Absorptive capacity (AC), which comprises exploratory, transformative, and exploitative learning processes, enables organizations to exploit external knowledge for adopting innovation. Despite extensive research into AC, leadership styles have received little attention. This paper discusses the results of a study undertaken in three pharmaceutical organizations that augments AC theory relating to top- and middle-level management behaviour. The findings suggest that the influence of transformational and transactional leadership styles varies between the AC learning processes within and across organizations. We also explored CEOs' knowledge, trust in middle management, and intention towards sharing knowledge, which facilitate the learning processes. The research has implications for the enhancement of opportunities to enable successful innovations based on the recognition of leadership styles and managers' roles. We report several novel contributions that are of value to academics and practitioners.

中文翻译：

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增强创新吸收能力的学习过程：洞察全球制药公司的有效领导力

吸收能力 (AC) 包括探索性、变革性和利用性学习过程，使组织能够利用外部知识来采用创新。尽管对交流进行了广泛的研究，但领导风格却很少受到关注。本文讨论了在三个制药组织中进行的一项研究的结果，该研究增强了与高层和中层管理行为相关的 AC 理论。研究结果表明，变革型和交易型领导风格的影响在组织内部和跨组织的 AC 学习过程之间存在差异。我们还探讨了 CEO 的知识、对中层管理人员的信任以及分享知识的意愿，这些都有助于学习过程。基于对领导风格和管理者角色的认识，该研究对增加成功创新的机会具有重要意义。我们报告了一些对学者和从业者有价值的新颖贡献。