Extending the absorptive capacity of the small family entrepreneurs and managers as gatekeepers

ABSTRACT

Specialized literature reveals that the level of absorptive capacity (ACAP) within organizations depends on the individuals who are at the company's interface with the external environment or at the interface between the company's subunits. It also highlights that some individuals assume relatively centralized gatekeeper roles. The study argues that individual ACAP precedes organizational ACAP, as it is necessary to understand the role of individuals in the capacity of companies to absorb external knowledge. The purpose of this article is to explore the role of owner-managers of small family businesses in ACAP. The exploratory research method uses case studies. The results show that small family business owner-managers have the qualities of gatekeepers and that, even though they help with communication and knowledge transfer across company borders and increase their ACAP, these professionals have limited roles as gatekeepers because of their family ties and affective-emotional matters.

KEYWORDS:

• Absorptive capacity
• individual level
• gatekeepers
• small business
• family business

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Policy and theoretical implications

The paper's implications are intriguing. It supports the idea that the external environment and the features of the external knowledge to which enterprises have access affect absorptive capacity. It equally upholds the thought that individual adaptive capacity can be excessively reliant, with the outcome that organizations can be possibly entrenched in a specific technique that might make the firm incapable of dealing with environmental upsets. A firm's position with respect to the technological frontier is an essential element in determining the intensity and character of innovation. This is one of the few publications that shows how a firm's internal tactics might be influenced by its distance from the frontier.

This finding exposes an existing gap in research on ACAP in the context of SFBs. Despite the fact that various academics have already looked at how family influences SFB performance, the ability of family companies to adapt to new things (exploration) still represents a gap in the research field.

The results confirm the SFB owner-managers as gatekeepers, since they seek to bring, process, and use external knowledge, but also reveal limitations in their role mediated by affective and emotional matters, family ties, and the history of the owner-family that imposes free or forced coexistence and limited availability of resources. In this context, on the one hand, the owner-managers act as ACAP gatekeepers by facilitating communication and the passage of knowledge across company boundaries, while on the other hand, SFBs may present difficulties in assimilation of new knowledge due to the influence of the owner-managers. This highlights the importance of conducting in-depth studies on ACAP at the individual level as well as taking into account the differences between organizational types in the analysis.

The need to investigate the types of influence owner-families have in limiting and/or contributing to the enhancement of small family businesses’ absorptive capacity is suggested for the development of future studies in the field of research on family businesses.

Study limitation

When deciphering the above discoveries, a few provisos ought to be thought of. In the first place, the information may have a social allure predisposition since the organization survey may have been completed by the interview respondent, i.e. the family entrepreneur business owner. Notwithstanding, the threat of common method variance was debilitated using a one-sided approach, an interview. Other studies can employ quantitative methods or mixed methods to compare the study. Although the measure of absorptive capacity as a family-oriented construct is a step up contrasted with simple R & D related measures, future examinations would profit by a further refinement of the build. For instance, the advancement of a multi-item index of absorptive limit, which incorporates both family-related and non-family-related things, preferably both unprejudiced and pejorative ones, could demonstrate its value.

Suggestions for future research

A number of opportunities for future exploration are distinguished through this investigation model and the discoveries revealed in this paper. To start with, individual capabilities that add to the absorption capacity of an organization should be additionally recognized and examined. Additional indicators of an entrepreneur's family business are the type of the owner's education level, their working experience from a different number of organizations and their motivational variables. Second, previous research has suggested that a business person with both human and social capital is dependent on each other. Specifically, frail family ties have been recognized as critical gateways to the exchange of otherwise scarce information, and the assimilation of this information adds to the accumulation of insights and experience. For instance, knowing the principles of the game, for instance, could help family business owners construct an organization of contacts. Further examination ought to thusly research how different family business people cooperate with absorption capacity in their relationships. Third, aside from the focus in this investigation on the immediate commitment of family entrepreneurs to business, we additionally expect the family business entrepreneur to, by implication, affect absorption capacity through the execution and improvement of management practices, organizational tasks, and the distribution of assets. Although frequently disregarded in the literature on absorption capacity, employees are a critical pillar of the firm's knowledge base. Therefore, analysing the personnel in an entrepreneur's family business, as well as the management practises that help it develop and remain strong, can also help our understanding of absorption capacity.