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The Innovation Process
Activity 3.1 A

Determine absorptive capacity

This activity will help you understand how well your organisation seeks, absorbs and applies new knowledge so you can judge how difficult it will be for your organisation to adopt your identified solution.

Absorptive capacity audit

Some organisations are better at absorbing new ideas than others. Understanding how well your organisation seeks, absorbs and applies new knowledge will provide you with a strong indication as to how difficult it will be for your organisation to adopt your identified solution.

Bessant and Tidd’s Absorptive Capacity Audit is a questionnaire containing 33 questions addressing different factors required to assess the strength of your organisation’s capacity to integrate new knowledge and solutions. The audit then allows you to visualise your results using a ‘spider diagram’ to assess where your organisation’s absorptive capacity is strong, and where it is weak.