Absorptive Capacity and Associative Learning
One of the most important ways that people learn new ideas
is by associating those ideas with what they already know.
As a result, people find it easier to absorb new ideas in areas
in which they have some expertise and find it more difficult
to absorb new ideas outside of their immediate area of
expertise. An implication is that it is easier for knowledge to
transfer from the source to a recipient when the source and
the recipient have knowledge in common. Consequently,
knowledge is more likely to be transferred between people
with similar training and background characteristics.
The origins of common knowledge and experience can vary.
The knowledge that two individuals have in common could
be a function of formal training inside or outside of an organization. Two electrical engineers have a substantial amount of
knowledge in common because mathematics and physics are
parto f the engineering curriculum,b ut the source of common
knowledge could be more informal. For example, two
engineers who enter an organization in the same cohort
group are more likely to share similar experiences, and therefore
have more knowledge in common, than individualsw ho
enter at different points in time. In a more abstract sense,
two individualsw ho occupy the same position in an informal
communicationn etwork, individualsw ho are structurally
equivalent, have knowledge in common. The individualsa re
similarly positioned in the flow of knowledge and information
and, due to factors associated with social influence and contagion,
they will come to share common knowledge and
information (Burt, 1987; Strang and Tuma, 1993; Rogers,
1995).
Consistent with arguments based on absorptive capacity and
associative learning, we expect that common knowledge will
ease the transfer of knowledge. Specifically, when a source
and recipient share common knowledge, transfer is easier