Master's thesis of Social Science: How does absorptive capacity develop in small-medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)? The role of absorptive capacity, collaboration and innovation between SMEs and a regional university

The study examines how Small-Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) demonstrate a range of innovation capabilities when they collaborate with a regional university research centre. This collaboration is shown to be important to create and exchange new knowledge to advance the firms innovation performance. The study demonstrates the ability of firms to acquire and exploit this knowledge, which is a business competency described as absorptive capacity (AC). AC relies on several antecedents or factors to engage with a collective learning process.