Study of knowledge and technology absorptive capacity in the manufacturing and service industries (Case study: drug companies and banks listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange)

In the modern business environment whose two main characteristics are ambiguity and complexity, the competitive advantage of organizations depends more on their knowledge and technology rather than their physical resources. One of the concepts related to the knowledge and technology in an organization is the absorptive capacity one which in this research, is divided into two dimensions of employees’ ability and motivation at individual level, and their learning processes at organizational level. The purpose of this research is to study the strengths and weaknesses of organizations in absorbing knowledge and technology. In order to answer the research questions, the managers of pharmaceutical companies and banks were studied, as the two important manufacturing and service industries listed on Tehran Stock Exchange. First, the fitness of the models related to the variables was verified by confirmatory factor analysis. And finally the single-sample t-test results revealed that despite the weakness in some of the sub-variables, the absorption status of knowledge and technology in organizations surveyed, was desirable. Also, based on Friedman test, the indicators of knowledge and technology absorption have significant differences.