Innovation speed is central to competitive advantage. Since innovation is a complex process of bundling technologies and solving problems, enhancing innovation speed could require ambidextrous search strategies. Empirical work on innovation search has identified both tradeoffs and synergies...

Using a sample of 893 SMEs over a ten year period, we test how firms may reduce the inefficiencies in their absorptive capacity (ACAP) due to path dependence. Our research shows that for frequent innovators, potential absorptive capacity (PACAP) has a greater effect than realized absorptive...