shot learners. NeurIPS 33:1877–1901.Google Scholar
  • Cabrera A, Cabrera EF (2002) Knowledge-sharing dilemmas. Organ. Stud. 23(5):687–710.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Chaudhuri A (2011) Sustaining cooperation in laboratory public goods experiments: A selective survey of the literature. Experiment. Econom. 14(1):47–83.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Christiansen MH, Chater N (2016) The now-or-never bottleneck: A fundamental constraint on language. Behav. Brain Sci. 39:e62.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Coase RH (1937) The nature of the firm. Economica 4(16):386–405.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Cohen WM, Levinthal DA (1989) Innovation and learning: The two faces of R & D. Econom. J. 99(397):569–596.Google Scholar
  • Cohen WM, Levinthal DA (1990) Absorptive capacity: A new perspective on learning and innovation. Admin. Sci. Quart. 35(1):128–152.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Corgnet B, Hernán-González R, Schniter E (2015) Why real leisure really matters: Incentive effects on real effort in the laboratory. Experiment. Econom. 18(2):284–301.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Cress U, Kimmerle J, Hesse FW (2006) Information exchange with shared databases as a social dilemma: The effect of metaknowledge, bonus systems, and costs. Comm. Res. 33(5):370–390.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Darr ED, Argote L, Epple D (1995) The acquisition, transfer, and depreciation of knowledge in service organizations: Productivity in franchises. Management Sci. 41(11):1750–1762.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Davenport TH, Prusak L (1998) Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know (Harvard Business Press, Boston).Google Scholar
  • Ehn M, Laland K (2012) Adaptive strategies for cumulative cultural learning. J. Theoret. Biol. 301:103–111.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Ellis HC (1965) The Transfer of Learning (Macmillan, New York).Google Scholar
  • Enquist M, Ghirlanda S (2007) Evolution of social learning does not explain the origin of human cumulative culture. J. Theoret. Biol. 246(1):129–135.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Enquist M, Eriksson K, Ghirlanda S (2007) Critical social learning: A solution to Rogers’s paradox of nonadaptive culture. Amer. Anthropologist 109(4):727–734.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Estes WK (1970) Learning Theory and Mental Development (Academic Press, New York).Google Scholar
  • Fischbacher U, Gächter S (2010) Social preferences, beliefs, and the dynamics of free riding in public goods experiments. Amer. Econom. Rev. 100(1):541–556.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Fleur DS, Bredeweg B, van den Bos W (2021) Metacognition: Ideas and insights from neuro- and educational sciences. NPJ Sci. Learn. 6(1):13.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Frischmann BM, Madison MJ, Strandburg KJ (2014) Governing Knowledge Commons (Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK).CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Gächter S, Von Krogh G, Haefliger S (2010) Initiating private-collective innovation: The fragility of knowledge sharing. Res. Policy 39(7):893–906.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Grant RM (1996) Toward a knowledge-based theory of the firm. Strategic Management J. 17(S2):109–122.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Grant RM, Baden-Fuller C (2004) A knowledge accessing theory of strategic alliances. J. Management Stud. 41(1):61–84.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Grossman SJ, Hart OD (1986) The costs and benefits of ownership: A theory of vertical and lateral integration. J. Political Econom. 94(4):691–719.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Grossman SJ, Stiglitz JE (1980) On the impossibility of informationally efficient markets. Amer. Econom. Rev. 70(3):393–408.Google Scholar
  • Guido A, Derex M, Romaniuc R (2024) Network connectivity and repeated interactions in an information sharing dilemma. Ann. Econom. Statist. 154(June):51–76.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Hart O, Moore J (1990) Property-right and the nature of the firm. J. Political Econom. 98(6):1119–1158.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Haunschild PR, Miner AS (1997) Modes of interorganizational imitation: The effects of outcome salience and uncertainty. Admin. Sci. Quart. 42(3):472–500.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Hergueux J, Henry E, Benkler Y, Algan Y (2023) Social exchange and the reciprocity roller coaster: Evidence from the life and death of virtual teams. Organ. Sci. 34(6):2296–2314.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Holmström B, Roberts J (1998) The boundaries of the firm revisited. J. Econom. Perspect. 12(4):73–94.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Ip G (2025) Will AI choke off the supply of knowledge? Wall Street J. (September 7), https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/will-ai-choke-off-the-supply-of-knowledge-8a71cbcd.Google Scholar
  • Janis IL (1972) Victims of Groupthink: A Psychological Study of Foreign-Policy Decisions and Fiascoes (Houghton Mifflin, Oxford, UK).Google Scholar
  • Kameda T, Nakanishi D (2002) Cost–benefit analysis of social/cultural learning in a nonstationary uncertain environment: An evolutionary simulation and an experiment with human subjects. Evolution Human Behav. 23(5):373–393.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Kameda T, Nakanishi D (2003) Does social/cultural learning increase human adaptability?: Rogers’s question revisited. Evolution Human Behav. 24(4):242–260.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Kamei K, Markussen T (2023) Free riding and workplace democracy—Heterogeneous task preferences and sorting. Management Sci. 69(7):3884–3904.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Kane AA (2010) Unlocking knowledge transfer potential: Knowledge demonstrability and superordinate social identity. Organ. Sci. 21(3):643–660.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Kharratzadeh M, Montrey M, Metz A, Shultz TR (2017) Specialized hybrid learners resolve Rogers’ paradox about the adaptive value of social learning. J. Theoret. Biol. 414:8–16.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Klein B, Crawford RG, Alchian AA (1978) Vertical integration, appropriable rents, and the competitive contracting process. J. Law Econom. 21(2):297–326.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Kogut B, Zander U (1992) Knowledge of the firm, combinative capabilities, and the replication of technology. Organ. Sci. 3(3):383–397.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Kollock P, Smith M (1996) Managing the virtual commons: Cooperation and conflict in computer communities. Herring S, ed. Computer-Mediated Communication: Linguistic, Social, and Cross-Cultural Perspectives (John Benjamins, Amsterdam), 109–128.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Lake BM, Ullman TD, Tenenbaum JB, Gershman SJ (2017) Building machines that learn and think like people. Behav. Brain Sci. 40:e253.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Leahey E, Beckman CM, Stanko TL (2017) Prominent but less productive: The impact of interdisciplinarity on scientists’ research. Admin. Sci. Quart. 62(1):105–139.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Legare CH (2019) The development of cumulative cultural learning. Annual Rev. Developmental Psych. 1(1):119–147.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Levinthal D, March J (1993) The myopia of learning. Strategic Management J. 14(S2):95–112.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Levitt B, March JG (1988) Organizational learning. Annual Rev. Sociol. 14(1):319–338.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Lewis K, Herndon B (2011) Transactive memory systems: Current issues and future research directions. Organ. Sci. 22(5):1254–1265.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Li X, Wagner S (2024) The hidden cost of R&D alliances. Acad. Management Proc., ePub ahead of print July 9, https://doi.org/10.5465/AMPROC.2024.14814abstract.Google Scholar
  • Loberg L, Nüesch S, Foege JN (2021) Forced distribution rating systems and team collaboration. J. Econom. Behav. Organ. 188:18–35.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Logan GD (2018) Automatic control: How experts act without thinking. Psych. Rev. 125(4):453–485.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Madison MJ, Frischmann BM, Strandburg KJ (2010) Constructing commons in the cultural environment. Cornell Law Rev. 95(4):657.Google Scholar
  • March JG (1991) Exploration and exploitation in organizational learning. Organ. Sci. 2(1):71–87.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Maritan CA, Brush TH (2003) Heterogeneity and transferring practices: Implementing flow manufacturing in multiple plants. Strategic Management J. 24(10):945–959.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Moser KS (2017) The influence of feedback and expert status in knowledge sharing dilemmas. Appl. Psych. 66(4):674–709.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Murray LJ (2014) Exchange practices among nineteenth-century U.S. newspaper editors: Cooperation in competition. Frischmann BM, Madison MJ, Strandburg KJ, eds. Governing Knowledge Commons (Oxford Academic, New York), 365–390.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Newcombe NS (2011) What is neoconstructivism? Child Development Perspect. 5(3):157–160.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Nickerson JA, Zenger TR (2004) A knowledge-based theory of the firm—The problem-solving perspective. Organ. Sci. 15(6):617–632. LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Nonaka I (2009) The knowledge-creating company. Siesfeld T, Cefola J, Neef D, eds. The Economic Impact of Knowledge (Routledge, London), 157–187.Google Scholar
  • Ohtsuki H, Wakano JY, Kobayashi Y (2017) Inclusive fitness analysis of cumulative cultural evolution in an island-structured population. Theoret. Population Biol. 115:13–23.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Ostrom E (1990) Governing the Commons: The Evolution of Institutions for Collective Action (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK).CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Powell TC (1995) Total quality management as competitive advantage: A review and empirical study. Strategic Management J. 16(1):15–37.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Ren Y, Argote L (2011) Transactive memory systems 1985–2010: An integrative framework of key dimensions, antecedents, and consequences. Acad. Management Ann. 5(1):189–229.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Rogers AR (1988) Does biology constrain culture? Amer. Anthropologist 90(4):819–831.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Schnieder C, Schedlinsky I, Sommer F, Wöhrmann A (2025) The effects of relative performance information and transparency on knowledge sharing and productive effort. Eur. Accounting Rev. 34(3):1195–1220.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Spender JC (1996) Making knowledge the basis of a dynamic theory of the firm. Strategic Management J. 17(S2):45–62.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Szulanski G (1996) Exploring internal stickiness: Impediments to the transfer of best practice within the firm. Strategic Management J. 17(S2):27–43.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Thelen E (1995) Motor development: A new synthesis. Amer. Psychologist 50(2):79–95.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Thorn BK, Connolly T (1987) Discretionary data bases: A theory and some experimental findings. Comm. Res. 14(5):512–528.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Tomasello M (2005) Constructing a Language: A Usage-Based Theory of Language Acquisition (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA).CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Tortoriello M (2015) The social underpinnings of absorptive capacity: The moderating effects of structural holes on innovation generation based on external knowledge. Strategic Management J. 36(4):586–597.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Volberda HW, Foss NJ, Lyles MA (2010) Perspective—Absorbing the concept of absorptive capacity: How to realize its potential in the organization field. Organ. Sci. 21(4):931–951.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • von Hippel E, von Krogh G (2003) Open source software and the “private-collective” innovation model: Issues for organization science. Organ. Sci. 14(2):209–223.LinkGoogle Scholar
  • Wasko MM, Faraj S (2005) Why should I share? Examining social capital and knowledge contribution in electronic networks of practice. MIS Quart. 29(1):35–58.CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Williamson O (1973) Markets and hierarchies: Some elementary considerations. Amer. Econom. Rev. 63(2):316–325.Google Scholar
  • Williamson OE (1985) The Economic Institutions of Capitalism: Firms, Markets, Relational Contracting (Free Press, New York).Google Scholar
  • Winter SG, Szulanski G (2001) Replication as strategy. Organ. Sci. 12(6):730–743.LinkGoogle Scholar
INFORMS site uses cookies to store information on your computer. Some are essential to make our site work; Others help us improve the user experience. By using this site, you consent to the placement of these cookies. Please read our Privacy Statement to learn more.